BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS: Twenty-five years before Jackie Robinson first donned a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform, Frederick Douglass "Fritz'' Pollard became the first black to play quarterback in the National Football League. Pollard was a Brown University football star and the first black named to the college football All-America team.
12.19.99
Underwear king Robert Knight , who worked in Rhode Island mills from the age of 8, grew up to head Fruit of the Loom, for a time the world's largest cotton cloth manufacturer.
Glenna Collett Vare was just 19 when she won the first of six U.S. Women's Amateur championships in golf; in the 1920s, she was the female version of Tiger Woods , sweeping everything in her path. She went on to play for more than 60 years.
George M. Cohan, born on the Fourth of July (or at least very near it) in Fox Point, wrote some of America's most rousing and patriotic tunes, including Give My Regards To Broadway and Over There . After a bad review by a Providence Journal critic, he shunned the state for some years, but eventually everybody kissed and made up.
Women made big gains in the 1920s. One Providence businesswoman who did well was Flora Dutton , proprieter of Miss Dutton's Green Room, which served affordable meals to downtown shoppers.
Women voted for the first time in 1920, and the first women elected to the General Assembly was Isabelle Ahearn O'Neill , the daughter of Irish immigrants. O'Neill won election from Providence's Olneyville neighborhood in November 1922.
In an age before long-distance running went big-time, Ellison M. "Tarzan'' Brown, a Narragansett Indian from Westerly, was one of the world's best at the grueling marathon distance of 26 miles, 385 yards.
Brown won the Boston Marathon in 1936 and 1939. A flamboyant runner who once finished 13th at Boston running barefoot, Brown's major competition often came from Leslie S. "Les'' Pawson, a Pawtucket mill worker who won at Boston in 1933, 1938 , and 1941.
"I did not adopt any special plan for the race,' said Brown, after winning in 1939. "I just made up my mind that I would run my head off and stay in until I dropped from exhaustion.''
Twenty-five years before Jackie Robinson first donned a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform, Frederick Douglass "Fritz'' Pollard became the first black to play quarterback in the National Football League. Pollard was a Brown University football star and the first black named to the college football All-America team.
College basketball is a Rhode Island winter sports passion. The best among many superlative teams ever to lace up sneakers in the state was the 1973 Providence College team that made the NCAA Final Four.
The team had strong Rhode Island connections -- stars Marvin Barnes (Providence), Ernie DiGregorio (North Providence), coach Dave Gavitt (Westerly), were natives. Friar fans will remember the NCAA tournament for what might have been: PC lost its chance at the national championship when Barnes severely sprained his knee seven minutes into the semi-final game against Memphis State.
Davey Lopes , a Rhode Islander of Cape Verdean heritage, starred in baseball and basketball at La Salle Academy and was a standout ball player during 16 years in the majors. As player and coach, he was with the Dodgers, Athletics, Cubs, Astros, Orioles, Rangers, and Padres.
His latest job puts him in more rarefied company yet: this year he was named manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, one of a handful of minorities to land a manager's job.
Underwear king Robert Knight , who worked in Rhode Island mills from the age of 8, grew up to head Fruit of the Loom, for a time the world's largest cotton cloth manufacturer.
Glenna Collett Vare was just 19 when she won the first of six U.S. Women's Amateur championships in golf; in the 1920s, she was the female version of Tiger Woods , sweeping everything in her path. She went on to play for more than 60 years.
George M. Cohan, born on the Fourth of July (or at least very near it) in Fox Point, wrote some of America's most rousing and patriotic tunes, including Give My Regards To Broadway and Over There . After a bad review by a Providence Journal critic, he shunned the state for some years, but eventually everybody kissed and made up.
Women made big gains in the 1920s. One Providence businesswoman who did well was Flora Dutton , proprieter of Miss Dutton's Green Room, which served affordable meals to downtown shoppers.
Women voted for the first time in 1920, and the first women elected to the General Assembly was Isabelle Ahearn O'Neill , the daughter of Irish immigrants. O'Neill won election from Providence's Olneyville neighborhood in November 1922.
In an age before long-distance running went big-time, Ellison M. "Tarzan'' Brown, a Narragansett Indian from Westerly, was one of the world's best at the grueling marathon distance of 26 miles, 385 yards.
Brown won the Boston Marathon in 1936 and 1939. A flamboyant runner who once finished 13th at Boston running barefoot, Brown's major competition often came from Leslie S. "Les'' Pawson, a Pawtucket mill worker who won at Boston in 1933, 1938 , and 1941.
"I did not adopt any special plan for the race,' said Brown, after winning in 1939. "I just made up my mind that I would run my head off and stay in until I dropped from exhaustion.''
Twenty-five years before Jackie Robinson first donned a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform, Frederick Douglass "Fritz'' Pollard became the first black to play quarterback in the National Football League. Pollard was a Brown University football star and the first black named to the college football All-America team.
College basketball is a Rhode Island winter sports passion. The best among many superlative teams ever to lace up sneakers in the state was the 1973 Providence College team that made the NCAA Final Four.
The team had strong Rhode Island connections -- stars Marvin Barnes (Providence), Ernie DiGregorio (North Providence), coach Dave Gavitt (Westerly), were natives. Friar fans will remember the NCAA tournament for what might have been: PC lost its chance at the national championship when Barnes severely sprained his knee seven minutes into the semi-final game against Memphis State.
Davey Lopes , a Rhode Islander of Cape Verdean heritage, starred in baseball and basketball at La Salle Academy and was a standout ball player during 16 years in the majors. As player and coach, he was with the Dodgers, Athletics, Cubs, Astros, Orioles, Rangers, and Padres.
His latest job puts him in more rarefied company yet: this year he was named manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, one of a handful of minorities to land a manager's job.
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