Wooster raising money to honor Charles Follis, family
Wayne County's first high school football team was the 1899 Wooster High squad, led by Charles Follis, center. The Generals went undefeated and unscored on that season with Follis as their captain.
Black History Month will be observed for untold Februarys to come throughout the United States. In Wayne County, few if any such commemorations ever could rival the story of Wooster football/baseball groundbreaker Charles W. Follis.
It was in 1904 the Virginia-born and Wooster-raised Follis became America’s first African-American professional football player when he signed with the Shelby Blues. Having grown up in Wooster in the late 1800s, Follis’ expedition into the history books took root when in 1899 he started for — and captained — the Wooster High School football team, leading the squad to two undefeated seasons.
Ultimately, in 1998 the Generals’ current home stadium on Oldman Road would come to bear his name, lending additional substance and vibrancy to Friday nights in Northeast Ohio.
Though Follis’ story and accomplishments have been relived many times — and in many forms — the accounts of Follis’ greatness now enjoy a new injection of energy. Thanks to the devotion of a local citizens group known as the Charles Follis Committee, a multi-faceted effort is in progress to honor the individual who earned the nickname, “The Black Cyclone.”
“The thing that is so astounding to me is that he was named the captain of the first Wooster High School football team,” committee spokesman and longtime local resident Dave Broehl said. “Knowing the way our country was in the end of the 19th century, African Americans were still not treated as full citizens. There were some separations, and there was some prejudice. There were some places they couldn’t sleep, places they couldn’t eat. For the high school coaches and the school to choose Charles as the captain of the team, I think that is extraordinary by the players and by the school. It speaks volumes about the type of person Charles was.”
Broehl described the character of Follis. “What kind of guy was Charles? What kind of an incredible person was he to have the personality and the leadership and the skills or the ability, the speaking ability, to be named captain? I mean that’s incredible,” he said.
The Follis story became an Ohio fixture in 2018 when Gov. John Kasich officially proclaimed each Feb. 3 would be known as Charles Follis Day to complement other Black History Month observances in the Buckeye State. That is the date in 1879 on which Follis was born.
In 1900 Follis integrated The College of Wooster baseball team and eventually went on to complete a pro sports career as a standout catcher and slugger for the Cuban Giants of the Negro League in New Jersey. Follis succumbed to pneumonia in 1910 at the age of 30. His body was interred in a family grave site in Wooster Cemetery.
The site of Follis’ final resting place is one of the primary focuses of the committee’s ambitious undertakings. For years a simple, handmade and weathered stone marked the grave site of Follis and other members of the Follis family. Broehl said the committee’s intent is to replace the original marker with a “modern, enduring memorial to the Follis family and a monument celebrating Charles Follis’ historic achievement.”
Work on the upgraded memorial already has begun. At present the old stone has been removed and preserved, and a foundation for the new two-sided marker is in place. The granite double-sided stone will measure 42 by 36 inches. One side will spotlight a condensed narrative of Follis’ life and achievements. The names of the other Follis family members will be etched on the other side.
The project in the cemetery is just one of the memorials that will be put into place.
The Charles Follis Trail will highlight important locations and milestones of the star’s “fast and furious decade.” There will be nine “stops” on the trail with special plaques to be placed at the neighborhood where Follis grew up in a house at the corner of Spink and Stibbs streets, the original Wooster High football field (now Cornerstone Elementary), Follis Field at Wooster High, the original college football field in Wooster and the Shelby-Oakland Cemetery (the resting place of Shelby Blues owner Frank Schiffer and his wife, Julie Schiffer).
Stops on the trail also will include Weber’s Bar in Shelby, where initially segregation was supported and then later rejected as Charles Follis was welcomed; the original Shelby Blues football field, the Wayne County Sports Hall of Fame exhibit at the Wayne County Historical Society (Follis was inducted into the inaugural Class of 1976); and the Follis Family Memorial Stone in Wooster Cemetery.
A third and vital proposal is the establishment of a scholarship in Follis’ name, given annually to a deserving African-American student to assist in that student’s higher education.
The committee members have concluded that “receiving the Charles Follis Scholarship provides the springboard for a student to succeed and grow, permits them to achieve their potential and become a valuable and contributing member of society.”
Broehl said the total budget of the combined projects is $25,000, which includes $9,500 for the cemetery memorial stone, $5,500 for Charles Follis Trail markers and $10,000 for the scholarship fund. Any monies that exceed the original budget will go toward the scholarship fund that will be administered by the Wooster/Orrville NAACP Unit 38.
In addition to Broehl, the Charles Follis Committee, which began its work about two years ago, consists of Mike Franks, Lawrence Walker, Jim Stoner, honorary chair Lydia Thompson and Cheryl A. Goff. Stoner authored “The Black Cyclone,” a play based on Follis’ life and experiences.
“We’re on our way,” Broehl said. “We’re so proud that we’ve already been able to raise $10,000.”
Broehl said the project as a whole is expected to come to fruition within the next six months.
Those wishing to contribute to the committee’s projects may mail donations to the Charles Follis Memorial Fund, c/o Wayne County Community Foundation, 517 N. Market St., Wooster, OH 44691. Online donations can be made with a credit card at www.waynecountycommunityfoundation.org/donate. All contributions are tax-deductible.