Civil Rights
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
q2K BHP
Black History Portal
THE BHP WIRE —
HIDDEN TRUTHS
What's New!
Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.
Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
Mansa Musa was the ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa. Details recorded here should be sourced; unknown information is left blank.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
 | This article needs more citations. (January 2021) |
 Pool in 1953 | |||||||||
| No. 76, 55 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | End | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born | March 11, 1915 San Miguel, California, U.S. | ||||||||
| Died | May 26, 2000 (aged 85) Mariposa, California, U.S. | ||||||||
Listed height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | ||||||||
Listed weight | 221 lb (100 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school | Paso Robles (Paso Robles, California) | ||||||||
| College |
| ||||||||
| NFL draft | 1940: 9th round, 77th overall pick | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
Playing | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Coaching | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Career NFL/AAFC statistics | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Head coaching record | |||||||||
| Regular season | 26–19–2 (.574) | ||||||||
| Postseason | 0–1 (.000) | ||||||||
| Career | 26–20–2 (.563) | ||||||||
| Coaching profile at Pro Football Reference | |||||||||
Hampton John "Hamp" Pool (March 11, 1915 – May 26, 2000) was an American professional football player, coach and scout who was part of three National Football League (NFL) championship teams during his playing career and served as head coach for three professional teams.
Pool graduated from Paso Robles High School in Paso Robles, California in 1933, and played for the University of California, Berkeley's freshman football team that fall. After entering the United States Military Academy for one year, he returned to resume his career at Stanford University, playing as an end, and also performing for the school's track team.
In the 1940 NFL draft, he was a ninth round draft pick of the Chicago Bears and played four seasons with the Windy City team.[1] During that stretch, he played at both fullback and end, catching 35 passes for 840 yards and scoring 11 touchdowns. His efforts helped the team to NFL titles in both 1940 and 1941, with Pool scoring one of the Bears' nine touchdowns in the 73–0 thrashing of the Washington Redskins in the 1940 title tilt. In 1942, the Bears were undefeated during the regular season, but were upset, 14–6, by those same Redskins in the NFL Championship game.
After his career was ended by a leg injury, Pool served as a player-coach for the Fort Pierce Naval Amphibious Base during the final two years of World War II, while also working as an underwater demolition officer. His 1943 unit finished undefeated, and in 1944, he made news when he refused to wear jersey number 14 out of respect for Green Bay Packers' standout Don Hutson. "No. 14 is Don Hutson's number, and nobody else should have that, certainly not me", said Pool.
| Legend | |
|---|---|
| Won the NFL Championship | |
| Bold | Career high |
| Year | Team | Games | Receiving | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | GS | Rec | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | ||
| 1940 | CHI | 5 | 4 | 2 | 55 | 27.5 | 35 | 0 |
| 1941 | CHI | 7 | 0 | 5 | 101 | 20.2 | 56 | 1 |
| 1942 | CHI | 11 | 0 | 10 | 321 | 32.1 | 64 | 5 |
| 1943 | CHI | 10 | 0 | 18 | 363 | 20.2 | 42 | 5 |
| 33 | 4 | 35 | 840 | 24.0 | 64 | 11 | ||
When the conflict ended, Pool officially entered the coaching arena in 1946, serving as an assistant for the All-America Football Conference's Miami Seahawks under Jack Meagher. After the team had won just one of six contests during its inaugural campaign, Meagher resigned on October 22, with Pool and fellow assistant Hank Crisp taking over as co-head coaches.
After the Seahawks became the Baltimore Colts after the season, Pool stayed with the revamped franchise until accepting an assistant's position under Jim Crowley, who had been named head coach and general manager of the AAFC's Chicago Rockets. Crowley won only one of 11 games before turning the team over to Pool, who watched the team drop its final three contests.
In 1948, Pool returned to his native California to serve as an assistant under Bill Hubbard at San Jose State University. The Spartans finished with a 9–3 record, but Pool departed after the season to enter private business, but stayed connected to the sport as an assistant coach at San Bernardino Valley College. On March 3, 1950, Pool returned to the professional ranks when his former Bears teammate, Joe Stydahar, hired him as backfield coach of the Los Angeles Rams.
Over the next two seasons, Pool handled the team's offense and defense, the former being one of the most potent in league history. During this period, the Rams reached the NFL title game in both seasons, dropping a heartbreaking last-minute decision in 1950 before winning the following year's clash, both games coming against the Cleveland Browns.
However, when the team was pounded 37–7 by the Browns in the 1952 opener, reports of a simmering feud between Stydahar and Pool surfaced. During the offseason, Stydahar had taken away defensive duties from Pool, then attacked the latter's work ethic. The Rams split into factions in support of each coach.
Further controversy developed when Stydahar resigned on September 30, 1952, and Pool took his place. Pool had told media that "under no circumstances" would he accept the job if Stydahar resigned, then changed his mind. The situation mirrored Pool's earlier stints in Miami and Chicago, where he was accused of undermining the head coach before taking over the position.
Ridding itself of the earlier problems, the Rams rebounded to win nine of their final 11 games, with the New York Daily News awarding Pool Coach of the Year honors. For the fourth consecutive year, the team reached the postseason, but unlike the previous year, dropped the divisional playoff game to the Detroit Lions.
In 1953, the Rams again finished 9–3, but endured a number of key injuries and had the misfortune of being in the same conference as the defending champion Lions, factors that kept them out of the playoffs. The next year, the team dropped to 6–6, with Pool spending time defending the team against charges of dirty play, while also battling reports of a revolt among his players. After some team members were severely criticized by Pool, team owner Dan Reeves met privately with a group of players. Reeves stated that he would keep Pool despite the controversy, but after four of the team's five assistant coaches announced they were resigning, Pool quit on December 17, 1954, ending his Rams' head coaching career with a 23–10–2 mark.
Soon after Sid Gillman was hired as Pool's successor, erroneous reports surfaced that Pool would again be a Rams' assistant. Instead, he served as an assistant coach for the next two years in the annual College All-Star Game, and also served his first stint as a scout. On December 27, 1956, he headed north when he was hired as head coach of the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts, earning the biggest coaching contract in league history up to that time.
When Bob Waterfield was named head coach of the Rams in January 1960, he named Pool, who had been running a Toronto travel agency, as an assistant two months later. The two had worked together a decade earlier in fashioning the team's potent offense, and Waterfield had assisted Pool during the latter's 1957 training camp in Toronto.
Despite the chemistry between the two, the Rams managed only a 4–7–1 record, then followed that with a 4–10 mark. During the latter part of the 1961 NFL season, another player revolt against Pool began when complaints about his status and coaching methods surfaced. Ram tackle Frank Varrichione and Joe Marconi charged that Pool was really running the team, comparing him to a slave-driver, and that the team's offense was dated.
When Waterfield was let go midway through the 1962 NFL season, having compiled a 9–24–1 record, Pool and the remainder of the staff finished out the season under interim head coach Harland Svare. When Svare was retained after the season, Pool became a scout for the team.
Pool later helped start the league's first scouting combine, Quadra, and serve as a talent scout for the next few decades. In 1964, he moved from Southern California to a ranch in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. He died of congestive heart failure in Mariposa, California.
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | AP# | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Pierce Amphibs (Independent) (1944) | |||||||||
| 1944 | Fort Pierce | 9–0 | 18 | ||||||
| 1945 | Fort Pierce | 4–9 | |||||||
| Fort Pierce: | 13–9 | ||||||||
| Total: | 13–9 | ||||||||
| Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Won | Lost | Ties | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
| MIA | 1946 | 2 | 6 | 0 | .250 | 4th in AAFC Eastern | – | – | – | – |
| MIA total | 2 | 6 | 0 | .250 | – | – | – | – | ||
| CHI | 1947 | 1 | 3 | 0 | .250 | 4th in AAFC West | – | – | – | – |
| CHI total | 1 | 3 | 0 | .250 | – | – | – | – | ||
| AAFC total | 3 | 9 | 0 | .250 | – | – | – | – | ||
| LA | 1952 | 9 | 2 | 0 | .818 | 2nd in NFL National | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost to Detroit Lions in Conference Championship |
| LA | 1953 | 8 | 3 | 1 | .708 | 3rd in NFL Western | – | – | – | – |
| LA | 1954 | 6 | 5 | 1 | .542 | 4th in NFL Western | – | – | – | – |
| LA total | 23 | 10 | 2 | .686 | 0 | 1 | .000 | – | ||
| NFL total[2] | 23 | 10 | 2 | .686 | 0 | 1 | .000 | – | ||
| TOR | 1957 | 4 | 10 | 0 | .286 | 4th in IRFU | – | – | – | – |
| TOR | 1958 | 4 | 10 | 0 | .286 | 4th in IRFU | – | – | – | – |
| TOR | 1959 | 2 | 5 | 0 | .286 | 4th in IRFU | – | – | – | – |
| TOR total | 10 | 25 | 0 | .286 | – | – | – | – | ||
| CFL total | 10 | 25 | 0 | .286 | – | – | – | – | ||
| Total | 36 | 44 | 2 | .451 | 0 | 1 | .000 | – | ||
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Hampton John "Hamp" Pool (March 11, 1915 – May 26, 2000) was an American professional football player, coach and scout who was part of three National Football League (NFL) championship teams during his playing career and served as head coach for three professional teams.
Pool is an English and Dutch surname. Notable people with the surname include: Albert-Jan Pool (born 1960), Dutch type designer Andre Pool, Seychelles politician Bettie Freshwater Pool (1860–1928), American writer and teacher from North Carolina Brodney Pool (born 1984), American football player Bumper Pool (American football) (born 1999), American football player Cord Pool, American guitarist for Texas Hippie Coalition David de Sola Pool (1885–1970), Jewish spiritual leader from New York; father of Ithiel E. Ion Pool (1858–1939), British marathon runner and Olympics critic Ithiel de Sola Pool (1917–1984), pioneer in the development of social science; son of David Hamp Pool (1915–2000), American football player Hugh Pool (born 1964), American guitarist Joe R. Pool (1911–1968), American politician from Texas John Pool (1826–1884), American politician from North Carolina Jonathan Pool (born 1942), American political scientist Judith Graham Pool (1919–1975), American scientist, discoverer of cryoprecipitation Juriaen Pool (1665–1745), Dutch painter, husband of Rachel Ruysch Lafayette G. Pool (1919–1991), American tank-platoon commander in World War II Léa Pool (born 1950), Swiss filmmaker, and film instructor in Quebec, Canada Malcolm Pool (born 1943), British bass player with The Artwoods and other bands Maria Louise Pool (1841–1898), American writer, best known for A Vacation in a Buggy Matthijs Pool (1676–1732), Dutch engraver Robert Roy Pool (born 1953), American screenwriter Rosey E. Pool (1905–1971), Dutch translator, educator, and anthologist Solomon Pool (1832–1901), fourth president of the University of North Carolina Steve Pool (born 1955), American weather anchor from Washington Theodor Pool (1890–1942), Estonian politician and agronomist Tim Pool (born 1986), American journalist and political commentator Ted Pool (1906–1975), Australian football player Victor Pool (born 1992), Dutch DJ Walter F. Pool (1850–1883), American politician from North Carolina Wim Pool (born 1927), Dutch sprint canoer
Don Paul (March 18, 1925 – November 8, 2014) was an American professional football player who was a linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL) from 1948 to 1955. He played college football for the UCLA Bruins. He was selected to three Pro Bowls during his years with the Rams. Paul was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 1986. He was one of only two players to play in six UCLA-USC games during the World War II years. Paul was assistant coach for the Rams when Bob Waterfield was the head coach. The staff included Hamp Pool and Jim David. After Paul's football career he joined up with Roy Harlow and established the Rams Horn restaurant. Later he and Harlow teamed up with former Rams quarterback Bob Waterfield and Rams radio play-by-play broadcaster Bob Kelley opened up the Pump Room restaurant. He died after an illness on November 8, 2014.
The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles area of California. The Rams have competed in the National Football League (NFL) since 1937, one year after their formation in Cleveland, Ohio as a charter member of the second incarnation of the American Football League. The team moved to Los Angeles in 1946 where they became the city's first professional sports team. They first played their home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before moving to Anaheim, California in 1980, where they played their home games at Anaheim Stadium. The Rams moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1995, and remained there for two decades until they returned to Los Angeles after the 2015 NFL season. Currently, they are members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) and play their home games at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. From among the 28 head coaches throughout the team's history, Sid Gillman, George Allen, and Dick Vermeil were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in recognition of their contributions as coaches. Joe Stydahar and Bob Waterfield were also inducted into the Hall of Fame, although they were recognized for their contributions as players, not coaches. Five coaches have been recognized as coach of the year by major news organizations: Adam Walsh in 1945, Hamp Pool in 1952, Allen in 1967, Chuck Knox in 1973, Vermeil in 1999, and Sean McVay in 2017.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Joe Louis.
