Board Considering Renaming UND Athletic Building For Former Olympian

(Grand Forks, ND)  --  The state Board of Higher Education is considering approving the renaming of the University of North Dakota's athletic building for a former Olympian.  The board's budget and finance committee recommended initial approval of a request to name the building after late Olympic runner Fritz Pollard Jr.  Pollard was one of UND's first Black graduates, where he played football, ran track and was on the university's varsity boxing team.  He won a bronze medal in the men's 110-meter hurdles in the 1936 Olympics.  He was a Collier's Magazine Little All-American selection in football in 1938 and graduated in 1939.  His father Fritz Pollard Sr. was the NFL's first Black head coach and a member of the College Football and Pro Football Hall of fames.