The Ubangi Blackhawks were a predominantly black semipro football team in Seattle, Washington who played for the Community League in the 1930s, sponsored by nightclub owner E. Russell “Noodles” Smith.
Coming over from the 1935 and 1936 league champion Italian Club were all-city end Brennan King, all-city halfback Sammy Bruce, all-city halfback Dan Allen, 3-time all-city guard John Burton, and hardest-hitting fullback George “Switchy” Height.
The 1937 Blackhawks were considered the most sensational team in the league and during this time the community rallied behind such stars as Height, King, Rhino Nakamura and Joe Staton. The Blackhawks played the first six games of the season without allowing a single score.
King and Bruce would both leave for North Carolina A & T, a historically black university in Greensboro, NC. Sam Bruce became a [8]Tuskegee Airman who served in WWII and was one of the first black pilots to die in battle in 1944.
Danny Allen, Willie Stockard, Charlie Winston, Jack Tanner, Paul Chappell, Hank Allen, Carl Bently (’37) and Bob Flowers (’37) would continue on playing for the 160lb (Seattle) [9]Brown Bombers.
Brennan King & Sammy Bruce
Ubangi Blackhawks
In 1946, Virginia Black football made a pivotal step and formed an all-Black league called The Virginia Negro Football League. This league included teams in Richmond, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News. The Richmond Rams won the title in 1946, beating out the Norfolk Brown Bombers.
The Harrisburg Trojans were an African American football team founded in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1938. The Trojans held the Negro World’s Championship three times, 1941, ’42 and ‘44, while holding championships of seven Pennsylvania counties and three states. In November 1941, the New York Brown Bombers, one of the best African American teams in the country, visited Harrisburg and played the Trojans for the mythical “World Negro Football Championship.” The Trojans beat the Brown Bombers 12 to 7 to claim the title. The following year, Harrisburg tied the Washington Lions 7-7 in a game for the “Negro Football Championship.” Through the guidance of Bill Simpson, Phil Mason and Lewis Carlton they were recognized as one of the most outstanding Negro professional football teams in the United States.
The [11]Detroit Wolverines, an all-Black semi-pro football team organized in 1919 by two notable Detroiters, John C. Dancy and Fred Hart Williams. Dancy was the longtime director of the Detroit Urban League and Williams, a descendant of runaway slaves who had escaped to Detroit via the Underground Railroad. In addition to playing football, the Wolverines team were seen as an opportunity to teach young men the value and benefit of teamwork in addition to showing the world that Black men could compete on equal footing with White men.
The Brown Bombers were founded in the summer of 1935 by Herschel “Rip” Day, a Black athletic promoter in Harlem. The team was named in honor of the rising young heavyweight boxing contender, Joe Louis. The Brown Bombers showcased talented, professional Black players including Howard “Dixie” Matthews. The Bombers developed innovative and unorthodox formations, such as the “aeroplane shift” to mystify their opponents while entertaining crowds.
In 1928, [5]Fritz Pollard and Dr. Albert C. Johnson organized the Chicago Black Hawks, an all-star, all-Black professional team from Chicago’s South Side. The Black Hawks played against White teams around Chicago but enjoyed their greatest success playing exhibition games against White teams on the West Coast during the winter months and Black teams in the upper South.
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