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

by Chris Willis

  Carr was once again pleased with the league's attendance figures as 745,508 fans attended the fifty-four NFL games. The figures were extremely close to the previous season with an average of 13,805 per game (13,247 per game in 1934).2 He was also pleased with the play on the field. It had now been three full seasons of divisional play and the implantation of the wide-open rules. In 1935 Doug Russell of the Chicago Cardinals led the league in rushing with 499 yards and Ed Danowski led the league in passing yards (794 yards) and touchdown passes (ten). But the player who made the most impact was Packers rookie end Don Hutson. Hutson led the NFL in touchdowns scored with seven. He would accomplish this feat eight times during his eleven-year career and go down as the NFL's greatest receiver before Jerry Rice arrived in 1985. In addition to the great individual performances the league's scoring average increased each year:

  1933-1,105 points scored (19.4 points per game)

  1934-1,290 points scored (21.5 points per game)

  1935-1,158 points scored (21.8 points per game)

  Carr's vision of a big-city, big-league sport was forming right before his eyes, and he wanted his league to keep getting bigger and better. Sitting in his two-room office in Columbus, Carr was celebrating another fine season just completed, but on January 27 he was upstaged by his own personal secretary. On the front page of the Ohio State Journal, Kathleen Rubadue was featured in a story about the three secretaries in town who worked for sports executives. Accompanying the story were photos of the two minor league baseball secretaries as well as Carr's NFL coworker. Carr was now the second biggest celebrity in his office.'

  After participating in a local bowling event for charity, Carr announced that the next NFL owners meeting would be on February 8-9 in Philadelphia. Based on the motion brought up by Eagles owner Bert Bell in 1935, this meeting would mark another milestone in NFL history. The league would conduct the first-ever NFL draft. But in 1936 Carr and the owners did not call it the draft. In the league minutes they called it the "selection of players," while the press usually referred to it as the "selection of college prospects." In 1937 the league would start to call it the draft in league minutes .4

  On the first day two new faces appeared at their first owners meeting. After eight years of professional football as an All-Pro end with the New York Yankees (1927-1928) and New York Giants (1929, 1931-1935), Ray Flaherty was hired by George Preston Marshall as the new head coach of the Boston Redskins. Flaherty was always known as one of the smartest players in the league, and it came as no surprise when Marshall signed him to lead his team. The hire would pay off in a big way as Flaherty would coach the Redskins for the next seven years and end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

  The other fresh face, literally, was that of twenty-year-old Wellington Mara, who joined his father, Tim, and older brother, Jack, at the gathering. Young Wellington had now been around the NFL for eleven years and knew mostly everyone involved-including President Carr. "Joe Carr was such a good man. He was a great listener. I can remember him sitting at meetings with his glasses down at the end of his nose listening intently," recalled Wellington Mara. This first meeting and the NFL draft were eye-openers for Wellington. Soon he would make the league's biggest contribution on draft days.5

  At 1:30 p.m. in the Ritz-Carlton conference room, the whole NFL gathered to discuss league matters and, of course, the first order of business was to select players from the college ranks. Carr announced that each team would make the selection of "5 players" from a list of "approximately 90 names that are to be listed on the blackboard in the room and [each] selection of players by each club proceeded with the inverse order of the standings at the close of the season of 1935." As the ninety names appeared on the blackboard, the owners amended the bylaws to allow each club to have "nine picks."6

  The NFL's first draft would consist of nine rounds, and who knows where the roughly ninety names came from. Most early owners claim that they just read a few of the college football magazines-such as Street & Smith's-or cut out of the newspaper the most current All-American team to make their selections. No team had a scouting department to help them choose. Based on the standings, the draft order went like this:

  1. Philadelphia Eagles (2-9-0)

  2. Boston Redskins (2-8-1)

  3. Pittsburgh Pirates (4-8-0)

  4. Brooklyn Dodgers (5-6-1)

  5. Chicago Cardinals (6-4-2)

  6. Chicago Bears (6-4-2)

  7. Green Bay Packers (8-4-0)

  8. Detroit Lions (7-3-2)

  9. New York Giants (9-3-0)

  Although the Lions were NFL champions, the order went by winning percentage, thus giving the Giants last pick in each round. But that didn't hamper them at all because they had a secret weapon at the selection meeting-Wellington Mara. In the next hour or two, the nine NFL teams selected eighty-one college stars from a variety of backgrounds and schools. With the number one overall pick, Bert Bell selected the best player in the country. Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger, a halfback from the University of Chicago, went down in history as the NFL's first ever draft pick. But he didn't belong to the Eagles very long. George Halas wanted Berwanger really bad and offered veteran tackle Art Buss to obtain the rights to get him. Bell couldn't pass up the offer, as signing Berwanger would be very difficult. Rumors had circulated that Berwanger didn't really want to play professional football, and was asking for $1,000 a game: "I haven't made up my mind yet. I haven't signed with the Bears, but I believe the decision at Philadelphia means the Chicago club has an option on my services if I decide to play pro football."'

  In the end Berwanger didn't sign, choosing to work for a private business, and never played professional football. The second overall pick, Riley Smith, a halfback from Alabama, did and spent three productive seasons with the Redskins. Probably the most famous name to be drafted was another Alabama star, end Paul "Bear" Bryant, who was drafted in the fourth round (number thirty-one overall). Bryant didn't sign either, but, of course, went on to be one of the greatest coaches in college football history at his alma mater. Out of the eighty-one players drafted, only twenty-four signed and played in the NFL in 1936 (four more would play in 1937), with several having Hall of Fame careers.

  The Bears (behind the drafting of George Halas) took two future Hall of Famers in the first draft. First rounder Joe Stydahar, a tackle from West Virginia, and ninth round selection Dan Fortmann, a guard from Colgate. The Redskins drafted end Wayne Millner in the eighth round, who would have an early impact for the Skins in 1936 by finishing fourth in the league in receptions. The fourth and last Hall of Famer to be drafted in 1936 was second rounder Alphonse "Tuffy" Leemans, a halfback from George Washington University, by the New York Giants.

  Leemans was selected by the Giants on the recommendation of young Wellington Mara. Although he was only a junior at Fordham, Wellington had already immersed himself in what was going to be his life's workguiding the New York Giants. His forte was judging talent. He kept files and notes on hundreds of college players, and one who caught his eye was Tuffy Leemans. Wellington suggested to his father that Leemans was going to be a great player and wanted to go to Washington and visit with him. Tim Mara said, "Go ahead" and off he went. "I sent a telegram [to Leemans] setting up a meeting and signed my father's name to it," Wellington Mara recalled years later. "It was to be in front of the gymnasium at George Washington. When I got there, he thought I was a kid who wanted an autograph. He looked at me, strangely suspicious, and said he was meeting Tim Mara, owner of the New York Giants. But I was able to eventually convince him that I was in fact a legitimate emissary, and he did listen to me. And, of course, we got him for the Giants." Leemans would go on to play eight great years for the Giants. The Leemans pick was just the start to young Wellington's NFL career.'

  The NFL's first draft was a complete success (just the fact that it was now in place) and eventually it would give the NFL another building block to lean on. Over time franchises would use the draft to build their teams
and create dynasties. In 1936 it would establish a more balanced league, as the NFL would see two new franchises win division titles. The rest of the Philadelphia meeting seemed secondary to the draft, but the owners also "approved cooperation with the Chicago Tribune for the Annual All-Star game that would include the previous year's champion to play; awarded the 1935 Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy to the Detroit Lions; approved the Spalding J-5V football as the official game ball; and lastly that the President be instructed to secure a tenth franchise holder to enter the league in 1937, if possible." The last motion was approved with an 8-to-1 vote.'

  The Philadelphia meeting ended with another important task for President Carr. Locating a tenth franchise would be a major challenge especially since the last city he admitted was the Cincinnati-St. Louis failure. Carr would take his time in naming the tenth franchise, but eventually he would go back to one of his all-time favorite sports cities. Returning to Columbus Carr announced there would be no summer meeting, that all that was needed to be done was the drawing up of the season's schedule, which he would do from his Columbus office. The owners would now have the summer to get their teams ready to play.

  The 1936 season started on September 13 with three league games watched by a total of 44,522 fans (average of 14,840 fans per game). Three weeks later with home games in Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia the NFL drew 65,800 fans with an average of 21,933 per game. Carr saw that the NFL was gaining in popularity and the attendance numbers were backing him up. "Attendance figures [are] higher than ever, the nine teams more evenly matched, and the fans more interested," Carr said to the Ohio State Journal. But one franchise-which would win a division title-was attracting no fans.10

  On November 1, President Carr attended the Packers-Bears matchup in Chicago. An NFL season high of 31,346 spectators showed up to watch the Packers overcome a ten-point deficit to defeat the Bears 21-10. Behind touchdowns by Don Hutson and Clarke Hinkle, the Packers were now 6-1 and in first place in the Western Division. After the game, Bears coach George Halas praised the Packers. "Today the Packers were the greatest football team we have ever played. They were all great, the Packers outfoxed and out-smarted the Bears." After four years out of any serious title contention Curly Lambeau had his squad in the driver's seat for another championship. Carr was also impressed by Lambeau's boys: "It was one of the greatest exhibitions of football that I ever witnessed. The record breaking crowd certainly got a run for its money. The Packers played super-football. Any team that can spot the Bears 10 points in the first quarter and then win out must have something. Curly Lambeau has coached a number of great Packer elevens but this year's team as it played against the Bears seems to me, the best of all. I want to extend my congratulations to Green Bay.""

  Carr was right that Lambeau had a great team. The rest of the season the Packers went unbeaten and finished atop of the Western Division with a 10-1-1 record (the Bears finished second at 9-3-0). They would have to play the championship game on the road, but where and who would they play? The Eastern Division race came down to two teams who hadn't challenged for an NFL title before-Art Rooney's Pirates and George Preston Marshall's Redskins. After nine games the Pirates were 6-3 and leading the underachieving 4-5 Redskins coached by Ray Flaherty. But the last three games would be a nightmare for Rooney's men.

  Marshall had a bigger issue than whether his squad could win out and capture a division title. The crowds in Boston were getting smaller and smaller. In five years Marshall's team had made little progress in Boston, usually taking a backseat to nearly every other sports endeavor in the city when it came to media attention. After the 1936 home opener against the New York Giants attracted a crowd of 15,000, Marshall decided to raise the price of grandstand seats from fifty-five cents to $1.10. The increase didn't endear him to fans or the press in Beantown. The Boston Globe wrote, "The new price arrangement found instant disfavor with the grandstand enthusiasts of 1935."12

  The price hike exacerbated the problem. Rumors started to fly that he would move his team if attendance didn't improve. Well, it didn't; it actually got worse. The next two games (Eagles and Cardinals) attracted a total of 11,000 fans, and the rest of the season didn't get any better. Marshall wanted out of Boston and on November 9 he told the press his possible destination:

  The nice thing about owning a pro football team is that all you have to do to move is pack your trunks. I can understand why no one came to see us play Philadelphia or the Cardinals but when they are not even interested in seeing a team like the Packers [just 11,220 fans], it is time to consider moving. Why, the Packers would draw more people in Paterson, NJ, than they did here today.

  There are five cities that would love to have us. Yes, Washington, my home town, has put a lot of pressure on me to move down there.13

  Marshall hated the Boston press and always lambasted them for not giving his Redskins enough coverage in the sports pages. In the summer of 1936, Marshall married former silent-movie star Corinne Griffith, and she encouraged him to move the team to Washington. Writing in her autobiography My Life with the Redskins, Griffith described Marshall's relationship with the Boston press. "The Boston sportswriters were loud in their dislike of pro football. They didn't like the foreign ownership, and they didn't like George.""

  In Boston not too many people liked Marshall-who was considered an outsider-and it was time to move on. Carr was concerned about Marshall's team and the problems he was having, so he decided to make a trip east to see firsthand what was going on. At the same time the Pirates lost two straight games, and the Redskins defeated the Dodgers-in front of just 5,000 fans at Fenway Park-to set up a first place showdown. The Pirates-Redskins game (November 29) was played in Boston, and it should have been the biggest professional football game ever played in the city. But nobody cared. Carr sat with Marshall as just 7,000 fans showed up to watch the Redskins crush the Pirates 30-0.

  Behind the stellar play of All-Pro halfback Cliff Battles and star tackle Turk Edwards, the Redskins were now in first place. If they defeated the Giants the following week in New York, they would clinch the Eastern Division and play host to the NFL Championship Game against the Packers. Marshall then told the press that if the Redskins won the division, he would probably move the championship game to New York. Carr was worried about what he just saw. He didn't want the NFL's signature game played in front of the sporting press and the rest of the country in a stadium with no fans. Walking off the field with Marshall after the Pirates game, he turned and said, "OK, George, you're right. 1115 The following week the Redskins shut out the Giants 14-0 to clinch the Eastern Division. The next day Carr announced where the NFL Championship Game would be played and why.

  The decision to play the game in New York was reached following a canvass of the club owners involved and of the players of the two teams.

  Since the playoff game is largely one in which the players are rewarded for winning the divisional titles and their sole remuneration is from the players pool made up from the gate receipts of the playoff it was decided that New York was the place in which the players would benefit to the greatest degree possible under existing conditions.

  New York is not only the most centrally located spot, but the danger of bad weather appears less than in any other spot with the Polo Grounds offering the best equipment for inclement weather with its large covered stadium and brilliant lighting system.16

  Marshall was happy with Carr's decision. "We'll get a much bigger gate in New York than in Boston," Marshall said to the press. "We certainly don't owe Boston much after the shabby treatment we've received. Imagine losing $20,000 with a championship team." The 1936 NFL Cham pionship Game was set for December 13. The crowd would satisfy Marshall (as well as Carr), but the outcome did not. Behind a forty-eight-yard touchdown pass from Arnie Herber to Don Hutson and two second-half scores, the Packers defeated the Redskins 21-6. The Packers had won their fourth overall NFL title and first since 1931.11

  As for the gate receipts, the game attracted
a nice crowd of 29,545 on just a week's notice. The league announced the receipts at $33,471 with the Packers getting $250 per player and the Redskins collecting $180 per man. Four days after the game Marshall made it official to the city of Boston-the Redskins were moving to Washington. The item was buried at the bottom of the sports page in the Boston Globe. Carr knew it was the right thing to do, and he was happy that Marshall was totally into supporting his franchise. The brief bad publicity on the move was well worth the stability the team would get in Washington. Marshall was well-known there and had some big ideas that he wanted to try out in the nation's capital. The ideas started with the drafting of one of the NFL's greatest passers.18

  The day (December 12) before the championship game, the owners held a special meeting and decided from now on to hold the annual college draft in December. For the second time in less than eleven months, the NFL would continue to try and balance the talent coming into the league. The owners decided that there would be ten rounds and wrote on the blackboard 100 names of college seniors to help them choose. Carr then stated "that in as much as there was a possibility of adding another franchise to the League prior to 1937 season, in fairness to the incoming member ten players should be selected for such new incumbent team. President will be authorized to select in tenth place. If event new member is admitted, player will be eligible to team. Players will go back to pool, club in order to choose, if no pro team is added." Carr would eventually draft ten players for the incoming franchise.19