With the current climate and the discourse around “Black jobs,” it’s important to remember it’s always been this way. Minorities and marginalized groups won’t feel truly welcome unless they have role models reassuring them they belong. That they’re not aliens in the field of their choice. That mattered to people like Michael Strahan, when he was first getting into the sport.

While some of football’s best and most highly paid athletes today are Black, this is still a relatively new phenomenon. While efforts to combat segregation had started post WW2, it wasn’t until the 1960s that Black players started entering en masse. These trailblazers would inspire the generations to come.

How did Michael Strahan get into football?

There’s a decent chance you’ve heard of Michael Strahan if you’ve been following football for a while. It’s been a decade now since he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But how’d he get into the sport in the first place? Let’s deal with the elephant in the room. Yes, he is related to Art Strahan; Art’s his uncle. Strahan credits Art, his “Uncle Ray,” with his entry into the sport. Michael was sent to live with Art Strahan in Houston before his senior year of high school.

The season of football he played at Westbury High School there got him a scholarship to Texas Southern University. Of course, Art Strahan had been to TSU too, and they even played the same position, defensive end. His tremendous performances there broke school records and led to his drafting by the New York Giants in 1993. He had an excellent run with them, and became NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2001, retiring after 2007, the year the Giants won the Super Bowl.

With a massively successful career like that, where to go next? Strahan decided sports broadcasting was where his future lay. This is likely where younger football fans know the loveable former defensive end from. He’s a co-host on Good Morning America and frequently pops up on Fox NFL Sunday. But still, the big man owes a lot to old Uncle Ray.

What was it like back in Uncle Ray’s day?

The 1960s was a turbulent time for professional football. In many ways it was unrecognizable. The Super Bowl didn’t even exist till 1967 (which you’d know if you counted back from Super Bowl LVIX), and there were still teams that had never had a Black player until 1962. To exist in this space as a Black man with very few role models to look to was an act of bravery and stubbornness. And that’s what it took to get Art Strahan into the AFL in 1965.

He played with the Houston Oilers that year, before moving onto the short-lived Orlando Panthers in the CFL for 1966 and 1967. We told you it was unrecognizable, AFL, NFL, CFL, take your pick. From this point on, you get the impression that he was shuffled around rather than used. The Panthers sold him to the Dallas Cowboys, who then cut him, only for the Atlanta Falcons to pick him up, then send him to the CFL’s Alabama Hawks before taking him back again. This all happened in the span of one year, 1968!

Come 1969, the Falcons had cut him again, and the Panthers had picked him up. Jimi Hendrix spent the Summer of Love playing at Woodstock, Art Strahan spent it worrying about his job security. His career petered to its end in 1970, but he had a successful family life and is still loved and appreciated by his family (Michael as much as anyone else, we’re sure) at the ripe old age of 81.

Heroes and trendsetters like Art Strahan pave the way for the next generation of stars. Stories like his are inspiring and bring in a wider audience for the NFL. If you’d like to know more about the NFL’s global growth in recent years, be sure to check out our latest Think Tank Exclusive, featuring Emily and Erin Griffin.