Kenny Washington

Football player

• Born: August 31, 1918
• Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
• Died: June 24, 1971
• Place of death: Los Angeles, California

Washington was a star football player at the University of California at Los Angeles. After many years of being denied the opportunity to play professionally because of his race, in 1946 he broke the color line in the National Football League when the Los Angeles Rams signed him to a contract.

Early Life

Kenneth S. Washington, often called Kenny, was born on August 31, 1918, in Los Angeles. His father, Edgar, and his mother, Marione Lanone, married while both were teenagers. When Edgar left Marione, Washington moved in with his grandparents. Washington did not see much of his father while growing up. Edgar Washington had small parts in several films, including Gone with the Wind (1939), and played baseball with several Negro League teams. The Washingtons were the only black family in the predominantly Italian neighborhood of Lincoln Heights. Washington’s grandmother, Susie Washington, worked as a janitor for a local grammar school. He was raised mostly by his grandmother and his uncle Rocky, a lieutenant with the Los Angeles Police Department. Rocky attended Washington’s football games, advised him, and was a strong presence throughout his life.

Washington was a talented all-around athlete. He played football, baseball, and basketball and also participated in track and boxing at the Downey Avenue Playground. Washington played baseball and football at Lincoln High School, graduating in 1936.

When his top college choices, Notre Dame and the University of Southern California, would not accept him because of his race, Washington decided to attend the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) because it admitted African Americans and had a national reputation in sports. He had already developed a local following in high school, and his fans followed his college career.

Life’s Work

In the late 1930’s, UCLA became one of the first colleges to recruit black players. When Washington enrolled at the university, tens of thousands of fans came to watch him play football, many of them African American. Washington began attending UCLA in the fall of 1936 and played on the freshman football team as a single-wing tailback. His teammates included longtime friend Woody Strode and, two years later, Jackie Robinson. When the team traveled, the African American players had to endure racist taunts, punishing blows, and other dirty tactics from opposing players. In 1939, Washington was the first player from UCLA to be named a consensus All-American. That year, he led the nation in total offense. Nevertheless, he was not picked to play in the postseason East-West Shrine Game, an honor given to the nation’s best players.

The National Football League (NFL) had not started out segregated. Fritz Pollard, an African American, had been one of the league’s first stars in the 1920’s and its first black coach. However, after the 1932 season, the NFL owners had agreed to an informal ban on African American players. Thus, in 1940, Washington and Strode signed contracts with the semiprofessional football team the Hollywood Bears, a charter member of the Pacific Coast Football League, which was essentially a high-level minor league. In the spring of 1940, Washington earned his bachelor’s degree from UCLA. The following September, he married June Bradley. Semiprofessional football was not a full-time job, so Washington became a police officer. He played for the Hollywood Bears during the 1940-1941 season and again in 1945. In 1944, he played for the San Francisco Clippers. Washington spent 1942-1943 touring with the United Service Organizations (USO). A knee injury prevented him from active duty during World War II.

The Los Angeles Rams of the NFL signed Washington to a professional contract on March 21, 1946. The Rams had moved from Cleveland and petitioned the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission to use the Coliseum, a venue previously reserved for amateur sports. At the meeting to hear the petition, three African American journalists, Edward “Abie” Robinson, Halley Harding, and Herman Hill, objected to segregated teams using the public stadium. The commission passed a measure prohibiting segregation. Shortly after, the Rams signed Washington, followed by Strode in mid-May. Segregation prevented Washington and others from playing professional football during their peak physical years, but they did play well when given the chance.

In 1948, Washington retired after three seasons with the Rams. In 1956, he was inducted into the National Football Foundation’s College Hall of Fame. UCLA retired his number, thirteen, making Washington the first player to receive that honor. After football, Washington worked as a public relations executive for a liquor company and baseball scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had a son, Kenny Washington, Jr. Washington died June 24, 1971, in Los Angeles after battling congestive heart and lung illnesses.

Significance

Washington reintegrated the National Football League after twelve seasons of segregation. When he signed with the Los Angeles Rams in 1946, Washington helped usher in a new era of integration in sports after World War II. In the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, he was considered one of the greatest football players ever to play the game. Denied the opportunity to attend the college of his choice or pursue a professional career during his prime because of his race, Washington eventually made his mark on an integrated college team, semiprofessional team, and professional football team.

Bibliography

Levy, Alan H. Tackling Jim Crow: Racial Segregation in Professional Football. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2003. An overview of the development of segregation in football and the move to reintegrate the sport.

Ross, Charles K. Outside the Lines: African Americans and the Integration of the National Football League. New York: New York University Press, 1999. Gives the history of the integration of the National Football League while raising questions about the participation of African American athletes in social change.

Smith, Thomas G. “Outside the Pale: The Exclusion of Blacks from the National Football League, 1934-1946.” Journal of Sport History 15, no. 3 (Winter, 1988): 225-281. An article about the period of segregation in professional football from the falling of the color line to the reintegration of the sport.

Strode, Woody, and Sam Young. Goal Dust, an Autobiography: The Warm and Candid Memoirs of a Pioneer Black Athlete and Actor. Lanham, Md.: Madison Books, 1990. An autobiography by Washington’s longtime friend and teammate, athlete and movie star Woody Strode.

Wolff, Alexander. “The NFL’s Jackie Robinson.” Sports Illustrated, October 12, 2009. Compelling chronicle of Washington’s life and career, with emphasis on the events surrounding his 1946 reintegration of the NFL, especially the role of Los Angeles journalist Harding in pushing the Rams to sign Washington.