Born in Berkeley, California, Mann played at Oregon State College from 1951 to 1954.[1] Mann was one of two black players on the 1951 Oregon State roster — the first in the history of the school.[2]
He then went to the Canadian Football League where he played for the Toronto Argonauts. On the eve of the 1959 season, Mann was arrested after a raid on his apartment discovered about $100 worth of marijuana. Although he was acquitted at trial in February 1960, the Argonauts elected not to play him pending the outcome of the trial, forcing Mann to sit out the whole 1959 season. When released in the start of the 1959 season, he played for the Bramalea Satellites, being called back to the Argos as if the Bramalea team were a taxi squad.[3]
In 1951 Mann was one of two players to break the color barrier on the varsity football team at Oregon State College.
Dave Mann volunteered as Offensive Coach with St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto, under head coachLex Byrd. During Mann's tenure, the team won four[4]Mulock Cups as intra-collegiate football champions; including the final playing of intra-faculty tackle football at U of T in the fall of 1993.[5]
Personal life and death
Mann became a Canadian citizen and moved to Mississauga, Ontario, where he instructed techniques in golf, played drums in a jazz trio, and became friends with comedian Bill Cosby.[6] He also became a partner with Archie Alleyne, John Henry Jackson and Howard Matthews in The Underground Railroad, a soul food restaurant in Toronto.[7]
Mann died on May 22, 2012, in a Toronto nursing home due to complications from dementia.[6]
