Strode, Woody (1914-1994), was an American actor and football player. Along with Marion Motley, Bill Willis, and Strode’s Los Angeles Rams teammate Kenny Washington, he was one of four players who permanently broke football’s color barrier in 1946, opening professional football to Black players. Black players had played in the early history of professional football, but all had been forced out by 1934. 
Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode was born on July 28, 1914, in Los Angeles. He excelled in athletics growing up. In 1936, Strode accepted an athletic scholarship to the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). He played on both offense and defense in football and specialized in decathlon on the track and field team. Strode’s teammates included Washington and Jackie Robinson, who would go on to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball.
In 1940, Strode joined Washington on the Hollywood Bears, a team in the integrated (racially mixed) Pacific Coast Football League. While playing for the Bears, Strode worked in the motion picture industry, including some small acting roles. He also began performing as a professional wrestler.
The Rams of the National Football League (NFL) signed Kenny Washington on March 21, 1946, permanently breaking the league’s color barrier. Washington suggested that the Rams sign his former UCLA and Hollywood Bears teammate Strode. The Rams coaching staff made poor use of Strode and released him after the 1946 season. Strode signed with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League in 1948, helping the team win the Grey Cup that year.
Strode retired from football in 1950 and continued professional wrestling. In 1956, he played the king of Ethiopia in The Ten Commandments, which launched his acting career. Key roles in Pork Chop Hill (1959) and Spartacus (1960) followed. The American director John Ford befriended Strode and included him in many of his later films. Later, Strode acted in many so-called “spaghetti Westerns,” cowboy movies directed by Italian directors and shot in Italy.
Strode died on Dec. 31, 1994. His career as a Western actor inspired the creators of Toy Story (1995) to give the living sheriff doll in the film the name Woody. In 2022, the Pro Football Hall of Fame awarded Strode, Washington, Motley, and Willis the Ralph Hay Pioneer Award for their roles in reintegrating professional football.
