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PUEBLO, Colo.—He’s a piece of Pueblo history you’ve probably never heard about: Eugene “Gene” Polk Sr., proud father of five, grandfather of 11 and great-grandfather of one.

And by the way, he was Pueblo’s first African-American firefighter in modern times, the only one since the 1800s.

Polk, 59, lives a quieter life now, having retired with a bad knee and serving as assistant track coach at Dolores Huerta Preparatory High.

But for 25 years, the Centennial High School graduate worked as a professional firefighter, most of it in Colorado Springs. He worked the 24-hour shifts of a firefighter, carried victims and bodies and sometimes had people take a swing at him.

And at the same time, he was breaking ground for younger firefighters, who were African-American, Hispanic or women. He didn’t yell or lead protests. But he worked hard every day and spent years telling minority children and girls that firefighting was an option for them.Polk got his start in firefighting by working as a security guard. He said he was married and needed a job while he was in college. He wanted to be a police officer, but tried a stint as sheriff’s deputy in Leadville and decided it wasn’t for him.

Then Polk heard about a job manning a gate at what is now known as the Transportation Technology Center Inc., known less formally as the test track.

Being a friendly guy, Polk talked to the workers who came in and out of the gate, among them a man who worked on the track’s fire department, the late Dick Meiu.

One day Meiu said he needed to hire some new firefighters and asked if Polk wanted a shot. He said he did, and that was that.

Polk said he enjoyed the job, working as part of a seven-man team to put out fires, train on more skills and be on standby when testing was being carried out on trains and other vehicles tested on the facility’s rail tracks.

Polk later made captain of a shift, but he almost didn’t take the job. Friend and mentor Meiu recommended him for the captain’s position, but Polk said he wanted to try it for 90 days and be able to return to being a firefighter if he didn’t like it.

But when the job’s papers were written up, they included a reference to allowing the center to meet its quota for minorities in certain jobs, and Polk would have none of it.

“I said, ‘I don’t want the position because you have to meet a quota,’ ” he said.

The hiring official agreed to change the papers, saying instead that Polk was being hired for the reasons that Meiu first told Polk: he had good qualifications, great professional curiosity and he knew what he was doing.

OK, things worked out, but with one catch: There would be no 90-day trial period. Polk would be a captain for good or not at all.

Polk said yes, and the rest of his career carried on from there. After five years at the test center, Polk saw that Colorado Springs had black firefighters and decided to take the test to work there. He was hired and worked 25 years there, living for a time in Colorado Springs but later returning to Pueblo and commuting.

His last few years, Polk served as part of the group that selected, ordered and stored dress uniforms and firefighting suits. His knee had given him problems. After a surgery that didn’t fix it, he had to leave.

It turns out that the way Polk found out about working in Colorado Springs was the same way he would later use to open firefighting to other minority men and women: by showing them it’s possible.

Polk served on the Colorado Springs department’s affirmative action committee, and the group spent years showing up to community events, minority group events and anywhere else that kids might see them and ask questions.

The group even traveled to Juneteenth events and the Cinco de Mayo celebration in Pueblo, talking with young people and handing out applications to young men and women.

“That was a big thing for us, to go out to the public and say yes, you can do it,” he said.

Some fire departments may be open to minority applicants, but Polk said his department did more. It sought out minority applicants, held an open house to show them the physical ability requirements and let them practice some of the skills involved.

While Polk is Pueblo’s first African-American firefighter in modern times, that doesn’t mean there are very many now. Pueblo Fire Department recruiters haven’t been seen much by Pueblo’s African-American community, he said.

“I think they need to be a bit more aggressive,” he said, “to let the young black people know they are there.”

But there’s blame to go around.

“And some of our kids need to be a little more aggressive in what they want to do,” he said. “You have to pursue it a little bit. The more I learned, the more I got intrigued.”

Because, despite an angry man throwing him through a glass table, or having a racial epithet hurled at him by an angry assault victim, the large-bodied Polk said it’s a good job

And after 25 years, it’s filled with great people.

“People ask me, do I miss it,” Polk said. “I don’t miss the job as much as I thought I would. It’s the friendships. You’re giving 25 years of your life. You become a family.”