Goal Dust

Strode first achieved fame playing football at UCLA in the late 1930s with Kenny Washington and Jackie Robinson, the team that propelled that college into the gridiron big-time. Later he played semi-pro football and was a professional wrestler. After World War II, he and Washington set a precedent as the first blacks in the National Football League in the modern era; when he was released, Strode played football in Canada. Once his sports career was ended, he became a film actor, working for Cecil B. DeMille and John Ford; his film career took him to Italy as well where he became famous. Writing with freelancer Young, Strode makes trenchant observations about race relations in the U.S., and is especially biting in noting that his marriage to a Hawaiian princess made him persona non grata to some black Americans. Photos not seen by PW. (July)