Gridiron Underground: Black American Journeys in Canadian Football

by James R. Wallen

Canada couldn’t guarantee them greatness but offered the freedom and opportunity they needed to achieve it. In 1951, Bernie Custis, a standout quarterback at Syracuse, had his invitation to the national East-West All-Star game rescinded when the organizers discovered he was black. In 1978, Warren Moon ― the only player to be inducted into both the Canadian and American football halls of fame ― went unselected as a quarterback in the NFL draft. With the NFL insisting that a black player could not lead a team, generations of promising athletes were denied a chance to compete at the highest levels. But with their minds set on getting the recognition they deserved, many of them found that Canadian teams were ready to welcome them aboard. Gridiron Underground tells the story of how talented Black American players who were overlooked, ignored, or prevented from playing football in their home country came to Canada, from the 1940s right through to the present day.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 26, 2019

Reviews

[Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read!! This book profiles numerous black American football players who chose, for various reasons, to come up to Canada and play in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Many of the players mentioned were interviewed by the author, and their stories are remarkable. My favourite sections were the ones on Johnny Bright, Warren Moon, and Henry ‘Gizmo’ Williams. The only downside of the book was that there were no pictures in it, which would have added much to the whole project.

[Bruce Kemp]

Gridiron Underground: Black Americans Journeys in Canadian Football
Author: James R. Wallen
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 9781459743212
254 pp
$23.99

Reviewed by: Bruce Kemp

Even if, like me, you’re not vastly interested in football, Gridiron Underground is more than a collection of facts and numbers accumulated to impress the stats geeks (don’t worry, if you are one you’ll get your fill here to) it’s a historical document recording the movement of a select group of pro athletes escaping modern racism by following the same route under the North Star that their ancestors did.

For a book about football, interestingly, it opens with a major event in baseball history - Jackie Robinson’s appearance with the Montreal Royals in the “Little World Series”, the minor league version of the major league championship. Robinson was less than a year away from joining the Brooklyn Dodgers to become the first Afro-American in the major leagues busting the unspoken ban on blacks in American pro sports.

It would be easy to say the days of Jim Crow and lynchings in the United States were long gone, but they weren’t. In 1946 blacks were still being murdered by white mobs and denied opportunities in college and pro sports that even mediocre white players availed themselves of.

Across the spectrum, racist team owners and managers were shooting themselves in their collective feet and nowhere was it worse than in pro football. Blacks were assiduously kept off the playing field in any position and even by the 1990s, when they could play any of the defensive positions and do most offensive jobs, blacks were denied the plum role of quarterback even though there were scores of highly talented young men sitting on the benches hoping for a turn around in attitude.

Gradually, and almost in secret, the idea there was another pro ball league north of the border in the frozen wastes of Canada began to filter down to NFL locker rooms. It was almost like the stories that flew around slaves cabins telling of a land where the brave and lucky could escape to, where freedom was the prize and athletes could play in the most sought after role of all: quarterback.

About the same time Robinson was swinging his bat in Montreal, Herb Trawick became the first black CFL player. Then the floodgates were opened by a vicious assault on Jimmie Bright - which the owners, coaches and linemen all but ignored. Suddenly players were looking north to places like Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Ottawa and Toronto. Cities young black athletes had almost never heard of let alone knew where they were.

Before long they were in the rotations on every team in the league and many were performing at stellar heights passing and rushing with the best the NFL had to offer.

Wallen does an excellent job of tracing their personal stories. Gridiron Underground is pregnant with personal stories of despair and redemption. It also paints a bleak portrait of the systemic racism the world hoped had died with the Civil Rights movement. Names like Bernie Custis and Chuck Ealy were etched in the halls of the CFL and in the minds of Canadians.

“Gridiron Underground” is a book appealing to sports fans and those interested in social history beyond the world of gridiron combat. Truly a worthwhile read.

[John Geary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, informative and entertaining book to read. The book is about the history of African-American players finding a home in the CFL, many of them choosing to stay in Canada after their football careers ended, told through a series of profiles that start back in the late 40s. Very eye-opening, with some heartwarming moments and some rage-inducing moments at the hypocrisy and unfairness of racism.
It’s based on a film that the author made with the same title and subject matter. There were a couple of minor factual errors in it which always bug me a little bit, because I figure when you write a book you have more time to check those things than you do if you’re writing a newspaper article or a radio broadcast. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the book, and I would certainly recommend it for anybody who is interested in the history of Canadian football.

[Amy Roebuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my usual subject matter, but I was drawn to this in a Black History Month display because Chuck Ealey is from my hometown of Portsmouth, Ohio, and I've read his daughter Jael's books (one a picture book about her dad, one a YA.)

[Benjamin Kahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good book, with interesting stories of how several black American players made their way to Canada and make an impact on Canadian football, and in many cases, made their homes here after their careers and continued to make a positive impact on Canadian society.

I thought the John Williams Jr might have gone a little too in-depth - partway through that chapter, I found I was losing interest - but otherwise, a fascinating book and one that goes a long way to showing how several black American players, especially quarterbacks, found the opportunity to play in Canada when those avenues were closed to them in the States.