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

by Chris Willis

  As Thanksgiving arrived, the NFL's title matchup came into focus. The Bears cruised to the Western Division title behind the play of super fullback Bronko Nagurski, as Halas's squad finished with the NFL's best record, at 9-1-1. In the Eastern Division it came down to the Giants and Redskins-who were led by rookie quarterback Sammy Baugh. On November 28 the Redskins (7-3 record) defeated the Packers 14-6 in front of 30,000 screaming D.C. fans to set up a winner-take-all matchup with the Giants (6-2-2 record) in New York on the NFL's final weekend.

  Marshall's first year in Washington was a big success. The six home games averaged nearly 20,000 fans per game, and his team was once again in the hunt for a championship. Even the local press was captivated by the city's newest attraction. Washington Evening Star sportswriter Bill Dismer wrote, "Definitely, the Redskins have 'caught on.' Whether it is the novelty of a major league professional eleven, the magic of AllAmerica names, or the craving for football again after a long, hot summer, coach Ray Flaherty and his men have completely captured the fancy of all who have seen them."19

  Despite being bedridden Carr must have felt extremely proud when he heard that the largest NFL crowd since 1925 (the Red Grange game in New York) showed up to watch the December 5 game in the Big Apple. A crowd of 58,285 jammed into the Polo Grounds to watch a rookie guide his team to a divisional title. Baugh completed eleven of fifteen passes and one touchdown while All-Pro halfback Cliff Battles rushed for 170 yards and two touchdowns as the Skins pounded the Giants 49-14. The fortynine points were just eleven points shy of what the Giants had given up all year (sixty points in the previous ten games). For the second straight year the Redskins would be in the NFL Championship Game.

  The 1937 title game would pit the Redskins against the Chicago Bears on December 12 at Wrigley Field. As championship week arrived, Carr actually did a few presidential tasks. He announced the officials for the game, with Bill Halloran as referee, and notified the other owners that Vice President Carl L. Storck would preside over the owner's meeting and draft to be held the day before the championship game. But as the NFL family gathered in Chicago, rumors began to fly about the future of the ill president.20

  Three days before the title game, an Associated Press report was released that Carr would resign as league president. The report claimed that two teams favored Carr to retire to an advisory role because of his ill health. One of the owners was Detroit's George A. Richards, who always wanted a "bigger" name to be president. The other owner seemed to be George Preston Marshall. Although Marshall had a good relationship with Carr, the health issues facing the president worried him. Carr was still resting at home and unable to travel, so Marshall was keeping his options open just in case the league had to replace the current president. Upon hearing the reports, Carr spoke up: "There is absolutely nothing to the reports. I'm feeling fine, but I've got to take it easy for a while.""

  The rumors quickly faded, but Carr's presidency had hit a crossroad. His health was important to him, as well as his family, but he didn't want to give up the thing he loved the most-the NFL. There was still too much work to be done. He would listen to his doctor, get the rest he needed, and get back to work as quickly as he possibly could. It was the Irish way.

  The day before the championship game at the Hotel Sherman in Chicago, Vice President Storck presided over his first league meeting with all ten teams in attendance. It would be a sad moment for Joe F. Carr. Ever since taking over as president he had presided at thirty-eight consecutive league meetings, never missing one in seventeen seasons, until now. A heart attack was the only thing that could keep him away. But he knew the league was strong enough to move on and get things done. That's what they did.

  After roll call the owners prepared themselves for the draft. Before they started Wellington Mara unveiled a board with 166 college players eligible to be drafted. Done by himself, Mara created maybe the first-ever scouting service and didn't keep it to himself. The whole league benefited from his knowledge and hard work, something the early owners had gotten the grasp of. Led by President Carr's philosophy, the entire organization was thinking "league first"-what was best for the league. "You had a collection of very strong-minded, strong-willed people," says Virginia McCaskey, daughter of George Halas. "Yet, they realized that in order to succeed as an entity, they had to give up some of their personal considerations and that's the way it should be.""

  The owners went on to draft 110 players over twelve rounds, with the Cleveland Rams selecting Indiana halfback Corbett Davis number one overall. Future Hall of Famers, tackle Frank "Bruiser" Kinard (third round by Brooklyn), and center Alex Wojciehowicz (first round by Detroit), were chosen. But it was a brainy halfback from the University of Colorado that everybody wanted to see where he would be drafted. Byron "Whizzer" White was the best running back in the nation in 1937 and seemed to be a lock to go number one overall. But White had just won a Rhodes scholarship from the University of Oxford and told the NFL he would be attending the school in the fall of 1938. So as the draft's first round began, it came as a surprise when Art Rooney selected White with the number four overall pick. Most of the owners thought he had just wasted a pick. Rooney thought differently.

  The meeting ended with the owners giving Wellington Mara a round of applause for all his work with the draft. Storck completed his first meeting with no headaches 23 It was now time to decide a champion. Game day began with a brutally cold morning, as the temperature reached a high of just fifteen degrees, which limited the paying crowd to just 15,870-very disappointing considering the large crowds that showed up during the regular season. The cold weather didn't affect the play on the field. The first quarter fireworks included three touchdowns as the hometown Bears took a 14-7 lead. After a scoreless second, the fans were about to witness more wide-open action.

  Early in the third quarter Sammy Baugh hooked up with All-Pro end Wayne Millner for a fifty-five-yard touchdown to tie the game. But Chicago took back the lead with a thirteen-play, seventy-three-yard march that ended with a four-yard touchdown pass from Bernie Masterson to Eggs Manske. Baugh then struck back quickly by throwing a seventyeight-yard scoring strike to Millner on the first play after the kickoff. After forcing a Bears punt Baugh drove the Redskins eighty yards on eleven plays, ending the drive with a thirty-five-yard touchdown pass to Ed Justice to give the Skins a 28-21 lead.

  Baugh had just thrown three touchdowns in the third quarter alone. The rookie from Texas Christian University wasn't fazed by the magnitude of the title game. After all the offensive explosions, the fourth quarter came down to the Redskins defense keeping the Bears out of the end zone. After a couple of goal line stops Ray Flaherty's boys captured the NFL Championship. In his first year in Washington George Preston Marshall had brought the city a world title. Rookie sensation Sammy Baugh finished the game completing eighteen of thirty-three passes for a championship game record of 354 yards and three touchdowns. Baugh was now the NFL's brightest star.

  Carr was thrilled with the play on the field in Chicago as the exciting, high-scoring game received rave reviews from the press. The attendance figure was another story. The cold weather definitely played a major factor in keeping the fans away, but Mother Nature was one thing Carr couldn't control. As Carr prepared to spend the holidays at home, his league was approached with a very tantalizing offer. Several wealthy businessmen from Miami contacted Damon Runyon, the well-known columnist-writer, to see if the NFL would be interested in hosting its annual championship game in the Florida city. Ruynon contacted Carr to relay the offer of roughly $40,000 to host the NFL's marquee game. Carr released a statement:

  The offer is a flattering one, but the big question is whether the winners of the eastern and western divisions would care to take the game from their home towns, where the fans had supported the teams all season.

  Those behind the venture in Miami stated that they would like to make it the outstanding sports spectacle of the country. If the National league could see fit to have the game for the w
orld's professional football championship shuttled there, they are very anxious to get the playoff as an annual sports feature at the winter center.24

  The generous offer showed Carr that the NFL was growing in stature, but he was reluctant to take the game away from the fans that really supported the league. The league's fans were more important than the money. He announced that the decision on the offer wouldn't be made until the owners met in February at the league's winter meeting. In other NFL news, Lions quarterback Dutch Clark was given the first annual Gruen Award for the player who demonstrated the highest standard of play "with outstanding sportsmanship and significant service for the advancement of professional football." A group of five nationally known sports editors voted. Included in that group were Alan Gould (Associated Press), George Daley (New York Herald-Tribune), H. G. Salsinger (Detroit News), Warren Brown (Chicago Herald-Examiner), and Ed Bang (Cleveland News). Carr liked the idea of having a league Most Valuable Player award and decided in 1938 to make it an official award with sportswriters in NFL cities voting.25

  The year 1937 was Carr's most difficult as NFL president. The mild heart attack he suffered in September incapacitated him for nearly all of the season, and he couldn't travel or work from his office. Despite the ill health, by the end of the year Carr was capable of making some key decisions as he eased back into his role as league president. Although he was diagnosed with a heart ailment, the tough-minded son of an Irish immigrant had only one thing on his mind: get back to his role as NFL president.

  hile resting at home Carr began thinking about his future. He desperately wanted to get back to work, but he would have to be patient in returning to his normal routine. One of the things he did in January of 1938 was write his annual recap of the NFL season for the Associated Press.

  Fresh from its finest season in both attendance and spectacular play, the National Professional Football League looks forward to even greater things in 1938. Our selective draft system, under which the weaker teams are given first opportunity to negotiate with graduating college stars, showed its effect for the first time during 1937, and was a heavy factor in providing the tight, colorful race.

  The Eastern Division surprised everyone by jumping up on even terms with the western half in strength this year while Washington's victory in the playoff game gave the East the national title for the first time in years [since 19341.

  The league will continue to play an open game, and increase scoring possibilities. The goal posts will remain on the goal line to permit more field goals, and forward passes from anywhere behind the line of scrimmage will be permitted as in the past.... The league's attendance showed a 15 per cent increase and reached a new high.

  We think we are providing the greatest show in football--a game which must be played by experts, but one from which the ordinary fan can get a 'kick."''

  Carr's assessment of the NFL was always positive and continued to show how far the NFL had come since it was founded in 1920. The league's attendance had once again increased to nearly one million fans (967,812) in the fifty-five regular season games and one championship game. That was up from the 814,815 fans in 1937.2 As for scoring the NFL saw 1,424 points scored in the fifty-five regular season games and an alltime high of 25.9 points per game. Stars like quarterbacks Sammy Baugh (Redskins), Ace Parker (Dodgers), Arnie Herber (Packers), and Dutch Clark (Lions); running backs Cliff Battles (Redskins), Clarke Hinkle (Packers), and Tuffy Leemans (Giants); center Mel Hein (Giants); and ends Don Hutson (Packers), Bill Hewitt (Eagles), and Wayne Millner (Redskins) provided the NFL with star power that created a product worth seeing for sports fans in the ten NFL cities. Carr just needed to get better physically to see his league take its next big leap.

  Although he still couldn't travel, Carr kept busy with his presidential tasks. Besides releasing his article to the Associated Press, he announced that the next owners meeting would be held on February 19 in Philadelphia and that Vice President Storck would once again preside. It would be the second straight league gathering that he would miss. The ten teams met at the Ritz-Carlton and seemed to get little done. The owners prohibited teams from postseason exhibition games except for the team that wins the championship, and they formally turned down the city of Miami's offer to host the annual championship game. The owners felt that taking away the title game from their hometown fans was too much to give up just to make a little more money.

  It seems money wasn't much of a problem for one owner. While at the meeting Art Rooney offered Whizzer White, his first round pick, a record contract of $15,000 for the 1938 season. "No player ever put out as much effort as White. I've seen many players with greater ability but none tried harder and gave 100 per cent effort at all times," said Art Rooney. Several of the other moguls lost their hats. But White was serious about his studies at Oxford and turned down Rooney, although he did leave the door open a little. "I wrote him, though, asking would he still be interested if I should change my mind [this] next summer," said Whizzer White.3

  As winter ended President Carr was allowed to leave his house to work in his office at 16 East Broad. It felt good to be back to his old routine, and like the hard worker he was, he got straight to work. One of the first things he did upon returning to his office was make plans for the NFL's next promotional project. Besides using radio, the Official Guide of the National Football League, trading cards, Ladies Day coupons, and other ways of trying to promote the league, Carr came up with another idea to get the NFL product out to more fans. He wanted to have a promotional film produced to show what the NFL was about and how the game was played. The film would be shown in movie theaters all across the country and would give the NFL more publicity than ever before.

  Carr contacted G. A. Richards, who had been living the past year out in Hollywood for health reasons, to see if he knew of a film company that could shoot and produce the documentary on the NFL. Richards suggested Industrial Pictures, Inc., located in his adopted hometown of Detroit. Industrial Pictures was a fairly new production company that had just completed an eight-minute film on the Bryce Canyon National Park sponsored by the Ford Motor Company. Ford showed off its newest vehicles that could get you around the vast Bryce Canyon Park for reasonable prices. Carr was intrigued with the novice company, plus they could give his "football film" all the attention it needed.

  After Carr contacted Industrial Pictures, the film company agreed to join the project. Industrial hired Juett Box as director and Oscar Ahbe as cameraman for the entire shoot. Carr then went looking for a sponsor for the film and found the perfect partner. Wheaties breakfast cereal was founded in 1924 in Golden Valley, Minnesota, and used sports as a tool to promote its healthy product. In 1927 the company put up billboards advertising their cereal at Nicollet Park, the minor league baseball stadium located in Minneapolis. Soon the cereal was advertising itself as "the Breakfast of Champions." In 1934 Lou Gehrig became the first athlete to appear on a box of Wheaties. In subsequent years, Babe Zaharias became the box's first female athlete (1935), and Jesse Owens became the box's first black athlete (1936).

  Carr knew that Wheaties was the ideal sponsor for his film. The combination of the NFL's good, clean sportsmanship reputation and the cereal's clean, good-for-your-body product was perfect. Carr contacted the executives at General Mills, Inc., to see if they would want to sponsor the NFL film. It was an easy decision for General Mills as they gave Carr a yes and drew up a fifteen-page contract for Carr and the owners to sign. The contract claimed the film was being made as "it is the desire of the Clubs and the League to promote, advertise and popularize the game of professional football, particularly as played by the Clubs of the League, so as to increase the public following of the Clubs and the public interest in and attendance at League games ... and the Clubs and the League are desirous of accomplishing said end by the media of [this] motion picture."4

  The NFL and General Mills agreed to the following:

  1. Company [General Mills] will arrange and pay for the production
of an educational sound motion picture film featuring the preparation, training, fundamentals and execution of professional football, as played by the Clubs of the League during the 1938 playing season. Said film shall be produced by such technique as Company in its discretion deems best, shall be from four to five thousand feet in length, shall be non-commercial but may contain implied or inferred references to Company's product WHEATIES by such means as the appearance of WHEATIES advertising signs on practice fields and such means as Company, with the cooperation and relying upon the ingenuity of the Clubs, shall devise.

  II. Company's responsibility shall be limited to the expenditure of Thirtyfive Thousand Dollars ($35,000.00) in the production, editing and processing of the said film. Company agrees to furnish each member Club of the League with one print of such film as the Club's own property and Company will maintain for its own use a print or the number of prints adequate for distribution to places where Company can produce exhibition without cost to itself.

  III. The Clubs and the League will cooperate with Company, its agents and employees in making playing fields, practices, action and players available for the filming and will likewise cooperate in procuring appropriate endorsements from such of their players as use and are willing to endorse Company's product WHEATIES....

  THE UNDERSIGNED, As President of the NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE, hereby approves of the foregoing agreement on behalf of the League and hereby accepts for himself and his successors in office during the existence of this agreement all delegations and responsibilities therein outlined which apply to the President of the League in such capacity.5