How to LA: How The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Re-Integrated The NFL

Since 1923, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum has been host to a gallery of historic events — from two Olympics (about to be three) to speeches featuring world-renowned leaders. It also played a central role in the re-integration of the National Football League.

The team from How To LA explored it all. Host Brian De Los Santos spoke with historian Frank Guridy of Columbia University about the Rams move to L.A. and so much more. You can use the player below or listen here.

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A rich tradition

The L.A. Memorial Coliseum has witnessed a lot of history, which includes the Olympics in 1932 and 1984, the aforementioned re-integration of the NFL in 1946, to speeches by John F. Kennedy Jr. and events like the Wattstax Festival in 1972.

Back in 1923, L.A. was still considered a dusty western town. The city’s elites wanted to put it on the map globally, according to Guridy. Their solution: Build a stadium that would attract the Olympics to L.A.

It worked. Ever since the 1932 Olympics, the Coliseum has served as a multipurpose cultural landmark for the city, attracting notable people and organizations from all over — including the NFL.

A call for change

When the league eyed a westward expansion after World War II, it wanted to bring the Cleveland Rams to L.A. But it hit a roadblock — here was an organization that hadn't had a Black player since the early 1930s that wanted to play in a public stadium located in South L.A., which at that time had become a predominantly Black community.

Black journalists called for change.

The Coliseum “was a public managed facility, and part of the mandate that the city and the county and the state had as public managers is that the facility would be accessible to a broader public,” explains Guridy.

“Black activists understood that and other marginalized communities understood that in subsequent years as well,” Guridy adds. “They're able to sort of leverage that argument to say that well, you know, we can’t have a discriminatory entity performing in this public structure.”

Halley Harding was a baseball player-turned-sportswriter for the Los Angeles Tribune who was passionate about challenging the status quo of the day. Harding and other writers put on the pressure, ultimately leading the Rams to sign Black athletes as a part of their deal to play in the Coliseum.

Kenny Washington and his UCLA teammate Woody Strode were two of the four Black players to break the color barrier and play for the NFL in the modern era. This was a year before Jackie Robinson — another UCLA star — would integrate Major League Baseball.

See for yourself

Go on a 75-minute guided walking tour through the L.A. Memorial Coliseum on Mondays and Tuesdays at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Go deeper

• The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Is Celebrating Its 100th Anniversary
• LA’s Memorial Coliseum Will Keep Its Name Under A New Deal Between USC And United Airlines 
• Which City Council District Will Get To Claim USC And Expo Park — And The Benefits They Bring?