FROGS, started 100 years ago by African-American men, has stayed true to its original mission

[Blue_Tires]

One hundred years ago, a group of African-American men from Western Pennsylvania needed some regular camaraderie. Hailing from Pittsburgh, McKeesport, Beaver Falls, Homestead, Wilkinsburg, Clairton and beyond, they were in a distinct minority at home and wanted to build a social network of their own.

They chipped in a dime each as a show of good faith to form a new society -- the FROGS, an acronym for Friendly Rivalry Often Generates Success. Its purpose, simply put, was to have fun. (The "rivalry" of the title was internal, mostly over who had the prettiest girlfriends.)

Fun must have been a powerful mission, because a century later the FROGS are still ribbiting. The club held its centennial celebration July 24 in the West Club Lounge of Heinz Field, part of the annual FROGS Week that has taken place every year since its founding.

"The high purpose of the newly created club was to have fun," wrote FROGS member Wendell Freeland, a lawyer and Tuskegee Airman, in a history for the club's 50th anniversary. He noted that members sometimes contributed to worthy causes but added that the group "has been the haven for those who wish to escape from service in noble crusades."

Even two world wars and the Great Depression couldn't stay these partiers from their appointed revelries. A program from 1931 -- the midst of the Depression -- lists these events from FROGS Week: a symposium, a smoker and reunion, an outing at Olympia Park in Versailles, several dances, an open house, ham-and-egg fry (hosted by a group of women named The Ducks) and a moonlight boat excursion with dinner and dancing on the steamer Washington.

Subsequent FROGS Weeks would feature athletic events, swim parties, children's activities and Derby Days at Wheeling Downs, complete with a FROGS race and a FROGS blanket awarded to the winner. In 1926, the club began the tradition of a Miss FROGS contest. Today the crown usually goes to a high schooler who is a member's daughter or granddaughter.

The first FROGS were the light-skinned elite of black society, said club vice president Clarence Curry, 67. While there was never any written criteria for joining, early photos depict a membership that, in many cases, could have passed for white if they so chose. That color caste system dated back to slavery, when light-skinned blacks were the "house Negroes" and dark-skinned blacks worked the fields.



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