[5] Washington was a star in both baseball and football at Abraham Lincoln High School,[6] where he was nicknamed "Kingfish" after a character in the radio show Amos 'n' Andy.

He was one of five African American players on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team, the others being Woody Strode, Robinson, Johnny Wynne, and Ray Bartlett.

[4] According to Time magazine's coverage of the 1940 College All-Star Game, Washington was "considered by West Coast fans the most brilliant player in the US last year.

After graduation, George Halas, who coached the College All-Star Game, indicated interest in Washington for his Chicago Bears team, but was unable to convince the league to permit integration.

The Rams backfield coach Bill Snyder would later state that “I doubt we would have been interested in Washington had we stayed in Cleveland.” [15] The Los Angeles Tribune was especially outspoken in its push for the Rams to sign Washington, thanks to its African-American sports editor, William Claire "Halley" Harding, a former professional athlete and member of the debate team at Wiley College.

Washington was the league leader in yards per carry in his second season,[4] and even scored a 92-yard touchdown, which remains the Rams team record for the longest run from scrimmage.

The night before Nixon's victory over Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas, the candidate – a great football fan – spent the evening at Washington's south Los Angeles home playing music and trying to relax.

[11] He also worked for a grocery store chain and a whiskey distributor, and was a part-time scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers, where his son Kenny Jr.

[4] Thanks to his connections from when he had worked at movie studios during his undergraduate years, he was also chosen for a few film roles,[4] including Rope of Sand (1949),[21] Pinky (1949),[22] and The Jackie Robinson Story (1950).

[28][29] One legacy of Washington's and Strode's experience in the NFL – paralleled in 1946 by racial trailblazers Marion Motley and Bill Willis in the rival All-America Football Conference – was that Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, saw that blacks and whites could coexist in a violent sport without much disruption, and decided that Major League Baseball could be integrated as well.

[11] Neither Washington nor Strode has been inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, although both Marion Motley and Bill Willis of the AAFC's and NFL's Cleveland Browns have received that honor.