Breaking Down Barriers, The First Black QB to Start in Professional Football
Appeared on:
February 15, 2011
For those who are not aware, February is National Black History Month. And what better way to commemorate this occasion than to celebrate some of the great black athletes that have played for our beloved Broncos.
In September 1968, a radical change was taking place on the goal lines of black civil rights. A Mile High, and a world away from the Vietnam War, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and president Lyndon B. Johnson’s signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, one black man ushered in a new era of civil rights in football.
Meet Marlin Briscoe. After breaking every quarterback record at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, when “The Magician” Briscoe was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the 14th round, the 5′ 10″, 177 lb quarterback was anticipating playing quarterback at the professional level as well.
