Blazing Trails: Coming of Age in Football's Golden Era

Blazing Trails chronicles John Mackey's life as a lightning rod for attention throughout the 1960s. Mackey refused to remain silent on any topic he felt strongly about—especially anything dealing with justice. As one of Baltimore’s first famous African Americans, he fought for racial and battled for legal equality for pro football players of all color as the first president of the newly merged NFL and AFL National Football Players Associations. More than affecting the freedom of his football-playing brethren, Mackey was a major factor in using his sports fame to change the world around. What Muhammad Ali was to boxing, Arthur Ashe was to tennis, and Bill Russell was to basketball, John Mackey was to football: an African-American star who proved that the world, and not just sports, was going to become a better, more colorful place.

John Mackey was a professional football player and only the second tight end to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992. Thom Loverro is a columnist for the Washington Times. He has won numerous local and national journalism awards throughout his career, including top honors in the National Society of Newspaper Columnists competition. He is the other of Home of the Game: The Story of Camden Yards, The Negro League Baseball Encyclopedia, and The Washington Redskins: The Authorized History. Don Shula is a former NFL player and coach who was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1997.