By Tatiana Ponil

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Kenneth Stanley Washington (August 31, 1918 – June 24, 1971) was an American professional football player who was the first African-American to sign a contract with a National Football League (NFL) team in the modern (post-World War II) era. He played college football for the UCLA Bruins.

Kenneth Stanley Washington was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the city’s Lincoln Heights neighborhood. His parents, Marian Lenàn and Negro league baseball player Edgar “Blue” Washington, separated when he was two years old. Kenny Washington was raised by his grandmother Susie Washington, his uncle Rocky, the first black uniformed lieutenant in the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), and his aunt-in-law Hazel. Washington was a star in both baseball and football at Abraham Lincoln High School, where he was nicknamed “Kingfish” after a character in the radio show Amos ‘n’ Andy. He led both teams to city championships in the same calendar year.

Washington attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he was a member of both the Bruins’ baseball and football teams. As a baseball player, Washington was rated better than his teammate Jackie Robinson. One story has it that Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher wanted to offer Washington a contract to play for the team, but only if he went to Puerto Rico first, which Washington refused to do.

In football, his position was tailback, and he often passed as much as he rushed. Washington rushed for 1,914 yards in his college career, a school record for 34 years. He was one of five African American players on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team, the others being Woody Strode, Robinson, Johnny Wynne, and Ray Bartlett. Washington, Strode, and Robinson made up three of the four backfield players that year. This was a rarity to have so many African Americans when only a few dozen at all played on college football teams. The Bruins played eventual conference and national champion USC to a 0–0 tie with the 1940 Rose Bowl on the line. It was the first UCLA–USC rivalry football game with national implications. UCLA teammates have commented how strong Washington was when confronted with racial slurs and discrimination.

Washington was the first Bruin to lead the nation in total offense and became the first consensus All-American in the history of the school’s football program in 1939. Despite these achievements and the fact that he also doubled as a defensive back, he was named to second-team All-America selection instead of the first and was omitted from the East–West Shrine Game that year. These slights were the source of much outrage among media outlets which blamed them on racial discrimination.

According to Time magazine’s coverage of the 1940 College All-Star Game, Washington was “considered by West Coast fans the most brilliant player in the US last year.” He starred in the 1940 film While Thousands Cheer.