Chronicle Commentary: April 15, 1941

The color-barrier-breaking Gold Dust Trio

Many Americans associate April 15 as “Tax Day,” but baseball fans know it as “Jackie Robinson Day” since as it was on this day that he first took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball’s color barrier. Not to take away from his legendary accomplishment, but you might not know that two professional athletes broke another color barrier a year before Jackie Robinson did. And they all played together on the same football team.

Jackie Robinson was a four-sport athlete at UCLA (track, football, baseball, and basketball), he was one of four black players on the Bruins’ football team. While that doesn’t sound significant now, UCLA stood out in that respect considering there were only a few dozen black football players in all of college football.

The most prolific member of UCLA’s backfield, dubbed the “Gold Dust Trio,” was Kenny Washington, who led all of college football in offensive yards in 1939 (despite also playing defensive back, thus rarely ever leaving the field). Washington was UCLA’s first black baseball player, and he was better than Robinson: Washington batted .454 in 1937 and .350 in 1938, while Robinson hit .097 in his only collegiate season. Woody Strode didn’t play baseball, but he was a standout track athlete in addition to his football talents.

After college the Gold Dust Trio all played for the Pacific Coast Professional Football League (PCPFL). Strode was drafted, serving in the Army Air Corps. Knee injuries kept Washington from being drafted but he did join the Los Angeles Police Department, following in his uncle Rocky’s footsteps (who became LAPD’s first black lieutenant) and later served with the USO.

Washington signed a contract with the the Los Angeles Rams on March 21, 1946 and Strode signed with the team in May, becoming the first players to break the NFL’s color barrier. Although his surgically rebuilt knees were wrecked by this point, Washington played three seasons for the Rams. He finished fourth in the league in rushing yards in 1947, and set a franchise record for longest run from scrimmage (92 yards against the Chicago Cardinals on Nov. 2, 1947) that still stands today. He scored nine touchdowns over his NFL career and also intercepted two passes on defense. In 1950, a 31-year-old Washington returned to baseball, playing nine games for the Pacific Coast League’s Los Angeles Angels. His father, Edgar “Blue” Washington, boxed, acted, and played ball in the Negro Leagues.

Strode played one season with the Rams before leaving to play in Canada, then began a successful acting career, credited with nearly 100 films. You might recognize him as the Ethiopian King in The Ten Commandments (1956), or Draba the trident-wielding gladiator in Spartacus (1960).

Shifting back towards Chronicle Commentary content, during the Spring of 1941, Jackie Robinson left UCLA and joined the National Youth Administration as an assistant athletic director. He travels to Hawaii to play semi-pro football in the fall before rejoining Washington and Strode in the PCPFL. Robinson won’t be drafted into the Army until 1942.

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Featured image: Chesterfield ad with World Champion Cincinnati Reds first baseman Frank McCormick, the National League Most Valuable Player for 1940.