George Taliaferro
George Taliaferro (January 8, 1927 – October 8, 2018) was a professional American football player who was the first African American drafted by a National Football League (NFL) team. Beginning his football career at Indiana University for the Hoosiers team, he played in the NFL for the New York Yanks from 1950 to 1951, the Dallas Texans in 1952, the Baltimore Colts from 1953 to 1954, and Philadelphia Eagles in 1955.
Taliaferro on a 1952 Bowman football card | |||||||||||
| No. 20, 24 | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position: | Halfback Quarterback | ||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||
| Born: | January 8, 1927 Gates, Tennessee, U.S. | ||||||||||
| Died: | October 8, 2018 (aged 91) Mason, Ohio, U.S. | ||||||||||
| Height: | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||||||||||
| Weight: | 196 lb (89 kg) | ||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||
| High school: | Gary Roosevelt (Gary, Indiana) | ||||||||||
| College: | Indiana | ||||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1949 / Round: 13 / Pick: 129 (by the Chicago Bears) | ||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Player stats at NFL.com · PFR | |||||||||||
He was the first African-American drafted into the National Football League when he was selected in the 13th round (129th pick overall) of the 1949 NFL draft. On November 22, 1953, he became the first black player to start at quarterback in the NFL in the post-color bar era when he saw emergency duty against the Los Angeles Rams.
Taliaferro was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1981.