# List of sports desegregation firsts

This is a list of sports desegregation firsts. Within each section, the entries are in chronological order by achievement.

## Major League Baseball

* 1871: Steve Bellán (1849–1932), first Latin American, depending on whether or not the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players is considered a major league
* 1879: William Edward White (1860–1937), believed to be the first African American to play in the major leagues, appearing in one game on June 21, 1879. White passed as white.
* 1884: Moses Fleetwood Walker (1856–1924), first openly African-American player
* 1887: Jim Toy (1858–1919), another possible, disputed candidate for first Native American player
* 1897: Louis Sockalexis (1871–1913), a member of the Penobscot tribe, often considered the first player of Native American ancestry
* 1902: Lou Castro (1876–1941), the first Latin American, if not Bellán
* 1921: Moses J. Yellow Horse (1898–1964), first full-blooded Native American player, from the Pawnee tribe
* 1947: Jackie Robinson (1919–1972), first African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era
* 1947: Larry Doby (1923–2003), second African American to break the color barrier, first in the American League
* 1964: Masanori Murakami (born 1944), first Japanese player

## National Football League

Note: NFL.com, the official site of the league, recognizes players of the American Professional Football Association (APFA), which was renamed the National Football League (NFL) in 1921, as members of the NFL.

### Players

* 1920: Fritz Pollard (1894–1986), one of the first two African-American players; also the first (co-)head coach (see below)
* 1920: Bobby Marshall (1880–1958), one of the first two African-American players
* 1927: Lou Molinet (1904–1976), first Hispanic, Cuban and Latin American player
* 1927: Sneeze Achiu (1902–1989), first player of East Asian descent

### Other

* 1921: Fritz Pollard: first (co-)head coach, of the Akron Pros of the APFA
* 1965: Burl Toler (1928–2009), first African-American official
* 1988: Johnny Grier (1947–2022), first African-American referee

## National Basketball Association

* 1947: Wat Misaka (1923–2019), first non-white player and first of Asian descent
* 1950: Nat Clifton (1922–1990), Chuck Cooper (1926–1984) and Earl Lloyd (1928–2015), the first African Americans in the NBA, with Lloyd being the first to play in a game, preceding Clifton by four days and Cooper by one

## National Hockey League

* 1926: Taffy Abel (1900–1964), first non-white and first Indigenous American (Ojibwe) player in the NHL
* 1948: Larry Kwong (1923–2018), first player of Asian descent
* 1953: Fred Sasakamoose (1933-2020), first Canadian First Nations player with treaty status
* 1958: Willie O'Ree (born 1935), first black player
* 1991: Bill Guerin (born 1970), first player of Hispanic descent

## Boxing

* 1902: Joe Gans (1874–1910), first African-American world champion boxer
* 1907: Jack Johnson (1878–1946), first African-American world heavyweight champion

## Tennis

* 1945, 1958: Bob Ryland (1920–2020), first African American to compete in the NCAA National Championships and first professional player
* 1950: Althea Gibson (1927–2003), first African American to play in the United States National Championships (now the US Open) and first to win a Grand Slam title
* 1963: Arthur Ashe (1943–1993), first African American selected to the United States Davis Cup team

## Golf

* 1963: Sewsunker Sewgolum (1928–1978), first person of color to win a provincial open in South Africa, the Natal Open
* 1964: Althea Gibson (1927–2003), first African American to join the LPGA tour

## Association football

* 1881: Andrew Watson (1856–1921), considered the first black person to play association football at the international level
* 1889: Arthur Wharton (1865–1930), widely considered to be the first black professional footballer in the world

## Rugby union

* 1871: James Robertson (c. 1854–1900), Scottish rugby union player reputed to be the first black rugby union player in the world

## Cycling

* 1897: Major Taylor (1878–1932), A member of the integrated Boston Pursuit cycling team, first African-American world champion in any sport (1899).