KILLED - Episode 3: The Quarterback

Episode Date: April 20, 2023

Glamour punts a "problematic" 1950s love story. Featuring Abby Haglage.To submit your KILLED story, visit www.KILLEDStories.com.

A quick heads up. This episode of Killed features a story that has never before been published in full. Some of the reporting cannot be fully corroborated as key witnesses have passed away. This is a story about that story and the claims made by its subjects. When there's something big happening on Premiere or event, or I don't know, a famous person's birthday magazines will put together a package. It's a collection of stories, it's sort of acknowledging that this is a bigger deal than just one singular piece and often it comes at it from several different angles and incorporates different points of view. So this particular package I was approached by an editor at Glamour to help out with. The movie loving was gonna be premiering in a couple months.

Of course, the movie covers Mildred and Richard loving. Perry loving being a white person and the said Mildred to Laura's jeeter being a colored person, cohabitation. Whose interracial marriage case went to the Supreme Court after they were prosecuted and the Supreme Court struck down,

bands on interracial marriage. Huge, really important case, huge, really important couple. And the thought was kind of, let's take the temperature of interracial marriage in America now and previous to this. To look backwards at the idea that to be married to somebody of a different race, not very long ago was illegal and what was it like for those couples.

Over time it started to be seen as problematic story. seen as problematic story. From Justin Harmon and audio chuck, this is Killed, the podcast that brings dead stories back to life. Season 2, Episode 3. The Quarterback. You may remember the name Abbey Haglidge from another audio chuck series of note. From Justin Harmon and audio chuck, this is O.C. Swinger. Chapter 9. No Tiger. Oh, my no tiger fans.

Shout out to them. My name is Abby Haglidge. I am currently a 2L at Georgetown Law and a former journalist for a variety of places the Daily Beast, Newsweek, Glamour, and Yahoo. Abby's well on her way to becoming a lawyer now. But deep in her bones, she's still a journalist. That shit never goes away.

I guess it doesn't. I think I'm a journalist on pause right now. Abby and I met at Glamour Magazine. I was a newly installed senior editor, and she was a frequent contributor. And though I happened to start right around the time she received the loving assignment, back in 2016, I was not directly involved with this story. It was an exciting assignment, but also a big ask, because we're talking about couples who were doing something in defiance of the law. If you were dating somebody of a different race or tried to marry them, there were many states.

You couldn't do that. There were many states like the one that Richard and Mildred lived in that you would be arrested. So this was like trying to find couples who did that, which they obviously didn't really publicize, it was challenging, but I love a challenge. Abby started to dig. She went to the ACLU to people she'd met through various journalism jobs.

And of course, to the worldwide web. I initially sort of went after kind of high profile interracial marriages in the 50s and 60s because that felt like one area that would be available to me. 50s and 60s because that felt like one area that would be available to me. I also did really want a just, you know, every day couple somebody that was not protected by celebrity and by fame. I don't know if I can exactly remember my path to Henry and Richelle themselves, but I know it was hours of just searching all over and eventually somehow landing on this video on YouTube of this couple.

It was illegal at the time. You know, when interracial marriages weren't legalized till 1967. And it was just a really brief interview with the two of them talking about how they'd been married for, I think, at that point, like 58 years. And, you know, just instantly I thought, oh my gosh, here they are. In the video, Richelle and Henry Ford, who say they have been married for 52 years, sit

and matching high-backed wooden chairs in a sun-drenched dining room. So this beautiful girl and I said, oops, I'm sorry. See what you saw her for. I thought she would color. As I got close to her, I knew that she wasn't color, that she was white. One out of every 11 couples these days is initially married, which I can't even imagine. I ended up calling them. As a reporter, you find a random number, you call it. I mean, the amount of times that people actually pick up is really infrequent, but Rochelle picked up on the second ring. How's it going?

Hi there. So it was not only the right number, but she was home and it was her house phone, and she just immediately dove into her story. She also very quickly launched into the central feature of their story, which is that her husband Henry was a black NFL player in the 1950s, and from their perspective, his football career was completely ended when his coaches learned that he was dating a white woman. You know, sometimes as a journalist, you're having to, why don't you think about it? And like, let me, I'll give you an idea of what I want to say. And I think that first phone call was two hours long. I missed a dinner with my roommates. They laughed. I'm like waving them out the door and just kept going. Abby finally hung up with Rochelle.

Holy shit. Shit. Had that just happened? The first person I called was my editor and told her, I think I have this incredible story. You know, mentioned what happened, a black clair, claiming that he had been kicked out of Manifell because of dating a white woman. And we were both, I think, really, really excited.

Wow, we've just stumbled on this gold mine. And she discussed it with higher editors. They agreed it was sort of like, wow, how has the story never been told in a national publication that's every editor's dream to find that kind of story, especially one that involves something as high profile as the NFL. So it was slotted to be, you know, the main feature in this package. This is the one that really was seen as having a big impact on people's hearts and minds and telling this story about the NFL that has been really lost to history. and really lost to history. Abby had never heard of Henry Ford, the football prodigy who went on to become

the first black quarterback at a major university. So slick was Henry, so sure-footed that he even earned himself the nickname Model T. So Henry Ford was raised really in the projects of Pittsburgh and pretty early on I think saw his talent in sports as a way to escape the poverty that he was raised in. He was all American, quarterback in high school and brought his team Shenlihai to the championships, just was really well known across the states. Then he attended the University of Pittsburgh,

1951 to 54, and he did play quarterback there. That was, you know, unfortunately, still is kind of unusual to hear of a black quarterback, but it was extremely uncommon at the time, but he was just that good. During his time at the University of Pittsburgh, a piece in the October 3rd, 1953 edition of the Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph describes Ford as a, quote, classily-grow product of Shenley High. While items in the following months describe him as,

quote, one of the most underrated football players anywhere, and quote, Pits most consistent player. His senior year at University of Pittsburgh, he was given all these awards. You can see pictures of him with his coaches and his mostly white team. So following that, he was drafted to Cleveland Browns.

Number nine, draft pick, no big deal. He spent a year at the Browns, and then in 1956, the Pittsburgh Steelers. You know, the NFL now is made up of majority black players, but at the time, it really was majority white. And the black players, well often really talented, were really treated as second-class citizens. I remember where that he always said was he felt dispensable,

you know, one wrong move and you're gone. I remember him telling me when they would travel to another city, white players would be staying at a hotel and celebrating there and he would have to stay at the YMCA full of roaches. So all of these things sent messages to him that he you know, he was on thin ice. This is Killed the podcast that brings dead stories back to life. After that first call, Abby interviewed Rachelle and Henry extensively, even flying to Palo Alto on her own dime to meet them in person. In her videos, which she shared with Killed, Rachelle and Henry hold hands in their kitchen, which is bursting forth with colorful art.

Together, they take Abby on a trip down memory lane. You are. I am Henry. And I'm Henry's wife, Michelle Ford, with Mary Tips, uh, give the year. In 1960. 1960? 1960.

1960 and we met 11 years before that. Yeah. Okay. See you go up, rich right now. Yes. Very small, small, little town in Pennsylvania. And you grew up in the health district. And I grew up in the heat of the ghetto. He actually met Rischelle in high school.

His high school football team, they practiced in a very rich white area. And he would go there every summer to practice and stumbled upon Rischelle one day. It was love at first sight. So they remained friends early on, especially because it was just really taboo to be interested in somebody of another race. For so many years, Henry and Rochelle had kept their relationship on the down low until a chance encounter changed everything. Henry and Rochelle lived in a mostly black part of town that's where they hung out on the weekends and stuff. He said he was

smarter than to you know openly say I have a white girlfriend or to openly bring her around and one weekend they were at a jazz bar. And interestingly, the area was starting to get gentrified. So a group of white people ended up at the jazz club and noticed in a booth over in the corner, Richelle and Henry were sitting there. One of them came over and asked him, you know, what are you doing with this white girl? And he just kind of tried to brush it off. But that was sort of the beginning of the end, I guess. Word got back to Henry's coaches, who, according to Rachelle and Henry, then listened in as

the couple chatted on the team's communal phone. And they kept the phone and found out who he was talking to. So that was on the Saturday and they went and played Sunday. And you won. You made a couple touchdowns around a lot of yards. And then they called you in the next day. Ask you in essence. Did you want to date like girls until they pro-ball and they threw you off the team?

No. He tried to tell them one is personal and one is professional. And the next day, he was informed he was off the team. So he didn't get to say, provide any teammates or clean out the slacker or any of that, let them go to the game and we was pretty devastated in our playing football. He didn't go take that story to the news.

He didn't go tell all of his white friends from the team because he felt afraid of the institution and he felt dispensable. You know, he had worked his whole life to really reach the upper echelons of his sport and he had made it. He had really done the impossible, which is making it into the NFL as a black man in the 1950s and one who was raised in the projects. I mean, he had just, it was this, the American dream, really, in some ways. And then to just be there one day and then the next day gone. The only job he could find in the town

was being a garbage truck driver. So that was his initial first job. And then he worked at the grocery store. and then he worked at the grocery store. Abby filed her story on Henry and Richelle Ford. There's was one of many pieces in a package filled with relationships that might look commonplace today, but only 50 years earlier were illegal in 17 states.

The story then proceeded through rounds of edits before finally landing with the research department. The fact-checker began to go through each item in the piece, checking sources, quotes, dates, and locations. It was flying through until they reached out to the Rooney family who still owns the Steelers. Mr. Rooney, one of the most liked men in all of sport.

And he's about to receive the Vince Lombard. Art Rooney owns the Steelers. He is a patriarchy in every sense of the word. He's the father of this franchise. I can't recall ever. Currently, Art Rooney, the second, owns them. And they reached out, sort of shared the details of this story. You know, we're fact checking this.

We're kind of covering our bases. And I never spoke directly with the runies. But what I heard is that they came back and really vehemently. And it seemed like sort of angrily denied this story entirely. I think Art Runies, the second art run Rooney the second is Art Rooney's grandson. I said that this was completely counter to his father's progressive legacy. Dan Rooney, who was chairman of the league's diversity committee, and after whom the Rooney rule, which requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for every head coach position,

was named. You know, he mentioned that he had hired a ton of black players and that he was really seen as somebody who helped the NFL grow after the editors. He heard back from the Steelers and the Rooney family. What I received back was you need a lot more proof. Like, you can't prove this. This is, This is weak. We're talking about a story that happened in the 1950s. We're talking about meetings where most of the people are no longer here. And I just thought if they're going to require concrete evidence and documents on this,

I don't think those, I'm not sure those exist. If only she could find someone to corroborate Henry and Rochelle's version of events. She got to work. Oh, I'm day and night. I mean, I'm in the New York Times archives. I'm deep into just looking up, you know, NFL rosters and notes from games and injury records and calling home lines of these 80-something-year-old men, many of whom turned out to not be alive. I'm deep. I'm in that phase where my friends are like, okay, you need to pull back. But I ended up tracking down one of Henry's former teammates, John Stock. I asked him about Henry.

He remembered him very fondly and remembered him as a fantastic player. And I said, do you remember why he left? And he said, they told us he was injured. They did have extensive injury reports. And there was no report of an injury. Henry, and John Stock, you know, he still didn't know and I told him that this is maybe why. He was sort of shocked and then at the same time said,

that makes sense. I remember him having a white girlfriend. And he talked about, you know, missing Henry and just one day him being gone and really wondering what happened. And then seeing him a couple of years later when he was at the grocery store and Henry was working the checkout.

And he said he kind of tried to poke at Henry like how'd you go from playing professional football to working at a grocery store? Oh man, what happened? what happened. This is killed, the podcast that brings dead stories back to life. What had originally been enthusiasm for the story about Henry Ford, the renowned black NFL quarterback who disappeared off the Steelers seemingly overnight had devolved into something else. You know, you get your first couple of rounds of edits and you're like, this is

normal, this feels normal, but when they're coming back and back and back and back with edits, there's a point I think that you come to where you're like, something is not right here. Somebody is pushing back. There had been such a clear excitement and encouragement of this story and really this feeling that this is something really powerful. There was that time and then there was the after time once they had spoken to the NFL. You know, suddenly it went from being, this is this incredible, powerful love story that also implicates the NFL to being,

you know, this is a baseless attack on the NFL. And that was never the intention. That was just, yeah, it was not gonna recover from that. I mean, it was my editor who ultimately conveyed that it wasn't happening. Killed reached out to Abby's editor at the time, who declined to participate in this podcast. The Steelers did not respond to requests for comment. I gave glamour more than they were looking for. I just, yeah, I did not understand the assignment, apparently. Henry and Rachelle did not understand the assignment. Apparently.

Henry and Rachelle were out of the package. Pieces kill. Kill, kill, kill. That holy shit. The layout was updated. Another couple took the top spot, but Abby didn't give up. She kept trying to find a home for Henry and Rischelle's story. I felt like it was my mission to put it on to the world somehow and to get people to listen to it. This whole time, you know, Henry and Rischelle, I kept saying, I'm going to get this story to run. The story is going to go somewhere. I promise you. And they were very much like, no, it won't.

And that's okay. I had seen in their faces how prepared they were for this to not go anywhere. They sort of like took me in almost as like their honorary granddaughter and they weren't so concerned with like whether the story was going to be told. That was really me. And then a year after the kill, she thought she saw her way in. This morning, the spotlight on football star Colin Kaepernick were taking a stand by refusing to stand. What he's doing now is a protest over police killings

of African Americans is drawing a huge reaction. In the months after the Colin Kaepernick protests were really in full swing, and I just couldn't I just couldn't stop thinking about it. It felt like really important context that might even bolster the Kaepernick idea, sort of this history of black players always being second-class citizens and always being put in this box of you have to be a good black player,

and you can't express your opinions or love certain people. It just, it felt, to me, like important context in that national conversation that might be missing. So, I reached out to The New York Times. I think they really, at first, were very interested in the story. Abby called Henry back. Hey, how you doing? I'm good, how are you?

There's no man, you know, 85, he's doing fine. He's doing fine, alright, you found the tray. And once again, he told her his story. If you had any thoughts about what's going on right now in the NSL because I thought it might be a good way to write about your story for somewhere. The New York Times had been interested, but they wanted a reason that it was relevant now. Well, you know, when they let me go, they claim it was Rochelle. Rochelle had responsibility for that. And she didn't lift up the football for any reason. She didn't tackle anybody, didn't block anybody, and she had nothing to do with football. But yet

they claimed that because of her, they had to let me it. Like a lot of other places that I pitched it to, it just eventually kind of fizzled out. I think there was this feeling that it was just, it was too difficult to take on. They also pitched it to time. They were interested for a period of time, exchanged lots of emails with these places. And none of them ever got to the point where, you know, it was maybe going to run. I think there was just an interest. And then once they kind of

zoomed in on the story, it fell too risky. I think too big of an accusation to make against the NFL. I knew going against the NFL was sort of a big thing to do, but I also thought, well, this is history, they can easily say, we've changed. And also, I think another concern was just, this is so old. Journalism is supposed to be fresh and current, and I remember getting the question several And also, I think another concern was just, this is so old, you know, journalism is, is supposed to be fresh and current and I remember getting the question several places of like, why now, why I tell this now?

And I understand that in some ways, but I also felt, it just felt like I, for the first time I really saw the limits of journalism because this is, I think anybody then I've told this story to, which I have become a little evangelical, and I tell this story to so many people I'm trying to just single handedly spread the word of this incredible couple. But anyone I tell it to is just, like, blown away.

And I think it's a very human, powerful story, but in the journalism world, it just could not find a home. And I guess I should, I should concede, like maybe these editors were right, it is a really difficult story to prove. It is, it did happen a really long time ago. The Steelers are a very powerful organization, and if there's no proof of this,

like are you really gonna put your organization at risk? Probably not. When you've then turned down this, like, are you really going to put your organization at risk? Probably not. When you've then turned down this many times, you start to question, does this even matter? Is this a story worth telling or is everyone else right? That this doesn't need to be anywhere and this isn't worth fighting for? When you just try and try and try to get somebody to run a story that you really care about and keep getting let down. There's a part of you that feels like this story will just never get told. Like someone doesn't want this to be told and it's never going to happen. And just the way that they get taken down, like the word killed is very violent and that feels appropriate because it's a painful experience.

It's a painful experience. On June 17th, 2021, Henry Ford passed away, surrounded by friends, family, and Rochelle, his love of nearly 60 years. He was just shy of his 90th birthday. It's devastating, I think, for me to imagine Rochelle living without him. Yeah. Their love story is just so, like, it makes me emotional thinking about it. I mean, because I think I didn't add at the time of, like, him, all the things that he went through to make it to this place, and then they gave him this ultimatum, and he didn't even think twice.

Like, he just gave it all up for this woman that he loved. You still glad you married? Absolutely. Thank you. We married. No one else. There's so much to be done, so much to do, so much we haven't done yet, that I feel that my bitterness is just gone. Next time, on Killed. And I just remember sort of like very shocked expressions, jaws wide, just sort of like, wait, what? These women have stories and things that led them to two gay porn.

This shouldn't be the end of the story. You know, like, why did it stop when it did? Because I felt like it was just opening up. Killed is an audio chuck production, created and written by Justin Harmon and edited by Alistair Sherman. You can find links to all the published stories featured on the first and second seasons of Killed at KilledStories.com.

So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa you