In high school, Fritz and his brother Hughes were the only black people enrolled at Lane Tech. Despite this setback, Pollard excelled in everything he participated in at Lane Tech. The author of the book Fritz Pollard: Pioneer in Racial Advancementalso noted that "Pollard was almost the perfect all-around athlete." Pollard was a 3 sport athlete in high school; he particpated in baseball, football, and track. Football was obviously his strongsuit, but he was also a very talented track athlete. Fritz had been a 3-time Cook County Track champion in high school. Although baseball was his "weakness" per se, he was still very talented at the sport. In football, he had been the star running back. Pollard had drawn the attention of colleges with his skill level.
In college, Pollard had participated in both football and track. He had qualified for the USA Olympic team in low hurdles as a freshman at Brown University. Not only that, but he had set a world record for low hurdles in that same year. Yet again, in college, Pollard had excelled in football primarily. He became the first black person to participate in the Rose Bowl game. His sophmore year, he had led the team to an 8-1 record and had scored 12 touchdowns. After that successful year, Pollard was named to the All-American team. He became the first African-American named to the backfield of that award.
In Professional Football, Pollard was a special talent and drew in crowds that were unheard of at the time. He led the Akron Pros in the inagural year to a league championship and went undefeated. His playing career wasn't too flashy after that, but he did become a coach not much longer after that. Most importantly, he had become the first African-American NFL coach in history. Pollard had organized the first ever inter-racial All-Star game in the NFL that year. After his tenure of coaching NFL teams, he had created his own All-Star team. This black-only team was given the name of the Chicago Black Hawks. He did this to promote inter-racial football. After this he coached an all-black team called the New York Bombers from 1935-38. Pollard started a new era for African-Americans by starting these teams.