The month of February honors outstanding achievements in black history, but many pioneers in black athletics are often overlooked.

The norms synonomous with black history in sports are names such as Jackie Robinson, who broke major league baseball's color barriers when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, and Arthur Ashe, who became the first black man to win the Wimbeldon tennis singles title when he captured it in 1975.

However, black men and women broke barriers in the sporting world long before the time of Robinson and Ashe:

-- Moses Fleetwood Walker was the first black man to play professional baseball. A catcher with Toledo of the American Association, Fleetwood played from 1884 until 1888, when the color ban was placed on baseball.

-- W.T.S. Jackson ran the half-mile at Amherst College in 1891 to become the first black man to compete in a track and field event in the United States.

-- Bob Douglas organized the first all-black pro basketball team, the Harlem Renaissance Big Five, in 1922. The Rens won 439 games and lost 49 between 1932-36.

-- Chuck Cooper was the first black man drafted into the NBA by the Boston Celtics in 1950.

-- Charlie Sifford was the first black man to join the PGA tour. He won his first golf tournament, the Long Beach Open, in 1957.

Although Ashe may be the most well-known black tennis player, Althea Gibson broke the color barriers for women in tennis 25 years before Ashe entered the major tournaments. Gibson became the first black woman to play in a major tournament in 1950 and then went on to win the French Open championship in 1954. She also won the Wimbledon and U.S. National championships in 1957 and 1958.

Her accomplishments garnered her the first Associated Press Woman Athlete of the Year award and an induction into the Black Athletes Hall of Fame.

However, tennis was not the only sport in which Gibson excelled. She was a two-sport athlete in college, playing basketball and tennis. Temple Men's Basketball Coach John Chaney said he remembered watching Gibson score 50 points in a basketball game once.

"She was very impressive," Chaney said.

Ask an historian about the name Fritz Pollard and the reaction is usually silence, wrote Dr. Ronald A. Smith, a sports history professor at the University, when reviewing John M. Carroll's Fritz Pollard: Pioneer in Racial Advancement.

Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard pioneered interracial athletics long before the civil rights movement. His list of firsts in sports includes being:

-- The first black man to play in the Rose Bowl, when Brown University was invited to play California;

-- The first black player named to a backfield position on Walter Camp's All-America team in 1916;

-- The first black quarterback and head coach in the NFL. His 1922 entry into the pros was instrumental in integrating what would become the NFL.

-- The first black man named to the National Collegiate Football Hall of Fame in 1954.

The New York Urban League awarded Pollard for his lifetime achievements and contributions with the Whitney M. Young Jr. Memorial Award in 1978. Honored to be mentioned with the likes of previous awardees Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks, Pollard "was the most pleased to join his former gridiron opponent, later teammate, and long-time friend Paul Robeson, an Urban League selectee in 1972," Carroll wrote.

Robeson was a champion of equal rights, as well as a champion in athletics. While he was one of only two black students at Rutgers, Robeson was a football All-American in both 1917 and 1918. He won 15 varsity letters in football, basketball, baseball and track.

Even though he starred for the football team, Robeson was forced to stay in separate facilities when the team traveled and often had to eat his meals on the bus because of segregation laws.

Robeson gained international fame as a singer and actor, after graduating from Rutgers in 1919 and from Columbia Law School in 1923.

As early as 1943, Robeson led a delegation to Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and demanded the removal of the color ban. Robeson was labeled a communist when he spoke out against sending black troops to war and threatened to lead a boycott. Penn State recognized Robeson's accomplishments by renaming the former Walnut Building the Paul Robeson Multicultural Center.

Although Penn State historically has not been reputable in its handling of racial diversity, the University has had its moments in the limelight:

-- Racial prejudice factored into the football team's decision to decline a scheduled game with the University of Mississippi in 1947. Mississippi officials would not permit black Nittany Lion stars Wally Triplett and Dennie Hoggard to play on their field.

In December of that year, however, Penn State played in the Cotton Bowl with Triplett and Hoggard -- the first interracial football game in Texas. Because black people weren't allowed inside Texas hotels at the time, the team was forced to stay at a naval air station 14 miles from Dallas.

-- Jesse Arnelle is not only one of Penn State's greatest black athletes, he is also one of its most distinguished graduates. As a football standout from 1951-1955, he earned All-East honors.

On the basketball court, the 6-foot-5 center became the Lions' all-time leading scorer with 2,138 points and remains Penn State's only basketball All-American. Arnelle led the team to the NCAA Final Four in 1954 -- the Lions' only Final Four appearance. He became the first Penn State player to play in the NBA, with Fort Wayne.

Arnelle's achievements outside of the athletic arena are as impressive, if not more so, and include many firsts at Penn State. He was elected the first black student body president. In 1969, he was the first black person elected to Penn State's Board of Trustees, on which he now serves as Vice President. Arnelle is also a senior partner with Arnelle & Hastie, a San Francisco-based law firm.

-- Cumberland Posey was one of the great enterpreneurs of professional sports, first playing for, then owning the Homestead Grays, one of the most successful franchises in Negro League Baseball. Posey's genius and commitment to baseball were instrumental in their popularity.

Prior to joining the Grays, Posey was enrolled at Penn State in 1909 and 1910 and was a member of the basketball team. He left school "because his studies were not up to the required minimum," wrote The Pittsburgh Courier.

A 5-foot-9, 140-pounder, Posey was "lightning fast, controlling the ball and the tempo of a game," wrote Ocania Chalk in Black College Sport, adding, "and being regarded as the 'best colored player in America.' "

Many prominent figures in the athletic arena still don't feel that the playing field is equal, despite accomplishments of black men and women who have smashed color barriers.

"The black athlete has done a great deal," Temple's Chaney said. He notes however, that "we've lost a lot of people who could've made great contributions."

And forgotten a lot who have.