Charles Follis

CTL-E-6868 · Person · other · 1879–1910

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07740 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6868.

Charles W. Follis (1879–1910), known as "the Black Cyclone," was a halfback from Wooster, Ohio, who is recognized as the first Black professional football player. The Pro Football Hall of Fame documents that Follis played for the Shelby club beginning in 1902 and that a September 16, 1904 Shelby Daily Globe article announced he had signed a contract for that season — the documented act that makes him, in the Hall's words, the first documented African American professional football player; the Hall notes researchers could not prove the 1902 Shelby team was professional, though later Hall research suggests it may have been, which would move the first two years earlier. The Ohio History Connection likewise calls Follis the first Black professional football player in America and the first contracted Black player. Follis starred for Shelby through 1906, when injuries ended his football career on Thanksgiving Day; he also played Negro leagues baseball as a catcher and died of pneumonia in 1910 at 31.

The record

• Also known as: Charles W. Follis, The Black Cyclone

Notes

Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0381. Firsts disposition: 'First Black professional football player' ASSERTED — supported by the Pro Football Hall of Fame ('first documented African American professional football player') and the Ohio History Connection ('first black professional football player in America'). Precision kept in the description: the documented contract is dated September 16, 1904; whether his 1902–1903 Shelby play was professional is unresolved in the Hall's own account and is shown as such, not blended. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): Follis is the earliest figure in this packet and the easiest to lose — a contract notice in a small-town paper is the whole paper trail for a first of this size. That thinness is itself part of the record. Photo: HELD — no depicting Commons file; namesake material rejected.

Relationships

• Virginia — from
  Charles Follis was born in Cloverdale, Virginia, and raised in Wooster, Ohio; the homed locality on this graph is the state-level Virginia record.

Sources

• Pro Football Hall of Fame. "Charles Follis led early black pioneers in pro football." Pro Football Hall of Fame. Accessed 2026-11-03. https://www.profootballhof.com/news/charles-follis-led-early-black-pioneers-in-pro-football?fbclid=IwAR1PzzjXybvu9OTxTtPD27dR0GvFon70APF-UHJSDkRZGaW2uPVBBzn4FRQ (primary source · build store)
• Ohio History Connection (Jim Stoner). "The Black Cyclone." Ohio History Connection. Accessed 2026-11-03. https://www.ohiohistory.org/the-black-cyclone/ (primary source · build store)

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Record CTL-E-6868 · Combined Graph record U-07740 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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