DID YOU KNOW? In 1892, William Henry Lewis was the first African-American to be named an All-American in college football.

Long before the Ivy League was formed in 1954 as an extension of the first "Ivy Group Agreement" originally signed for football in 1945, the Ivy Influence had already become apparent on the gridiron. Even before Fritz Pollard, there was William Henry Lewis (1868-1949).

Lewis, a son of slaves from Beckley, Va., started college when he was 15 years old at Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute (now Virginia State University). His diligence at the state's first college for African-Americans gave him the opportunity to transfer to Amherst College in Massachusetts. At Amherst, students were required to engage in physical activity, and at just 175 pounds, Lewis decided to join the football team. Although the school was predominantly white, Lewis was accepted on the football team. He played for three years, including two years as captain. Lewis played center for most of his career, and at the time, many considered him the best player at that position.

Lewis was one of three African-Americans in his graduating class at Amherst. This news sparked the attention of African-Americans in the Boston area so much so that several attended his graduation. Two of them were W. E. B. Du Bois, a doctoral candidate at Harvard at the time, and Elizabeth Baker, a young woman from Cambridge, Mass. Lewis sparked a friendship with Du Bois and a courtship with Baker. His relationship with Baker influenced his decision to go to law school at Harvard, which was only a few blocks from her home. Lewis and Baker married the year after his law school graduation.

While attending Harvard Law School, Lewis continued to play football for two more years. He would become the Crimson's first African-American team captain. Lewis moved on to coaching after his playing days. He coached at Harvard as a defensive and line assistant coach for 12 years and the Crimson went 114-15-5 with Lewis on the coaching staff. During that time, he proposed the "neutral zone" rule that is still used today to lessen the brutality of the game at the line of scrimmage before the snap.

While still coaching, Lewis began practicing law and writing about football. One of his first books, A Primer of College Football, which was serialized by Harper’s Weekly in its magazine for younger readers, was published in 1896. In 1904, Walter Camp asked him to contribute a chapter on defense to his annual bible of the sport, Spalding’s How to Play Football.

Amazingly, Lewis also found time to get involved in politics. First, as a city councilman before being elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives for one year in 1901. Two years later, friend and fellow Harvard alumnus, President Theodore Roosevelt, named Lewis an Assistant United States Attorney for Boston, a first for African-Americans. Lewis would remain in coaching until 1907 when Roosevelt promoted him to the position of Assistant United States Attorney, another first for African-Americans, in charge of New England for the newly formed Bureau of Naturalization. His biggest political appointment was still to come.

In 1911, President William Howard Taft selected Lewis as the Assistant Attorney General of the United States, the highest federal office ever held by an African-American at the time. That same year he was admitted as the first African-American member of the American Bar Association. A strong racist uprising ensued to oust Lewis from the ABA but his membership was upheld. Lewis served in his role of U.S. Assistant Attorney General for two years, ending with President Woodrow Wilson's sweeping policies to segregate federal departments based on race when he took office in 1913.

Lewis continued to practice law and he was one of the early civil rights advocates until his death in 1949. In 1930, Lewis became the first African-American to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court alone and win.

It was not until 2009 when Lewis was properly honored for his contributions in college football. That year, the National Football Foundation's Football Bowl Subdivision Veterans Committee elected Lewis to the College Football Hall of Fame from a national ballot of 76 candidates and a pool of hundreds of eligible nominees.

Today, Havard honors Lewis with an exhibit of pictures, information and his Hall of Fame football is on display in its Lee Family Hall of Athletic History in the Murr Center, its primary building that houses intercollegiate athletics. Lewis was a pioneer on and off the gridiron and his influence has truly stood the tests of time.

Research done by Amherst College, Harvard Magazine and the College Football Hall of Fame was used in this article.