Pigskin Dispatch - Duke Slater's legendary football story as told by author Neal Rosendaal

Hello friends this is Darren he's a pixingdispatch.com before we take you to their favorite sports history Network show just want to tell you a little bit about some merch that you can pick up that represents your favorite shn podcast so far there's t-shirts coffee mugs and even books from some some of the authors that do podcasts right here on shn who could buy something better than that than have the history right from the the gentleman that you hear talking about it but we also are adding things each and every day and where's that store May you ask what's that Sports historynetwork.com up at the top there is the shn merch button click on that it'll take you right to the store and you can be representing your favorite podcast and show the world that hey on the swag that I'm using it's the headquarters of sports yesteryear sports history Network and my favorite podcaster the sports history Network store shop there today author Neil rosendahl joins us today to talk about one of the greatest players in football history a real Pioneer in Trailblazer Duke Slater and his career with Iowa and in the NFL with the Rock Island Independence as well those are Chicago Cardinals deals coming up in just a moment this is the pigskin daily history dispatch a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history on a day-to-day basis your host Darren Hayes is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the Gridiron one day at a time so as we come out of the tunnel of the sports history Network let's take the field and go no huddle through the portal of positive Gridiron history with pigskindispatch.com [Applause] this podcast is part of the sports history Network your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport you can learn more at sportshistorynetwork.com hello my football friends this is Darren Hayes with pixiandispatch.com welcome once again to the pigpen your portal to positive football history and we have a great episode on store for you we have a great topic in the player of Duke Slater a very interesting figure in football history and we have an author that's wrote a book about him Neil rosendal is his name and we'll welcome into the pig pen right now Neil rosendahl welcome to the pig pen hey thanks so much for having me appreciate it we really appreciate you taking the time to talk about you know some great football history and especially uh one man named Duke Slater that was very important to that football history but before we do that I'd like to learn a little bit about you uh you know what what got you particularly interested in football and maybe in particular about Duke Slater uh yeah well I'm a Hawkeye fan I grew up in the state of Iowa and attended the University of Iowa so I uh I've always loved the Hawkeyes and um I I've Loved Sports history um that's something that has always sort of appealed to me and uh that's why I love uh podcasts like this uh because I I really love delving into the history of the sport and kind of making it uh especially for for current fans to kind of bring it to life especially stories of people that they may not remember or may have been before their time and um it's it's kind of interesting because I know you guys here uh do a lot of uh you're connected with this uh Sports dispatch and you do a lot with with jersey numbers and actually uh the first book that I ever wrote uh I co-authored a book called Hawkeye greats by the numbers and basically it uh it mentioned the greatest Hawkeye uh football or men's basketball player uh by the jersey numbers they wore so uh we picked the greatest Hawkeye football our men's basketball player the war jersey number one jersey number two all the way up through jersey number 50. and uh we selected uh what we've considered to be the greatest Hawkeye footballer men's basketball player to wear each specific Jersey and then for that player we wrote a short chapter about him and that was the book and um chapter 15 came along and uh the greatest Hawkeye uh player football player who wore jersey number 15 and our estimation was Duke Slater and I had been interested in Dukes later for a while I had heard about his story and it's dooflater is one of these stories that when you hear a little bit about him you just hear more and more and more stories and I just became increasingly fascinated by this guy and I was fortunate enough to write the chapter on Duke Slater for that book Hawkeye Grace by the numbers but it was he had one of these stories where I just said you know what I could write a whole book just about him and uh as someone who's a writer that's kind of a dangerous thing to say because uh it's sort of uh becomes Destiny in some sense um so I wound up uh deciding to write a book about him and I published his biography back in 2012 and um you know one of the things about writing the book was he'd kind of been forgotten he kind of been overlooked and I wanted to get him more recognition I want to kind of bring him back into the public eye and I'm so thankful and grateful to be able to say that really over the last decade um we have really elevated uh Duke Slater's Legacy sort of in the public Consciousness he's been honored in a number of ways which have been really outstanding and it's been great to see because I think more and more people have heard this story and learned about Duke Slater and it's just an incredible story so it was it was really an honor for me to tell well he he is definitely a great player and I had the honor and the privilege uh last year to be at the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the induction ceremonies I'm I'm from Western Pennsylvania so there was you know a bunch of Steelers going in and you had two different years you had the covid year 2020 going in in the year 2021 class going in and Duke Slater I believe was part of that 2020 class going in at that time for the Pro Football of Fame so it was quite an honor to sit there even though he wasn't present uh you know it was uh it was a great honor to just have the Legacy and have the the chat and some of the the things popping up on the screen some scenes and pictures of him and uh you know his presenter so it was great that feeling there yeah it was actually one of the uh the best weekends I've had honestly because I actually uh and and you know this because you were there but because uh because of the way it was set up so um when I wrote the book on Duke Slater one of my main goals was to try to lobby for him to get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and of course it's a Lobby for someone to get in the Pro Football Hall of Fame it is the competition is so stiff everybody wants in the Hall of Fame and there are so many worthy people and I just I I was lobbying for years to hopefully get that done and then he was finally elected as part of that Centennial class in 2020 and so here we we were he was going to get his long-awaited induction and then covet hits and it it came or postpones it at least for a year and and what wound up happening was and again you know this because you were there was they had so many people being uh recognized in 2021 because they had the super-sized Centennial class plus the 2021 class um two classes coming together and one of them being particularly large the way that they handled that was they had sort of induction ceremony before the main induction ceremony just for the guys who were going in in posthumously uh people like Duke Slater who were deceased who were going in they sort of had a special ceremony for them earlier uh just so they could kind of I guess control the numbers in a lot of ways so I was actually able to be invited to that Hall of Fame ceremony that recognized the the players who were going in posthumously like Duke Slater um after writing the book I was able to connect with Sandra Wilkins who is Duke Slater's niece she's still alive she's still around and um she invited me as a guest of the family to this Hall of Fame uh induction and uh it was it was an incredible weekend it was amazing to see him be honored in that way and to get his bust in Canton Ohio where he belongs so that he can uh be there for all time it was it was an amazing weekend an amazing event and it was uh it was really thrilling to be there as sort of the culmination of of almost a decade-long campaign that I tried to put together to get him recognized in Canton and to see it come to fruition was uh was really really meaningful well as uh the guy said used to say on The A Team you're going to love it when a plan comes together and you you were a great part of that and uh we appreciate you preserving that football history and I think everybody in the football Community applauds you and everybody else that uh you know fought for getting Dukes later in there because he's definitely uh worthy of being there that's for sure he definitely is and and you know it's all about sort of preserving his legacy you know I think John Madden uh was the one who said it in his induction speech like he always envisioned when the lights go down that all the bus sort of talk to each other uh at night you know and talk football and I just I always felt so strongly that Duke Slater needed to be part of that conversation he needed to have his voice there because of what he went through is one of the greatest players uh in the NFL in the 1920s and to do it as as a black man and the first black lineman in the history of the NFL um his was a voice that needed to be in that room when those lights go down and now it is and it will be forever and I think as as people come to visit uh Canton Ohio a year from now 10 years from now 50 years from now they'll be able to see his bus there and be able to to say hey who is who is he and learn more about him and discover his story and that's an amazing thing that that'll be a preserved for history I think that's that's just so so meaningful and so wonderful yeah absolutely and I guess I I've I apologize I have not announced the name of your title of your book and we're going to do it here A bunch of times but the title of your book is Duke Slater pioneering black NFL player and judge uh Neil rosendahl as the author so I'm gonna make sure we mention that now uh why don't you uh let us know where that's available where people can get that uh absolutely it was uh published by McFarland and Company um back like I said about 10 years ago so you can get it um and I I think there are some bookstores that carry it but the best way to get it uh generally is online uh Amazon Barnes and Noble any any online retailer can really get it for you or or of course uh uh maybe uh the the best way from my personal Viewpoint if you want to do it this way is you can go to dukeslater.com which is my website and uh if you go to dukeslader.com it will uh take you to a page where you can order it right off the website directly from me and helps me out a little bit more as an author but uh but honestly however you get the book if you want to go out and get the book however you get the book uh is is fine by me because I just want people to hear the story and and and and learn more about this amazing guy well very well said well why don't we go back to the beginnings of Duke Slater we sort of jumped ahead towards told everybody the outcome he's in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and we alluded to earlier uh you know Iowa and that's how you became uh associated with him and got gained a lot of interest on so why don't you tell us how what happened before he was at Iowa it got uh you know him involved in football well he actually was uh raised on he's born in Normal Illinois but he grew up uh on the south side of Chicago and he spent uh his childhood years there on the south side of Chicago and he loved the sport of football uh from the very beginning um from being a young kid and the interesting thing about it was he loved the tackle he loved uh being a lineman and the thing was Whenever there was a neighborhood game going up there was always a place for Duke Slater because there was always people who wanted to be the ball carriers they wanted to carry the ball and you know catch the ball do all that stuff but they always needed lineman so he always had a a game the ability to uh to find a neighborhood game and that's where he learned the game of football he was on the streets of the south side of Chicago and his father George uh George Slater was a strong strong influence in Duke Slater's life uh George Slater was a uh a minister an AME minister and uh he actually George Slater um became the pastor the head pastor at an AME Church in Clinton Iowa when Duke Slater was 13 years old and that's what uh uh had uh Duke Slater relocate from the south side of Chicago to the state of Iowa to Clinton Iowa Clinton is a Mississippi River Town uh it's a a little uh City on the uh the shores of the Mississippi River just on the Iowa side there and that wound up being where where Duke Slater attended high school and then being in in the state of Iowa that wound up leading him uh to the University of Iowa and on to his his football Fame but um that that was sort of his uh his upbringing and again his father was uh a huge influence on his life uh not only uh from a football perspective but obviously off the field uh he made a real imprint on Duke Slater and raised him right and he became uh uh an upstanding man and uh of course an amazing person okay and uh just to let the listeners know the the time period that we're talking about you know uh Duke Slater was born in 1898 so this is early 20th century early football uh you know putting it in perspective you know the NFL doesn't start as the apfa until 1920. so this is uh really at the the Grassroots of football here that he's playing even on the sand lots yeah a true honestly it's true a Pioneer in terms of you know the time period he was uh he he played three he actually only played three seasons at Clinton High School from 1913 to 1915 and then he played at the University of Iowa just after World War one uh is your time period he was uh to our knowledge the third uh documented black player uh in the history of the Hawkeye football program and even that was uh fairly unusual to be the third because most uh football programs even up north uh uh a number of football programs had not even had a black player by that point so um he really was a uh a Pioneer for black players in a very early era of of football and uh he wound up becoming one of the most uh one honestly without exaggeration one of the most dominant football players that uh that college football had ever seen in his career and he just carried that uh into the NFL and I I'm assuming back this is back of single platoon football so he's playing both sides of the line offense and defense uh Duke Slater was actually known uh uh well particularly in the NFL for playing all 60 Minutes of the game you play offense defense special teams he would run punts down he would you know he blocked for the for the kickoff uh uh Team you know for the kick returners uh he he would uh never leave the fields for his time in Rock Island um he I think had he played all 60 minutes which was not unheard of in those days but he would play all 60 Minutes of every game for an entire season and then he did that season after season for uh almost every game that he played in in Rock Island uh for years and years in a row and that was particularly unusual too it wasn't unusual to play all 60 minutes but to do it game after Game season after season was was highly unusual and uh he was a tackle uh he uh he played uh offensive tackle uh while on offense and then on defense he played defensive end so he was uh someone who obviously as both an offensive tackle and a defensive end someone who had a a very strong impact on the game uh although again not as someone who didn't carry the ball maybe uh someone who might be overlooked by some but um but he had a dramatic impact on the game from from those positions and uh just a phenomenal two-way player well you know that especially the era and the positions that he's playing in to play every minute of every game season upon season I mean that is quite a testament to the guy must have been one tough ombre to be able to take that because there's a lot more brutal than the football that we know today even you know by today's standards it's a it's pretty brutal well and also you you imagine the fact that as a black player and there weren't a ton of documented stories about this but you know as a black player that he was subject to cheap shots late hits you know all those kinds of things um so yes to be able to to play and to stay in there and to to do it game after Game season after season was incredible and it's funny because you know I tell this story I I mentioned how his father had had such a huge influence on him uh his Duke's leader only played three seasons of high school football and the reason for that was his father did not want him playing football his father thought that football was a game for Roughnecks and his father was legitimately afraid that he'd be seriously hurt and you know and this was an ERA where people were dying on the football field so it wasn't uh uh an ill-founded sort of fear that his father had well his father eventually relented and allowed on play but he did so by forcing Duke Slater to promise that he would take every precaution to not get hurt and it's it's interesting to you know hear that what happened was in his high school days he would come home beat up sore whatever else Duke Slater worked very hard to conceal his injuries to basically if you had a bump or a bruise or a limp or whatever else he would hide it from his father because he didn't want his father to become so worried about uh uh the physical nature of the game that he would sort of pull Dukes later from the sport he didn't want his dad to essentially say okay you're done because you're going to get hurt out there so Slater you know Duke Slater kind of became became ingrained with him to you know hide his injuries and he continued that even through college even through the pro level and it almost added this sort of uh this sort of Aura uh uh to him of being um uh Invincible of like being impervious to pain like people would be like you can't you can't hurt him you can't shake him you can't rattle him um you know it was it was he was one of those guys where a lot of guys if they were shaken up they would kind of take a time out you know just not an official timeout but just sort of a time out to catch their breath on the field and whatever and it was known that the game rarely stopped because Duke Slater was hurt uh because it was one of these he was one of these guys who you know almost put on this Aura like like I can't be hurt and you know that was something that I think helped fuel him and kind of added this sort of uh uh you know mythology to almost the way that Duke Slater played the game that was uh really impressive and uh and and it's it's interesting to look back on now you know that's how how regarded he was in that day yeah I uh it's making me a little bit of embarrassed I get up every morning and complain about you know a sore elbow or something this guy's you know getting the snot kicked out of him and you know pounding away at some other big big guy for you know they're playing more than one game a week uh sometimes especially when he was on Rock Island and you know just to take that punishment and to hide it from people especially if your father and uh keep on playing that's uh wow that's quite a testament to who he is so amazing thank you for sharing that with us now let's go back into his Iowa uh Team so he's he's did he play all four years at Iowa he played four years at Iowa because his first season in 1918 uh was at the height of World War II World War one and eligibility rules were suspended so he was actually allowed to play that season and then allowed to play uh the three seasons that players typically got uh during those days uh he played the 1918 season and it was known that that wouldn't count against him so he was actually able to play four years um he was a first-team All-American um in well he was a uh actually he was a an All-American in uh he was the second team All-American in 1919 his sophomore season he was one of the first black players in the history of college football to name uh to be named an All-American in turn All-American honors I believe he was something like the sixth black player uh to ever earn All American honors behind guys like uh Paul Robeson Fritz Pollard and and and others like that but um then in 1921 that was really the year that shot him to a really Collegiate Fame he was uh uh a rock on uh I was 1921 team which might be the greatest team in the history of the University of Iowa football program um the Hawkeyes went undefeated uh untied uh in fact they never trailed at any point in the season um they never trailed an opponent um they won the outright Big Ten championship for the first time in school history um and they have a legitimate claim uh for the mythical national championship of that year of course national titles back then well open to dispute very much a mythical National Championship but the University of Iowa has as good a claim as any uh school to the uh the mythical uh national championship of the 1921 football season um the Marquee victory for Iowa in 1921 was a victory over uh Notre Dame a non-conference victory over Notre Dame Iowa beat Notre Dame ten to seven it snapped a 20-game a winning streak for Notre Dame that had lasted three years um Notre Dame hadn't lost a football game in three years they lost that one uh and uh it's it's what's fascinating about that is that Notre Dame's head coach was Newt Rockne and Newt Rockne said later in the season he said uh we had heard about the great uh strength of Duke Slater and uh knowing uh his great strength uh we decided to throw three guys at him uh On Any Given play uh we'd send three guys after Duke Slater he's like sometimes uh Newt Rockne said uh said this in a quote he said sometimes we were able to slow him down but more often than not he just ripped uh wide holes in our in our line that allowed the uh the fullbacks to pick up yards and and eventually Iowa to uh uh to pick up the 10-7 upset over Notre Dame um it's it was uh really notable because Duke Slater was really the um uh the first black player in the history of college football to play a a a a prominent role on a a team that was could be considered a mythical National Championship Contender and so Duke Slater was uh had an incredible Legacy in football um when the College Football Hall of Fame opened in 1951 uh Duke Slater was the only black player in the inaugural class he was the first black player inducted of the College Football Hall of Fame uh the only black player uh elected when it opened in 1951 and uh even for years after there were people who um selected an all-time uh college football team in 1946 they did a poll and they they they polled over 200 Sports writers and they said they said pick your your best 11 the 11 players who would be on the all-time uh college football team uh and they'd select players like Jim Thorpe and other players like that Ernie Nevers and uh and Dukes later was one of the individuals selected for the all-time college football team uh in 1946 that's the sort of esteem and acclaim he was held in for his college career and uh being obviously so successful in college that's really what opened the door for him to go into the NFL which obviously the NFL was not open to very many black players at that time um but Duke Slater's widespread Fame for his collegiate career is really what helped uh launch his NFL career and he went on from there well that's a great uh great stories and great uh memories to have of a great player for at Iowa so it was uh his first team in the the what's now NFL Rock Island was that his first team yes it was uh The Rock Island Independence and uh they were an NFL team that was located in Rock Island Illinois which is just uh on the other side of the Mississippi River from Iowa so fairly close to Iowa um and he played uh Five Seasons with The Rock Island Independence it's you know he uh actually on October 1st of this year was the 100th anniversary of Duke Slater's debut in the NFL uh when Duke Slater made his debut in the NFL um he was the first black lineman in the history of the National Football League um he made his debut on October 1st 1922. uh The Rock Island Independents played the Green Bay Packers in that game and uh Duke helped lead Rock Island to an upset of the Packers uh when he broke through on Green Bay's final drive of the game uh he broke through twice and twice swatted down uh Green Bay passes from uh Packers quarterback curly lamba and he swatted the passes down twice and he forced to help Force the Packers Punt and uh the Rock Island Independence held on for uh 1913 I believe victory in that game but uh that was when he made his debut with Rock Island and was one of the greatest players uh in the history of that franchise which of course did not last um uh they uh but they're they're one of the great teams of the 1920s when you think of early era NFL um but uh uh yeah that's uh that's how he got his start and then he spent his final uh five year five plus years of his career with his Chicago Cardinals who of course now known as the Arizona Cardinals but uh that's how he he started his career and I I want to mention too what's interesting about his time in Rock Island was you mentioned the work ethic one of the things that's amazing about Duke Slater is the work ethic that he had um he graduated from the University of Iowa and then he enrolled at University of Iowa law school and one of the things he would do was he would attend uh the University of Iowa college of law he'd attend law classes on Monday Tuesday Wednesday early in the week and when he was done with that then he'd make the Trek out to Rock Island which is in the Quad Cities about an hour's drive away today probably a little longer back in those but he'd go out to Rock Island and then he practiced with The Rock Island Independence for a few days then play an NFL game on Sunday and on a Monday he'd be right back in Iowa City first law classes again and you know you think about a guy like that who's you know attending law classes and going to NFL games and and you know you mentioned it it's like some days I you know I have a hard time getting motivated to get out of bed in the morning and here's a guy who's in the NFL and in law school at the same time it's it's it's incredible the work ethic that he had and that's a definitely a big part of his story and a big part of his legacy is just that uh he was someone who was always working extremely hard to uh uh to you know not only for himself but also to uh you know to to give people a good impression of his family and uh to stand up for his race and to stand up for you know what black athletes could do in that era and what black athletes could be and set a good example uh for the guys that followed and uh uh yeah again it's uh uh he had some amazing days in Rock Island and uh yep that's where he got to start wow that's uh that's really inspirational to hear that and it had to be an inspiration to to younger people you know not only of African-American descent but even anybody that heard his story when I had the you know you're working real hard you know playing football and you're going to school and making that Journey that's uh a lot of a lot to do that's that's that's a pretty good good uh role model to be so okay so he uh with Rock Island he he moved to the Cardinals as you said and he had some uh good success with the Cardinals too oh absolutely well he had some great moments with with Rock Island I I always tell the the story that his best season with Rock Island Independence was in 1924. um Rock Island normally was not really much of a factor uh in the NFL but um but in 1924 after the first month of the Season Rock Island was actually undefeated and on top of the uh uh the NFL the standings and then Rock Island had a game down in Kansas City against an expansion team called the Kansas City Blues and uh because it was in Kansas City uh Duke Slater was not allowed to play uh they had a gentleman's agreement that black players did not play in NFL games in the state of Missouri which was a state that was very hostile toward African Americans and so Duke Slater sat out that game uh Rock Island lost that game despite the fact that uh 10 of their 11 starters were in that game that had started the previous games the only starter who's had to sit that game out was Duke Slater uh by rule and um uh they Rock Island suffered an upset loss in that game and um a few weeks later Kansas City had to go to Rock Island had a return match in Rock Island Illinois because the game was played in Rock Island Duke's later was allowed to play and he was a a dominant Force for them again in that game it's a really meaningful game and Rock Island wound up shutting Kansas City out 17 to nothing but um but unfortunately the the damage was done Rock Island ended the year with two losses which was one more than uh than uh the NFL champion Canton Bulldogs that year so uh that uh that was the one thing that kept him out and and what I tell people is Duke Slater in a 10-year NFL career we talk about how durable he was the only game he missed in a 10-year NFL career was that game it was not due to injury it was not really because he was sidelined by rule uh by that gentleman's agreement that existed back then and um and Duke Slater wound up ironically enough wound up playing 99 uh professional football games in the NFL and AFL combined uh he was one game short of playing a hundred uh football games in his pro football career and uh it was because of the one game that they made him sit out so um so yeah he uh he had some great moments in Rock Island he was uh perennial All-Pro and Rock Island well the Rock Island uh franchise actually folded after the 1926 season and um Duke Slater was uh was quickly signed by the Chicago Cardinals uh for a couple of games that season and then beginning a full time in 1927. and the Chicago Cardinals for for listeners who don't know or don't remember um you know back in the day uh the Chicago Cardinals were the other NFL team in Chicago alongside the Chicago Bears and the Bears and Cardinals had sort of a Cubs White Sox type of holes uh uh on pro football the the the Bears were the north side the Bears were like the Cubs they were on the North side kind of White Collar you know maybe a little more affluent and then uh like the White Sox the Chicago Cardinals were the South signers you know they were blue collar Lil scruffier a little you know a little more hard hat and the other thing about that was the south side of Chicago there was a huge black metropolis and in fact that was where Duke Slater had grown up he'd grown up on the south side of Chicago so Chicago Cardinals signed Duke Slater Duke was able to return to the city where he grew up the city where he had been raised um and the Chicago Cardinals loved it because now they had a box office draw where a lot of the black football fans a lot of those those fans in uh that black Metropolis those black citizens on the south side of Chicago they came to Cardinals games because they wanted to see one of their own they wanted to see Duke Slater on the line playing for the Cardinals and so it worked out sort of both ways the Cardinals got a really good player Duke Slater got to go to uh to his his old Hometown and uh and the Cardinals got a box office draw that appealed to uh to the black football fans there so it kind of worked all around and that's where Duke's later finished out his career uh in the final few years of his career and had tremendous success there too wow that's uh great to have a HomeTown hero come in and plan for us I had to be a great draw like you said so yeah tremendous and it had to be good for him too I had to you know you're a little bit long in a tooth coming in there and maybe that gives you a little bit of burst of energy you have some some people that you know in the stands and really cheering for you because they they helped uh developed you into the player you are so that's great stuff okay so God is finishing up law school already when you finish that up with Rock Island or do you still continuing that when he's with the Cardinals yeah he still continued uh when he was with the Cardinals he actually graduated from the University of Iowa college of law in 1928. um and I I I you know I want to mention too with this football playing in Chicago what's really incredible about uh him is that for most of the late 1920s he was the only black player in the entire NFL there were several black players in the NFL in the early to mid 1920s and then uh after 1926 uh the owners in in the NFL were kind of trying to follow baseball's lead and kind of uh knock black players out of the league um in 1927 uh every single black player in the league there had been like six black players in pro football in 1926. in 1927 all of them had left pro football except for Duke Slater Duke Slater was the only black player in the NFL in 1927. and a large part of that was the fact that Duke Slater had been an All-Pro the last you know four years running um he had been one of the best not only black players one of the best players period one of the best linemen in football and uh you know he was you know there's a quote in the book uh a biographer that I wrote on Duke Slater where they said uh if uh if um if owners had had blackballed Duke Slater uh fans would have questioned not only the uh the owner's Integrity but also their sanity because Duke Slater was so good he was one of those guys that they couldn't blackball and so um um uh Duke actually uh lobbied for the Chicago Cardinals to sign another black player and the Cardinals signed another black player named Harold Bradley who was the second black lineman in NFL history uh he played two games alongside Duke Slater in 1928. before Harold Bradley was cut but aside from those two games by Harold Bradley in 1928 Duke Slater was the only black player in the NFL from 1927 through 1929. and um so Duke Slater was the only black player in the NFL in 1927 and 1929 and yet he was an All-Pro of both seasons so that tells you how good he was while he was sort of uh he really held the door open he kept a ban on black players from coming down um uh it would have come down in 1927 if he hadn't held the door open uh but he kept it uh the door open for other black players sent to the league and uh uh he he kept a band from coming down a ban on black players eventually did come down in the NFL but not until two years after uh Duke Slater retired um but he had some great Seasons with the Chicago Cardinals uh probably his his best known claim to fame is um in 1929 on Thanksgiving Day 1929 Ernie Evers of the Chicago Cardinals uh helped the Cardinals beat the crosstown Chicago Bears 40-6 and Ernie never scored all 40 points it is a single season uh or excuse me single game scoring record in NFL history most points in a single game by any player 40 points by Ernie Evers in that game it's a record that stood for what is it 90 years now Duke Slater played the entire game he's the only Cardinal lineman to play all 60 Minutes of the game and a number of the post uh game accounts credited uh Duke Slater with being the uh uh the man who who kept the bare front uh wobbly as they said um a lot of never says gains came behind Duke Slater's blocking and uh that was probably uh maybe his single Grace game or some Grace moment um in the NFL but um he uh he he uh played 10 seasons and then retired from the NFL and then he used his law degree to start sort of the next chapter of his professional life but um but uh he had some incredible moments and and again you're retired as a seven-time All-Pro having played 10 seasons um he he had one of the longest careers in NFL history at the time of his retirement and uh was really truly one of the great players in the 1920s NFL well that's uh that is quite a lot of accolades and uh definitely deserves to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame one of the things in that boat but I'll say this one of the things that I'm really excited about is that the University of Iowa my alma mater which uh uh is kind of how I came into to Duke's slayer's story they have done a tremendous job recognizing him and honoring him uh at the University of Iowa uh in 2019 uh they decided to put a a relief of him a Carver relief of him on the side of the stadium and it's it's several feet uh wide I think maybe 10 feet wide it's a huge relief it depicts Dukes later um uh blocking uh three Notre Dame men uh in that game against Notre Dame in 1921 and then uh maybe his uh his great uh his greatest honor from the University of Iowa came a couple of years later just last year the University of Iowa uh named their field at kinnick Stadium uh Duke Slater field uh after Duke Slater and uh now if you watch Hawkeye football games uh on television you'll see uh emblazoned on the field at kinnick Stadium you'll see Duke Slater field uh on the uh the field at kinnick Stadium uh where the Hawkeyes play football and it's just a tremendous uh honor uh Collegiate honor for him uh and so it's really I think giving him a lot of exposure for Big Ten fans who if you watch a Hawkeye football game at the University of Iowa you'll see on television you'll see Duke Slater field on the field and it's cost more than one person to say who's Duke Slater who's you know who's that and uh it's been a great opportunity for people to learn his story that way too so um again the the Honors that he's been receiving over the past last five ten years have been just so exciting and so thrilling to me personally and and again just so worthwhile for uh for a man with the achievements that he had well that's that's great and you just to think you're you're a part of that of helping people recognize that Legacy so uh you know speaking of that let's uh get the opportunity to let's get and tell the name of your book and where people can pick it up at yeah um uh again you said it's Duke Slater uh pioneering NF uh uh pinering black NFL player and judge I believe it's the uh uh published by McFarland and Company they pick the subtitle which is uh uh throws a lot in there at you but uh but but obviously all worthwhile just search for Duke Slater and um and you'll find the book you can find it on Amazon you can find it on Barnes Noble or you can find it on my website uh I'd love it if you came and visited my website and bought it off there but it's uh dukeslader.com uh just uh just type in dukeslater.com and it'll get you there and you'll find all the information on Duke Slater and a way to purchase the book and um again just and and an amazing guy again I I've I've talked with you for for this whole time and I feel like I throw a lot of information in there there's just there's so many facets of his life and so much you could talk about with the amazing man that he is that um uh it's it's just a thrill to tell a story there's just so much to say about this incredible guy and I love it when people have an opportunity to learn more about him because uh he's really Someone who lived a life that's that's very much worth remembering well very well said in folks we will have the information if you're in a car and I don't have a writing utensil on you in the show notes of this podcast and on pigskindispatch.com with the corresponding posts that we're going to have on there we will have Neil's uh website to get you connected to him and to his book and uh again he's he's touched a lot of the highlights of Duke Slater's career but there's a lot of goodies inside there that you'll really enjoy and appreciate this man that played football almost 100 years ago so uh Neil rosendahl thank you very much for joining us and spending time and sharing this great story about Dukes later no thanks for of me I really enjoyed it and really appreciate it [Music] was running down we're going to we're going to Victory formation [Applause] [Music] to invite you to check out our website pigskindispatch.com not only to see the daily football history but to experience positive football with our many articles on the good people of the game as well as our own football comic strip cleat marks Comics pigskindispatch.com is also on social media Outlets Facebook Twitter Instagram and don't forget the pigskin dispatch YouTube channel to get all of your positive Football news in history a special thanks to the talents of Mike and G Monroe as well as Jason Neff for letting us use their music during our podcast this podcast is part of the sports history Network your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport you can learn more at sportshistorynetwork.com [Music] it was just another ordinary day in the offices of the Pittsburgh Guardian newspaper Circle 1924 but for Marla delft assistant editor everything was about to change was about to discover the awesome attractiveness of Row one brand Retro Sports paraphernalia items thanks to Orville Mulligan sports writer and there it is wow Orville that's really the bee's knees isn't it just a poster-sized replica of the actual 1909 World Series program cover I can see that but where did you get it and where'd you get it framed I ordered it from the row one website where over 6 000 items of sports memorabilia from the 1880s to the 1990s are available for reproduction in multiple sizes and in several different materials with over a 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