Woody Strode trivia

Nearly 20 years since his passing.

Trivia:

Strode was one of the first four blacks who integrated professional football in 1946. The others were Bill Willis and Marion Motley of the Cleveland Browns (All America Football Conference [AAFC]), and fellow NFL Los Angeles Ram Kenny Washington.

The Rams gave Kenny Washington a tryout when they moved to Los Angeles, and hired lineman Strode to be his roommate.

Prior to 1946, Strode played semi-pro ball.

Strode played several seasons for the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League before moving back to the United States and beginning his film career.

Former pro football player.

Strode posed for one of two paintings commissioned by Adolf Hitler for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

Reportedly, his favorite film from his career was Sergeant Rutledge (1960).

Was a close friend of John Ford from the early 1960s until Ford’s death, with Ford having preferred Strode’s company over most other actors when the director became ill from cancer. Somewhat controversially, Ford usually waved off claims his films were racist by saying things like, “But my best friend Woody Strode is black.”

According to John Capouya’s biography of Gorgeous George, Woody paid him a visit late in 1963, and was shocked and saddened to see the extent of his old friend’s decline.

On the highly macho set of The Professionals (1966), Burt Lancaster, widely known to be a very physically strong man, frequently challenged Strode to contests of strength and was allegedly despondent to be repeatedly bested by Strode.

Strode played college football for the UCLA Bruins, the most integrated collegiate team in the nation in 1939, which included future NFL running back Kenny Washington and future Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Jackie Robinson.

Inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992.

Inducted into the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum and Hall of Fame in 2012-2013.