Taliaferro: Breaking Barriers from the NFL Draft to the Ivory Tower

George Taliaferro was a star player on Indiana University's first great football team of 1945—two years before Jackie Robinson broke baseball's racial barrier. Four years later, he became the first African American drafted by the NFL when the Chicago Bears expressed their interest in him. Rather than play for his childhood dream team, Taliaferro opted to honor the contract he had previously signed with the Los Angeles Dons of the All American Football Conference. Taliaferro would eventually go on to play in the NFL for teams such as the New York Yanks, Dallas Texans, Baltimore Colts, and Philadelphia Eagles. More than a biography of one individual, this is a story of inspiration and historic achievement.