Garland Boyette Becomes 1st African American Pro Football’s Middle Linebacker

Style Magazine Newswire | 2/2/2018, 12:48 p.m.
Most historians consider Hall of Famer Willie Lanier as pro football’s first African-American middle linebacker.
Garland Boyette

Source: KHOU

Most historians consider Hall of Famer Willie Lanier as pro football’s first African-American middle linebacker. Lanier debuted with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1967. But the Arizona Cardinals media guide shows Boyette as one of the St. Louis Cardinals’ two regular middle linebackers during the 1962 season, KHOU 11 has discovered. Yet helping change the middle linebacker position would have never happened had Garland not changed positions. While every Garland Boyette trading card lists his positions, they’re still missing the most important one: groundbreaker; the time he changed positions and then helped change one position forever. Middle linebacker, Boyette explained, was considered too sophisticated, much like quarterback and center. “Those three positions were kind of off-limits for a black athlete,” he said. “I heard so many stories; that you have to be so smart; you got to be this.

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