Wallace Triplett House

Do you know the first Black draftee to play in the NFL? His name was Wallace Triplett. On December 21, 1948, the Detroit Lions drafted him. He became the first African American draftee to take the field in an NFL regular-season game. On October 29, 1950, he set an NFL single-game record with 294 kickoff return yards, including a 97-yard touchdown. The record stood for forty-four years. He served in the Korean War. He came home to Detroit and stayed for the rest of his life, working for Chrysler and later as a teacher. He lived at 4250 Fullerton in Russell Woods, Detroit's largest historic district, which was also home to Diana Ross, Florence Ballard, and Mary Wilson of The Supremes, and to the poet Dudley Randall. Triplett wrote, "It became my luck to be listed in a number of situations of American Football as being a First — Hometown, High School, College, Post Season Cotton Bowl, Dallas, Texas, and what now has become America's biggest sport, the NFL."