ABSTRACT
“WE'LL START SIGNING NEGROES,” Washington Redskins owner George Preston Marshall once quipped, “when the Harlem Globetrotters start signing whites.” In 1961, the Redskins were the only team in professional football without a black player. In fact, in the twentyfive year history of the franchise no black had ever played for George Marshall. Sam Lacy, the gifted black sportswriter for the Baltimore Afro-American called Redskins football's the “lone wolf in lily-whiteism.” Their owner was “the one operator in the whole structure of major league sports who has openly flouted his distaste for tan athletes.” 1
