Here's a Story that Every NFL Draft Fan Should Know

As chit-chat from the NFL draft starts to wind down, here's a question for the millions of men (and women) who are so devoted to the sport:

Can you name football's Jackie Robinson, the man who broke the NFL draft's color barrier in the same manner as Jackie integrated baseball?

Probably not.

Thirty-two teams have made their latest draft selections, so this would seem the perfect time for an answer, especially because our newly discovered hero still is thriving at the age of 81.

Jackie Robinson, meet George Taliaferro.

The still spry resident of Bloomington, Indiana, in 1951 became the first African American player drafted into the NFL.

Learn his story from Dawn Knight, author of "Taliaferro: Breaking Barriers from the NFL Draft to the Ivory Tower."

This article is intended as a news report, not a book review, but the book by necessity is a sole main source because the story has been virtually unreported through all of these years. A site as thorough as Wikipedia does not even contain a photo image. Knight was a college student of Taliaferro's at IU, and she has relied on the small circulation of Indiana University Press.

Jackie Robinson and George Taliaferro are uncannily similar. Both were college men who impacted racial integration at their schools, Robinson at UCLA and Taliaferro at Indiana University. Both served in the Army and again were agents of change. Both possessed the same power for knowing when to absorb the searing mental pain, and when to fight back. Taliaferro's story is as equally remarkable as Robinson's, and those so dedicated to the NFL draft will gain by learning.