A 1912 Lane Tech alumnus and football pioneer who broke ground in countless settings will be honored and remembered for generations thanks to the perseverance of fans at his alma mater. Current students may not now know the legacy of Frederick Douglass “Fritz” Pollard but they, along with generations that follow, will soon walk through the “Fritz Pollard Field” within the historic Lane Tech Stadium and be reminded of another Chicago Public Schools (CPS) great. The Lane Tech Alumni Association (LTAA) worked with administrators of the north side high school and District officials to approve the name change and put in motion a renaming ceremony to take place during the football season later this year. Pollard, raised in Rogers Park, became a three-sport star athlete at Lane Tech in baseball, track and field and football before becoming the first-ever African American football player to play at Brown University and in the Rose Bowl. Pollard became one of the first African American professional football players, the first professional African American quarterback and the first African American coach in professional football. Pollard was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954 and the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005. The Lane Tech community will gather for a field-naming dedication ceremony at the 2022 Lane Tech Homecoming this fall. CPS District officials, including the Office of Sports Administration (OSA) will continue to support the Lane Tech community and LTAA as they honor this alum.