The Man Who Built the National Football League: Joe F. Carr

by Chris Willis

  Kathleen Rubadue was born in the Irish neighborhood in Columbus on July 15, 1910, to Ernest and Mary Rubadue. Ernest was a pharmacist who owned a drug store on East Livingston Avenue, and Mary was a stay-athome mother. The couple had four children-two daughters, Regina and Kathleen, and two sons, Clare and Ernest Jr. The family of six lived at 672 South 22nd Street, which was just a couple of blocks from the Sullivan home at 39 North 22nd Street where Carr and his family lived from 1923 to 1926.5

  Young Kathleen grew up going to school and church, but unlike some of her female friends, she also began a love affair with sports. "She was very outgoing. Oh yeah, she could talk to anybody. She also had a good sense of humor, sort of a dry humor. She could take a joke and she liked any kind of sports," says Robert Knapp, son of Kathleen Rubadue. "She was an extremely sports-minded individual for a lady in those days.'

  "She taught me how to bowl. Taught me how to play baseball. Taught me how to play football. She knew all the rules and the positions and all that kind of stuff. If I had a question, I'd go ask her," says Knapp. Kathleen grew up to be a very tall (five feet ten), attractive brunette, with beautiful green eyes, and after graduating high school from the all-girls St. Joseph's Academy in 1929, she was hired as the NFL's first secretary.'

  Joe F. Carr knew the Rubadue family from the neighborhood, and he was aware of Kathleen's love for sports. He knew of her exploits as a basketball player, and her understanding of all of the different aspects of each game made it a no-brainer to hire her. "She thought he was a great guy to work for. It took both of them to run the league. Two people, Carr and my mother. They worked together. I think she probably was a little more than a secretary," says Robert Knapp. "Back in those days she would work nine to five but during the fall on Sundays she would go into the office."8

  In the only interview Kathleen Rubadue would give about her time as NFL secretary, she told the Columbus Dispatch in January 1982 about working on Sundays.

  The one big thing that really stuck with me is that when I went to work for him, none of the wire services or news agencies would even carry the scores of the game. Mr. Carr finally got them to agree to carry the scores and standings. The referees would wire in the scores on Sunday afternoon and I'd figure out the standings and take them over to the Associated Press and the rest. That was the only way they had a chance of getting into the newspapers. I think he expected the league to grow, but I don't think there is any way he could have foreseen what it has become now. But he worked hard to make it better every year. Football was his whole life.'

  Even fifty years after being hired, she still called him Mr. Carr. "They were very close. It was like a little family setting at the office. She was friends with my grandmother and so on," says James Carr, grandson of Joe F. Carr. "It was a very friendly, homey atmosphere. He would always greet her in the morning with some niceties, ask her how she is doing, and so forth." Asking Rubadue to work on Sundays was no problem for the nineteen-year-old sports lover. "Being single and liking what she did I wouldn't think that would've been a problem for her," says Robert Knapp. The NFL office on the eleventh floor at 16 East Broad Street now had two people working in it. Kathleen took over the front office in room 1115 and made herself feel at home. Her outgoing personality made everyone who visited the office feel special."

  "It was just about as ordinary an office as you can imagine. It wasn't luxury; it was not that deep, just terribly ordinary. The secretary had a separate area. I used to go with my mother and she would go to see Uncle Joe and he had a secretary and she entertained me while they had their meeting," says Martha Sullivan, niece of Joe F. Carr. "She was nice to me. She talked to me or gave me a picture book to look at.""

  When Carr took off on one of his trips, Rubadue would be in charge of the NFL office by herself and she handled it with little problem. "She knew everything that he was doing when he wasn't there, she handled it. When he was out, she took over and you had to deal with her! Somebody told her one time that Joe Carr was basically the NFL and she was the other half of it. They had two employees, not hundreds like we got now," says Robert Knapp .12

  Ms. Rubadue would be the NFL's first secretary, and she would go down in history as the only secretary Joe F. Carr ever had. The NFL was now operating as a two-headed machine, and it was moving along to the beat of Carr's vision. On the eve on the league's summer scheduling meeting Carr was once again looking at NFL franchises (and different owners) coming and going.

  At this time in New York, Tim Mara made headlines when he purchased the entire Detroit Wolverines franchise and its players. The main reason Mara swung the deal was to get the great Benny Friedman. The star quarterback made the Giants a profitable enterprise in the next couple of years, after Mara had lost about $40,000 in 1928. Friedman's salary was said to be $10,000 and it was well-earned for the best passer in the NFL.13

  In Chicago the headlines read that one of the NFL's pioneers was calling it quits. On July 18 Chris O'Brien announced that he had sold the Chicago Cardinals to wealthy Chicago physician Dr. David Jones for a reported $25,000. The Cardinals had been around in one form or another since the turn of the century and were one of the NFL's charter members. But they never really recovered from the war with the American Football League (AFL) in 1926.14

  With help from George Halas, the Cardinals and O'Brien found a very capable successor. "It [the Cardinals franchise] was losing money and Chris O'Brien could not subsidize it. I was concerned the buyer might be undesirable. I induced a great Bears' fan, Dr. David Jones, to buy the club. He had served as city physician under four mayors," recalled George Halas. Dr. Jones and Halas had been partners with the Chicago Bruins professional basketball franchise in the American Basketball League and were friends, so Carr was confident that the Cardinals were now in capable hands. Jones also brought some bravado with him. "I believe the South Side will support winning football and I'm going to give 'em that or bust. 1115

  Jones was brimming with confidence and ideas. First he rented Comiskey Park instead of tiny Normal Park. Then he hired Ole Haugsrud and Dewey Scanlon from the old Duluth franchise to help run his team. Although Duluth would sell their franchise in 1929, the duo of Haugsrud- Scanlon had several of the players still under contract, including Ernie Nevers. Jones had his star, locking up the big blonde fullback to a contract and continuing his boasting: "The South Side club is going to be the best in the professional game. The acquisition of Nevers, along with Howard Maple (Oregon QB), reputed to be the greatest quarter in recent years, is only a starter. We will have a team and a schedule which will be representative of what pro football really should be. 1116

  So even before the summer meeting started, Carr had answers to two of his problems, and most of the meeting was taken up with the rest of who was in and who was out. Carr headed east to attend the summer gathering on July 27-28 at the Seaside Hotel in beautiful Atlantic City. The first big news to be brought up was the no-show of C. C. Pyle. His absence pretty much sealed the fate of his New York Yankees. Speaking to the press, Carr revealed the status of the franchise and Pyle: "The franchise of the New York Yankees has been forfeited. Mr. Pyle does not see fit to attend this meeting, therefore, there was nothing left for officials of the league to do but declare the franchise forfeited ... apparently [he] just did not wish to attend. 1117

  At 2:00 p.m. on the first day, Carr called the meeting to order. Among those who showed up were Ray Weil and Albert Lowe of Buffalo, and the fight for $2,500 went to the gentlemen from Buffalo. In effect Carr caved in to the threat of a lawsuit and gave them another chance as long as they promised they'd really and truly play a whole season in 1929. To control the situation Carr had the duo post an extra $2,500 and ordered his right hand man Jerry Corcoran as team manager. Another problem solved.18

  After the Cardinals were officially transferred from O'Brien to Jones, the owners announced that the dormant Duluth franchise was sold to the Orange Athletic Club (OAC) of New Jersey. The OAC had operated a strong independent
pro team known as the Tornadoes, managed by Eddie Simandl. After a dinner break Dr. Harry March announced that the old Brooklyn franchise had been sold to the city of Staten Island, New York.

  The Staten Island Stapletons were owned by Dan Blaine, a native of the working-class neighborhood known as Stapleton, who was a good halfback and formed the team with three other players in 1915. In 1919 he took over sole ownership of the team, and at the same time his businesses started to prosper. His ownership of several restaurants on Staten Island made him wealthy, although some people say the night spots were actually speakeasies where one could get a drink during Prohibition, but nothing was ever proved. He continued to play in the Stapes' lineup until retiring in 1924 at the age of thirty-three.19

  By 1928 Blaine was in full pursuit of an NFL franchise. He bolstered his squad by signing several former New York University players and luring Doug Wycoff away from the New York Giants to be his player-coach. Wycoff had just helped Mara's Giants to the 1927 NFL championship. Despite the liquor rumors, Carr took a chance on the financially stable Blaine, who would schedule his home games at cozy Thompson's Stadium, the Stapes minor-league ballpark.

  Built in the early 1920s by the wealthy owner of a local lumber company, Thompson's Stadium nestled against a hill in the working-class Stapleton neighborhood and doubled in the summer as a home for a semipro baseball team. Inside its stockade facade fence, the stadium could hold about 8,000 fans on its uncovered bleachers. Another 3,000 or 4,000 could line the sidelines and end zones, making for a very quaint setting. Although dwarfed by places like the Polo Grounds, Comiskey Park, and Wrigley Field, little Thompson Stadium would host four years of NFL action in an often electric atmosphere.

  At the end of the first day and into the second day, the owners discussed what to do with the Pottsville franchise. In the end Dr. John Striegel found new financing in Massachusetts, as the Providence Steam Roller acted as guardian angel for the deal, guaranteeing the check that brought the Boston Bulldogs into the league. Several of the Pottsville players would go to Boston, while a few of the others found new teams, including one that would land in Green Bay and become a legend.

  The last franchise to get approved was Minneapolis, returning to the league and reincarnated by John Dunn. The Minneapolis Redjackets and Dunn signed former Minnesota All-American fullback Herb Jo- esting to build his team around. By adding teams in larger cities like Boston, Buffalo, Minneapolis, the New York borough of Staten Island, and Orange, a suburb of Newark, New Jersey, Carr and his vision of a big-city league would be put to the test for the first time. The NFL would have twelve teams playing on gridirons in 1929. For more than a decade, the college game had been controlled by three officials, and in the final piece of business, the NFL finally added a fourth man, a field judge, to go along with the referee, umpire, and head linesman. Meeting adjourned 20

  Before leaving Atlantic City, league vice president and treasurer Carl Storck handed Carr the league's financial report dated from January 1, 1929, to July 15, 1929. This report stated that the NFL had a bank balance of $27,514.36, a very nice cushion for the league considering what was about to happen to the stock market in October. Also in the report, Storck listed all the money spent by the president for the past year.21

  Expense of Office of President

  Office rent-$369.00

  Postage-$10.00

  Telegrams-$15.67

  Telephone-$110.90

  Printing-$14.25

  Office supplies-$4.10

  Traveling Expenses of Officers

  John Dunn to Chicago-$65.82

  Joe Carr to Chicago-$40.00

  Joe Carr to Chicago-$45.00

  Joe Carr expenses to East-$123.00

  Carl Storck expenses to Chicago-$35.00

  The report revealed that the rent of the NFL office was $369.00 ($30.75 per month) and that Carr spent $154.92 on everyday supplies. In 1929 he would add the salary of Kathleen Rubadue (which was unknown/no record) to the payroll. As Carr added personnel to his organization, NFL teams were doing the same. After graduating from New York University in the spring of 1929, Ken Strong, the best college football player the previous fall, signed his first pro contract to play baseball with the New York Yankees, as a power-hitting outfielder. He hit twenty-one home runs and had a batting average of .285 for New Haven (Connecticut) in the Eastern League. On one afternoon while leaving the ballpark, Dan Blaine and Doug Wycoff walked up to Strong to see if he would like to play professional football for the Staten Island Stapleton.

  There was no college draft, so Strong was free to sign with anybody who made the best offer. The Stapes offered him a very high salary of $300 per game. Strong liked the offer but said he had a meeting set up with the New York Giants soon and wanted to hear what they would offer. Blaine gave Strong his phone number and asked him to call right away if things didn't work out with the Giants. The Giants coach Roy Andrews met with Strong and only offered $200 per game, so Strong called Blaine and bent the truth, telling him that the Giants offered $350 a game. Blaine countered with an offer of $5,000 for the season plus a rent-free apartment. Strong accepted on the phone, and the story broke the next day.22

  In Green Bay, Curly Lambeau was busy building a team that would dominate the NFL for the next three years. At this point Curly had a solid team that had their best finish in 1927 when they landed in second place behind the New York Giants. In 1928 Lambeau played very little and started to put more time in at finding players and coaching them. Lambeaus's last year as a player would be 1929. In the off-season he signed three newcomers who eventually ended up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Cal Hubbard was an All-Pro tackle the past two seasons with the Giants who wanted out of New York, and he set his sights on Green Bay. The six-feet-two, 250-pound "giant" gave the Packers' line some much-needed toughness. Lambeau followed up that acquisition by signing free agent guard Mike Michalske who was just recently released from his contract by Pyle's New York Yankees. Michalske was the best guard in pro football and provided unbelievable quickness to go with Hubbard's toughness. The front wall of Hubbard, Michalske, center Jug Earp, end Lavvie Dilweg, and tackle Claude Perry gave the Packers the best line in the NFL.

  The third newcomer signed by Lambeau was the well-traveled and very colorful Johnny "Blood" McNally, who picked up his pseudonym from a movie marquee. On his way to playing a semipro game while in college, he passed a theater playing the Valentino film "Blood and Sand," and he chose "Blood" to protect his eligibility. After college he put in four years of play in the NFL with weaker teams in Milwaukee (1925), Duluth (1926-1927), and Pottsville (1928) before signing with the Packers.

  McNally always had great talent as an end and halfback, and most teams saw that he could help you win football games. With a team coached by Lambeau, Blood could really showcase his skills. He could outsprint most players, was a slashing inside runner, caught passes better than any back or end in the league, and was a great defensive player. He also could get into trouble with his famous off-the-field lifestyle that included drinking, women, and tons of missed curfews. His abilities on the field were so great that Lambeau had to live with his antics, but Lambeau fined Blood more than any other player.

  "Green Bay was definitely the place for me. My destiny, maybe," said Johnny McNally once about playing in Green Bay. "I loved the place and, I have to say, the place, the people, loved me. If you play for the Packers, the people in Green Bay know you better than they know their own brothers. And they care more about what you do. I imagine that's not so good if the team isn't going well, but I was lucky to be there during those great years."23

  With the Packers preparing for a special season, City Stadium in Green Bay was getting an upgrade that would expand the seating capacity to seat more than 10,000 fans. Lambeau was now getting paid $2,500 per year by the Packers and was working two off-season jobs with Massachusetts Life (selling insurance) and Steifels Clothing Store (selling men's clothing). The race for the 1929 NFL title would pit small town
versus big city.24

  Both the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers raced through the first two months of the season without a loss. The Packers won their first five games, all at home, by allowing their opponents a total of four points-including a 23-0 dismantling of the Chicago Bears in front of an overflow crowd of 13,000 at City Stadium. The Giants, meanwhile, had opened their season with a scoreless tie against the Orange Tornadoes. After that slow start, Benny Friedman got the offense rolling and the Giants reeled off eight straight wins by scoring 204 points (averaging 25.5 per game). Then the unexpected happened.

  On Thursday, October 24, the country was hit hard by the news that the stock market had crashed. After the weekend, the market took more hits on Black Monday and even blacker Tuesday, as the whole country would be tossed into the Great Depression; the NFL, like everyone else, would be heavily affected for years to come. As for the 1929 season, the Dayton Triangles, who played only six games, were the only team hurt by the crash, playing only one game after October. Carl Storck's team would be playing their last season in the NFL, and the squad's final game was a 19-0 loss to the Chicago Cardinals in front of a crowd reported as "300 spectators." Not the best way to say good-bye.

  The same weekend as the crash, Carr attended the Staten Island-Frankford contest outside of Philadelphia, seeing a 6-6 tie along with 7,000 other spectators. Not a bad turnout considering what was happening. As the country's mood turned sour, Carr's league rolled along with the season's biggest game. On November 24, the Packers invaded New York to battle the Giants for first place and the inside track to the championship. The season's biggest showdown featured two unbeaten teams (Packers at 9-0 and the Giants 8-0-1) doing battle in front of a large crowd of 25,000 at the famous Polo Grounds. "This was the first time that I really got the feeling that I was in the big leagues. The New York papers devoted a lot of space to pre-game publicity, which we'd never seen before. And it was really something to get out here in front of all those people," said Johnny "Blood" McNally years later about the 1929 matchup 25