About Woody Strode
Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode (July 25, 1914 – December 31, 1994) was an American athlete, actor, and author. He was a decathlete and football star who was one of the first Black American players in the National Football League (NFL) in the postwar era. After football, he went on to become a film actor, where he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Spartacus in 1960. == Early life and athletic career == Strode was born in Los Angeles. His parents were from New Orleans; one grandmother was of African-American and Cherokee descent, his grandfather was an African-American and his other grandmother was of Creek descent. He attended Thomas Jefferson High School in South East Los Angeles and college at UCLA, where he was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. His world-class decathlon capabilities were spearheaded by a 50 ft (15 m) plus shot put (when the world record was 57 ft (17 m)) and a 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) high jump (the world record at time was 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)). "I got a cultural education—majored in history and education," he said in a 1971 interview. "Never used it, but I could walk into the White House with it now." Strode posed for a nude portrait, part of Hubert Stowitts's acclaimed exhibition of athletic portraits shown at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (although the inclusion of black and Jewish athletes caused the Nazis to close the exhibit). === College career === Strode, Kenny Washington, and Jackie Robinson starred on the undefeated 1939 UCLA Bruins football team, in which they made up three of the four backfield players.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.