Brice Union Taylor was the first All-America

All-America

An All-America team is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply...

n football

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 player at the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

.

High school career

Taylor played at Franklin High School

Benjamin Franklin High School (Seattle)

Franklin High School is an inner-city public high school in Seattle, USA, administered by Seattle Public Schools.-Mission statement:To graduate students who have achieved academic excellence and who look forward to sharing their expertise, understanding, and compassion to create an increasingly...

 in Seattle, Washington.

College career

Taylor's All-American selection in 1925 was all the more spectacular because he was born without a left hand. He was one of the first African-American football players for the USC Trojans

University of Southern California Trojans football

The USC Trojans football program, established in 1888, represents the University of Southern California in college football. USC is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I FBS and the Pacific-12 Conference . The Trojans have been a football powerhouse throughout NCAA...

 and played offensive guard.

Personal

Taylor was a descendant of Tecumseh

Tecumseh

Tecumseh was a Native American leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy which opposed the United States during Tecumseh's War and the War of 1812...

. He became a minister and teacher after college. He also taught tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

. He died in 1974 in Downey, California

Downey, California

Downey is a city located in southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The city is best known as the birthplace of the Apollo space program, and is the city where folk singer Karen Carpenter lived and died...

. He was inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995.

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