American History Hotline

Episode: Who Integrated the NFL?
Host: Bob Crawford
Guest: David Fleming (Author of A Big Mess in Texas)
Release Date: February 4, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode explores the hidden history of integration in the National Football League (NFL), focusing on the 1952 Dallas Texans—a team often called one of the NFL’s worst, but whose pioneering Black players and tumultuous story are crucial to understanding the league’s desegregation. Host Bob Crawford and guest sportswriter David Fleming delve into the complex racial, cultural, and economic backdrop of pro football in the early ‘50s, the remarkable courage of players like Buddy Young and George Taliaferro, and why this chapter remains largely forgotten.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Context: Listener Question & The Forgotten Texans

• Listener Kathy from Troy, NY asks: "Who integrated the NFL? What about football's color barrier?"
• The show’s purpose is to shed light on the Dallas Texans’ pivotal role—a team crucial to NFL integration yet largely erased from mainstream history.
  • Quote: "People tend to sort of nostalgically whitewash the reason why the last NFL team went bankrupt. And it's essentially because the Dallas Texans’ two best players were Buddy Young and George Taliaferro. And Dallas, and Texas as a whole, simply would not support a team with an integrated roster." — David Fleming [24:27]

2. The NFL’s Chaotic Early Days

• The pre-television NFL was unstable and lacked prestige:
  • 31 of the first 43 franchises went bankrupt; the league was seen as less respectable than college football, baseball, and even boxing or synchronized swimming.
  • Players’ checks bounced; teams folded unexpectedly.
  • Many fans and communities disapproved of professional football, seeing it as undignified.
  • Quote: "The NFL was, I think Art Donovan… said something like, you know, in the 50s, the NFL was behind college football, baseball, boxing, horse racing—and I think Art even threw in synchronized swimming." — David Fleming [07:59]

3. The Unlikely Team: Tracing the Dallas Texans’ Origins

• The Texans began as the New York Yanks, owned and sold by music superstar Kate Smith’s business partner for tax write-offs.
• The franchise’s move to Dallas marked the NFL’s first foray below the Mason-Dixon Line.
• New owner Giles Miller was an optimistic (and naïve) Texan who “failed upward,” hoping to bring big-league football to Texas but underestimating Southern racial realities.
• Quote: "It sounds like a great idea. It's Texas. It's Dallas. What could possibly go wrong, right? I mean, who could go bankrupt selling football in Texas? But Giles managed to do it." — David Fleming [16:23]

4. The Courage and Isolation of Buddy Young & George Taliaferro

• Giles Miller refused to cut or trade his Black stars, influenced by his own upbringing; he was raised in part by the family’s Black butler and saw it as a matter of conscience.
• Dallas was then a stronghold of Jim Crow and the Ku Klux Klan.
• Black players faced segregation, threats, and violence—including unsolved bombings in Black neighborhoods.
• Quote: "George Taliaferro and Buddy Young were not allowed to live with the rest of the players. They had to live in a section of Dallas that there were still 12 unsolved house bombings for black families that had dared to move just a little bit closer to white Dallas… that's the atmosphere they have to move into while playing professional football." — David Fleming [00:00]; also repeated for emphasis at [26:24]
• George Taliaferro: first Black player drafted into the NFL, star at Indiana, pioneer at quarterback and activist off the field.
• Buddy Young: another Black star, together they formed the backbone of the team but drew racist backlash in Texas.

5. Segregation in the Cotton Bowl

• While theoretically allowed to attend, Black fans were segregated to a sun-exposed, roped-off area.
• Giles Miller had promised an integrated stadium experience but failed to deliver.
• The Black community quickly realized they were not truly welcome—and boycotted the team after the first game.
• Quote: "[Black fans] were allowed to stand in this roped-off section of the Cotton Bowl that was in the sun… after the first game, the Black community then boycotted the Dallas Texans." — David Fleming [28:15]

6. Forgotten Legacy: Taliaferro & Young

• Despite their immense contributions, neither player is widely celebrated today.
• Taliaferro is in the College Football Hall of Fame, but not Canton’s Pro Football Hall of Fame.
• He integrated not just the NFL, but college towns themselves.
• Quote: "[George] Taliaferro… single handedly helped integrate Bloomington. He used his football stardom to, to sort of gain access to all the places that black people couldn't go… So, he really was a hero, a courageous pioneer.” — David Fleming [26:35]

7. The Texans’ Wild Season and Memorable Moments

• The team was a circus: bounced paychecks, legendary drinking, and on-field chaos.
• Notable alumni included Hall of Famers Art Donovan and Gino Marchetti, and even Chubby Grigg, a West Texas "psychopath" and notorious eater.
• Their only significant win came after moving to Hershey, PA, in a near-empty stadium on Thanksgiving against the Chicago Bears—called “the greatest upset in NFL history” at the time.
• Quote: "[The Texans] end up beating the Chicago Bears basically in front of 500 fans in Akron, Ohio, in a game that basically nobody watched or paid attention to. But the Chicago Tribune called it the greatest upset in NFL history." — David Fleming [34:21]

8. Aftermath: Disbandment & Legacy

• The Texans went bankrupt and ceased to exist—but their roster, including Young, Taliaferro, Donovan, and Marchetti, became the core of the iconic Baltimore Colts, a franchise that “saved the league.”
• The NFL tends to erase this origin story, preferring the narrative of the stable, All-American Colts.
• Quote: "I don't think the NFL really wants people to know… but the Colts were born out of this disaster that we've been talking about." — David Fleming [39:07]

9. Lasting Impact (or Lack Thereof)

• There’s a call for overdue recognition in the Hall of Fame for men like Taliaferro.
• The episode closes with the reality that their legacy has been overlooked, and that social change in sports came with immense cost and courage.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “How can I look [my family's Black butler] in the eye if I were to trade them or cut them just because they were black?” — David Fleming on Giles Miller’s motivation [24:00]
• “His [George Taliaferro’s] quotes about knowing that he would have to be careful in Dallas because he could get lynched are maybe the most chilling moments in an otherwise pretty laid-back book.” — David Fleming [26:35]
• "They had to live in a section of Dallas that there were still 12 unsolved house bombings for black families... that's the atmosphere they have to move into while playing professional football." — David Fleming [00:00 / 26:24]
• “[Black fans] show up for the first game and not only are they not welcome, the restrictions are even greater. And basically after that first game, the black community then boycotted the Dallas Texans.” — David Fleming [28:15]
• “George Hallas is so mad, he goes up and down the aisles and he’s smacking the trays of Thanksgiving dinner out of his players laps. And he’s saying, you bums don’t deserve Thanksgiving this year.” — David Fleming [34:35]
• "The Colts were born out of this disaster." — David Fleming [39:07]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00 – Setting the scene: Taliaferro & Young’s hostile environment in Dallas
• 06:04 – The NFL’s chaotic, non-prestigious early era
• 11:23 – Kate Smith, Ted Collins, and the franchise’s strange financial history
• 16:23 – Who was Giles Miller? And why was Dallas so unwelcoming
• 22:09 – Why Buddy Young & George Taliaferro are the “Jackie Robinsons” of the NFL
• 24:27-26:24 – Personal backgrounds, racist backlash, and the lived reality for Black NFL players in Texas
• 28:15 – How and why Black Dallas boycotted the Texans
• 30:07–34:32 – Famous connections: Tom Landry, Art Donovan, and the “Forrest Gump” effect
• 34:21–35:19 – The Thanksgiving upset against the Bears
• 36:14–37:17 – The team’s wild Hershey, PA bender and the legend of Chubby Grigg
• 38:42–39:52 – Aftermath: How the Colts rose from the ashes of the Texans

Tone & Language

• Candid, occasionally irreverent — “Animal House of football”; “suckers in Dallas”
• Empathetic, especially regarding the Black pioneers’ struggles
• Lively, rich with football lore and vivid anecdotes

Summary Takeaway

The 1952 Dallas Texans, anchored by Black pioneers George Taliaferro and Buddy Young, played a historic—if harrowing—role in integrating the modern NFL. Their story is one of both progress and profound resistance, with Dallas fans and officials largely unwilling to embrace change. Ultimately, the roster’s talent seeded the Baltimore Colts, but the real legacy is the overlooked courage of the league’s first true integrators—a story American sports history must remember.

Recommended Listening for:

• Sports fans
• Social history enthusiasts
• Anyone interested in the deeper, untold stories of American integration