this is Randy snow from the world of football and in honor of Black History Month I'm going to be telling you about Pro Football Hall of Famer Duke Slater an early Pioneer in the NFL but first I want to invite you to like subscribe and hit the Bell notification on our YouTube channel that way you won't miss out when new history lessons are [Music] posted one of the members of the 2020 pro football hall of fames Centennial class was Duke Slater who played in the NFL for 10 seasons from 1922 to 1931 Slater was a two-way player and was a tackle on both the offensive and defensive lines he played college football at Iowa in his first season in the NFL he played for two different teams the Milwaukee Badgers and The Rock Island independence from 1923 to 1925 he played exclusively for Rock Island in 1926 Slater and his Rock Island team left the NFL and joined a rival Pro Football League called the American Football League which was started by CC pile the agent for Red Grange one of Slater's teammates on the 1926 team was halfback Elmer leaden who was one of the famed Four Horsemen of notra Dame pil American Football League lasted just one year and then folded Slater returned to the NFL and joined the Chicago Cardinals he played just two games for the Cardinals in 1926 but played for the Cardinals for the remainder of his career from 1927 to 1931 in 1929 Slater helped lead the way as a member of the Cardinals offensive line when halfback Ernie never scored six rushing touchdowns in a single game against the Chicago Bears a record that still stands to this day Slater was named an NFL first team all Pro five times and a second Team all proo twice while he was still an active NFL player Slater earned a law degree and became a lawyer in 1948 he was elected to be a judge on The Cook County Municipal Court in Chicago in 1960 he became a member of the Cook County Superior Court Duke Slater died in 1966 at the age of 67 Slater was one of only 13 African-Americans to play in the NFL between 1920 in 1933 he was a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1970 and 1971 but he did not make it in his election to the pro football hall of fames Centennial class in 2020 was long [Music] overdue