Since then, there have been three more, and the National League's president, Bill White, is also black. Shell was appointed on the same day as Cito Gaston became the first black manager of a major league playoff club when his Toronto Blue Jays faced the Oakland A's in the first game of the American League West championship series. The Hall of Fame for College Football Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard (January 27, 1894 – May 11, 1986) was a football player and coach in the United States. He was the National Football League's first African American head coach (NFL). In 1920, Pollard and Bobby Marshall were the NFL's first two African American players.