Pete Rozelle

Pete Rozelle
Pete Rozelle (left) and George Halas (right) in the early 1980s.
Commissioner
of the National Football League
In office
January 1960 – November 1989
Preceded by Austin Gunsel
Succeeded by Paul Tagliabue
Personal details
Born March 1, 1926
South Gate, California
Died December 6, 1996 (aged 70)
Rancho Santa Fe, California
Alma mater University of San Francisco
Honors Sportsman of the Year (1963)
Pro Football Hall of Fame (1985)

Alvin Ray "Pete" Rozelle (/rɵˈzɛl/; March 1, 1926 – December 6, 1996) was the commissioner of the National Football League from January 1960 to November 1989, when he retired from office. Rozelle is credited with making the NFL into one of the most successful sports leagues in the world.

Early life

Rozelle was born in South Gate, California and grew up in neighboring Lynwood, California during the Great Depression. He graduated from Compton High School in 1944, with Duke Snider, lettering in baseball and basketball. He was drafted into the Navy in 1944 and served 18 months in the Pacific on an oil tanker.

After his service in the Navy, he entered Compton Community College in 1946.[1] He worked there as the student athletic news director and also worked part-time for the Los Angeles Rams as a public relations assistant. In 1948, Rozelle met Pete Newell, head coach for the University of San Francisco Dons basketball team, during a recruiting visit to Compton and impressed him so much that Newell helped arrange for Rozelle to get a full scholarship to work in a similar capacity at San Francisco.[1]

Rozelle enrolled at USF that year and worked as a student publicist for the USF Dons athletic department. In addition to doing publicity for the school's football team, he was able to market the Dons' National Invitation Tournament championship basketball season of 1949 into a national media event. He graduated from USF in 1950 and was hired by the school to remain there as the full-time athletic news director.[2]

In 1952, he re-joined the Rams as its public relations specialist, a job he held until 1955. He then held a series of public relations jobs in Southern California, marketing the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia for a Los Angeles based company. In 1957, Rozelle returned to Rams to take their General Manager position. In his 3 years there, he turned a disorganized, unprofitable team, lost in the growing L.A. market, into a business success even as they struggled on the field.[1]

Commissioner

1960s

After Bert Bell's death in 1959, Rozelle was the surprise choice for his replacement as NFL commissioner. According to Howard Cosell in his book I Never Played the Game, the owners took 23 ballots before settling on Rozelle as NFL Commissioner at a January 26, 1960 meeting. When he took office there were twelve teams in the NFL playing a twelve-game schedule to frequently half-empty stadiums, and only a few teams had television contracts. The NFL in 1960 was following a business model that had evolved from the 1930s. One of Rozelle's early accomplishments was helping the league adopt profit-sharing of gate and television revenues. The revenue-sharing was a major factor in stabilizing the NFL and guaranteeing the success of its small-market teams. Another important contribution was Rozelle's success in negotiating large television contracts to broadcast every NFL game played each season. In doing so he deftly played one television network against the other. In 1962, Rozelle was re-elected to a five-year contract to remain as commissioner.[3]

JFK assassination

See also: 1963 NFL season

When president Kennedy was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963 President Kennedy's assassination, Rozelle wrestled with the decision of whether or not to cancel the Sunday games. Rozelle and then-White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger had been classmates at the University of San Francisco years before, so Rozelle consulted with him. Salinger urged Rozelle to play the games, so he agreed for the schedule to proceed. Rozelle felt that way, saying: "It has been traditional in sports for athletes to perform in times of great personal tragedy. Football was Mr. Kennedy's game. He thrived on competition."[4] After their win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia, players on the Washington Redskins asked Coach Bill McPeak to send the game ball to the White House, thanking Rozelle for allowing the games to be played that weekend,[5] saying that they were "playing...for President Kennedy and in his memory."[6] Many people disagreed with the decision, and Rozelle subsequently thought it might have been wiser to cancel those games.

Rozelle's "aptitude for conciliation" with the league's owners and his work in expanding the NFL however, led to his receiving Sports Illustrated magazine's 1963 "Sportsman of the Year" award.

The AFL

By 1965, the rival American Football League obtained a new NBC-TV contract and had signed a new superstar in Joe Namath. As the leagues battled to sign top talent, bonuses and salaries grew dramatically. Rozelle led negotiations with AFL and NFL executives to merge the two leagues. In October 1966, he testified to Congress and convinced them to allow the merger. Rozelle played an important role in making the Super Bowl the most watched sporting event in the United States and proposed the concept of Monday Night Football that had a significant impact on the popularity of the sport.

1970s

The 1970s saw Rozelle at the peak of his powers as a sports league commissioner. He presided over a decade of league expansion. Monday Night Football became a staple of American television viewing, and the Super Bowl became the single most watched televised event of the year. During this decade, the upstart World Football League organized, pushing player salaries higher even as it ended up in bankruptcy. Towards the end of the decade, labor unrest and litigation over issues such as the NFL Players Association and team movement to new markets challenged Rozelle's power as commissioner.

1980s

In the 1980s the NFL was challenged by the desire of Al Davis, owner of the Oakland Raiders franchise, to relocate the team to Los Angeles. Rozelle represented the NFL, testifying in court to block the Raider's move. Ultimately, the NFL lost its court case with Davis, and the Oakland franchise moved to Los Angeles. The tension between Rozelle and Al Davis who had wanted to be NFL commissioner was very apparent throughout the case. Ironically, in 1981 just after the case was settled, the Oakland Raiders won the Super Bowl and Rozelle as commissioner was tasked with handing the Super Bowl Trophy to Al Davis.

Personal life, retirement and death

Rozelle married his first wife, an artist named Jane Coupe, in 1949. The couple had one child, Anne Marie, born in 1958. Pete was awarded full custody of Anne Marie after his divorce. Anne Marie was often seen at owner's meetings and had a very special relationship with many of the owners' wives. Rozelle remarried in 1974 to Carrie Cooke, daughter-in-law of Jack Kent Cooke, who owned the Washington Redskins.

Under Rozelle the NFL thrived and had become an American icon, despite two players' strikes and two different competing leagues. He retired as commissioner on November 5, 1989. By the time of his resignation, the number of teams in the league had grown to 28, and team owners presided over sizable revenues from U.S. broadcasting networks.

Rozelle died of brain cancer at the age of 70 on December 6, 1996 at Rancho Santa Fe, California. The following month the NFL honored his legacy by wearing a decal on the back of the Green Bay Packers and New England Patriots helmets during Super Bowl XXXI that had the NFL shield with Pete in cursive on it. Pete Rozelle is interred at El Camino Memorial Park in San Diego, California.

Honors

While still serving as commissioner, Rozelle was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985. The institution's annual Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award was established in 1989. On January 27, 1991, at Super Bowl XXV, the league first awarded the Pete Rozelle Trophy to the Super Bowl MVP.[7]

For his contribution to sports in Los Angeles, he was honored with a Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum "Court of Honor" plaque by the Coliseum commissioners.

Influence

Rozelle's legacy of equalisation has been felt not only in the NFL, but also in the Australian Football League, the major Australian-rules football competition. In 1986, The AFL Commission adopted a policy of equalisation based on the method pioneered by Rozelle in the NFL. It is because of this decision that expansion clubs have been able to survive, as well as older clubs with a smaller supporter base. An example of this is the 1996 AFL Grand Final between North Melbourne and the Sydney Swans, two teams with a small supporter base.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Michael MacCambridge (November 26, 2008). America's Game. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. pp. 141–. ISBN 978-0-307-48143-6.
  2. ↑ http://foghorn.usfca.edu/2012/02/pete-rozelle-from-usf-student-publicist-to-father-of-the-super-bowl-and-beyond/
  3. ↑ "Happy Birthday George Halas". Chicago Bears. January 31, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  4. ↑ Brady, Dave (November 24, 1963). "It's Tradition To Carry on, Rozelle Says". The Washington Post. p. C2.
  5. ↑ Walsh, Jack (November 25, 1963). "Game Ball Going to White House". The Washington Post. p. A16.
  6. ↑ Associated Press (November 25, 1963). "Redskins Send Game Ball to White House". The Chicago Tribune. p. C4.
  7. ↑ "Sports People: Pro Football; The Rozelle Trophy". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). October 10, 1990. Retrieved February 25, 2007.
  8. ↑ AFL Football Record, April 18–20, 1997

Further reading

External links