1901 Wooster Athletic Association? Charles Follis?

[EBKennel]

Doing research on the Ohio League prior to 1920, I'm aware that the first African American to play Pro Football was Charles Follis who played for the Shelby Blues starting in 1902. But in 1901, while attending the College of Wooster (or Wooster University as it was then called ) he starred at varsity baseball but did not play on the varsity football team and instead played for the Wooster Athletic Association, presumably while retaining his amateur status to allow him to play baseball. The Wooster Athletic Association played the Shelby Blues and that is how they found out about him.

What the heck is the Wooster Athletic Association? I cant find any information about it other than they were a presumably amateur football club that played football in 1901. I've written to the Wooster Historical Society. I may drive up to the college library to see what they might have, but I thought somebody here might know something.

I'm curious why Charles Follis chose to play with the Wooster Athletic Association rather than the collge team. Race is an obvious explanation, but they did let him play baseball and he was a star, so there was obviously not an out-and-out ban at the college.

[RyanChristiansen]

In the October 2, 1901, Wooster Republican, there is an article that says "Charley Follis entered school Monday and will play half-back, giving a great deal of stength to the team." In other words, there is an association between Follis "entering school" (attending the university?) and playing football. Perhaps the Wooster Athletic Association IS the university football team?

[RyanChristiansen]

The October 23, 1901, Wooster Republican refers to the Wooster Athletic Association and on second references refers to the team as the "Wooster town team." In the same article the newspaper refers to a different team, "The University team," and on second reference simply refers to the team as Wooster. Perhaps Follis played for both the town team and the university team?

[TodMaher]

Doing research on the Ohio League prior to 1920, I'm aware that the first African American to play Pro Football was Charles Follis who played for the Shelby Blues starting in 1902. But in 1901, while attending the College of Wooster (or Wooster University as it was then called ) he starred at varsity baseball but did not play on the varsity football team and instead played for the Wooster Athletic Association, presumably while retaining his amateur status to allow him to play baseball. The Wooster Athletic Association played the Shelby Blues and that is how they found out about him.

He played baseball during the spring/summer of 1901 during the 1900-1901 school year. That was probably his senior year at Wooster, thus he wouldn't have played football in 1901 during the 1901-1902 school year.

[TodMaher]

According to Wooster he never played football at Wooster.

https://www.woosterathletics.com/w_asso ... ollis.html

[TanksAndSpartans]

Sorry I can't help with the question - my guess would have been he played for the local team on the side - sometimes the ACs recruited players from local colleges, but I trust Tod's finding that he didn't play for the college at all which does seem unusual.

I actually don't think the first African American to play Pro Football was Charles Follis. I think there are earlier examples that will never be proved because the athletic clubs tried to keep any payment to players quiet so they could maintain eligibility with the AAU.

My $ would be on either George Neale or William Johnson. Both played for major Pittsburgh area teams after 1892 who were known for paying players. Neale was a student at Pitt (known as WUP back then) so maybe he played for fun, but Johnson was beyond his student days. I guess it's possible that he just happened to be working in Pittsburgh and played on the side, but also seems possible he went there to play. A third player who may have been earlier than Follis was Coleman Brown of the Santa Barbara A.C.

[EBKennel]

Update: I received a facebook message from the College of Wooster Athletic Department concerning Charles Follis. They say "We don't have much on him as he was never actually enrolled here as a student, but did play baseball on the College's team for a brief period back when there weren't really any eligibility requirements." Holy kazoo! That was something that I definitely did not expect.

[TanksAndSpartans]

Update: I received a facebook message from the College of Wooster Athletic Department concerning Charles Follis. They say "We don't have much on him as he was never actually enrolled here as a student, but did play baseball on the College's team for a brief period back when there weren't really any eligibility requirements." Holy kazoo! That was something that I definitely did not expect.

That's probably not that uncommon - I bet there were plenty of cases in football too. I would bet "Teck" Matthews was never enrolled at Washington & Jefferson College even though he played there for years. When I searched Follis the other night in 1901, I found a baseball team he played for that I don't think was Wooster.