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

by Chris Willis

  Dan Tehan walked to the podium to accept for Carr and he kept it short and sweet: "Honored guests, ladies and gentlemen, it's a distinct honor for the committee to select me to receive the replica of Joe Carr for the National Football Hall of Fame. It was Joe Carr who gave me the opportunity to be a small part of the greatest football league in the world. Thank you."8

  After accepting for Carr, he left the podium and posed for photos next to the bronze bust of his mentor. The sculpted bust of Carr shined in the Canton sun and would eventually be moved into the Hall of Fame to preserve his immortality as one of the league's pioneers. "It's so incredible when people are honored by being inducted. To me it's just amazing because very few people have that privilege of having their likeness and their deeds that they did live on through a museum," says James Carr. "I'm amazed and I feel a lot of pride in my grandfather for doing what he did. The things that he did and his tenacity and his hard work, and his absolute love of football and the NFL. I'm very proud to have my grandfather honored in that way."9

  For the Carr family it was bittersweet. Although they weren't there in person, they did appreciate with all their hearts that their loved one, Joe F. Carr, was being given the highest honor anyone involved in professional football could receive. Joe F. Carr was a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and he would be forever honored with a bronze bust in Canton. Future generations of football fans, as well as the Carr family, could travel to the Hall of Fame and see the bronzed likeness of the man who gave the NFL a solid foundation that would be built upon to make football the most popular sport in the country.

  fter her father passed away in 1939, Mary Carr spent the rest of her life taking care of her family. She did not marry, but she lived a rather healthy life at the home at 1863 Bryden Road and spent most of her time spoiling her nephews. "She would visit us every weekend. We would always walk over there to pick her up on a Friday evening and she would stay Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday. Then Sunday evening we'd take her back home. Once we got our driver's license we continued that routine," says Gregory Carr, grandson of Joe F. Carr. "This time with her was a wonderful opportunity to learn about our grandfather. To have such close communication with my aunt who knew just about everything there was to know about my grandfather was a wonderful experience."'

  "Inside the house it was like going back in a time capsule because the interior of the house was kept exactly the same as it had been when my grandfather and grandmother were living there," says James Carr, grandson of Joe F. Carr. "All the furniture, all the carpet, all of that sort were exactly the way that it was back then. It was a very happy time coming over to see her."2

  Throughout her adult life when the opportunity arose, Mary Carr tried to preserve her father's legacy as one of the pioneers of the NFL. In November of 1959 Time magazine ran a story on the NFL with Giants linebacker Sam Huff featured on the cover. Within the article on Huff, the magazine briefly discussed the origins of the NFL. Mary was so touched by the magazine's interest in the NFL, she wrote a letter to the magazine talking about her father's involvement with the league. In the December 21, 1959 edition the letter was printed in the Letters to the Editor section.

  Sir:

  It was my father, the late Joe F. Carr, who organized the National Professional Football League, was elected its president in 1921, and remained president until his death in May 1939.

  My father was responsible for the success and integrity of pro football, and it was he who sold "postgraduate" football to the late Timothy J. Mara, George Halas, Arthur J. Rooney, George Preston Marshall, "Curly" Lambeau, and the late Charles Bidwill, the late George A. Richards and the late Bert Bell.

  MARY CARR, Columbus3

  For her entire life she continued to love her father. On March 24, 1983, Mary Carr passed away quietly at her home on Bryden Road at the age of sixty-nine.

  As the years have passed on, the name of Joe F. Carr has seemed to vanish from the scene-despite the tremendous growth of the NFL. Back in 1939 the NFL named its Most Valuable Player (MVP) award after the late Joe F. Carr, and the players who won the initial awards were some of the greatest players in the early years of the NFL.

  1938-Mel Hein (New York Giants)"

  1939-Parker Hall (Cleveland Rams)

  1940-Ace Parker (Brooklyn Dodgers)"

  1941-Don Hutson (Green Bay Packers)"

  1942-Don Hutson (Green Bay Packers)"

  1943-Sid Luckman (Chicago Bears)"

  1944-Frank Sinkwich (Detroit Lions)

  1945-Bob Waterfield (Cleveland Rams)**

  1946-Bill Dudley (Pittsburgh Steelers)**

  ** Hall of Famer

  Six different future Hall of Famers won the award in the first nine years the award was given. Then mysteriously in 1947 the writers stopped voting for the award, and the name of Joe F. Carr all but disappeared off the league's MVP award. When the United Press in 1951 and the Associated Press in 1957 started selecting the NFL MVP again, the award was not named after the former league president. It seems to be a crime that one of the league's founding fathers doesn't have his name attached to such an award or some honor associated with the NFL. Looking back at the career and legacy of Joe F. Carr, the list of accomplishments is very impressive:

  1. He created the first "Constitution and Bylaws of the National Football League."

  2. He developed the NFL's standard player's contract.

  3. He set up territorial rights to preserve gate receipts for home teams.

  4. He helped rename the league the National Football League in 1922.

  5. He established peace with colleges and universities by setting up the rule that no college player could play in the NFL until after his class had graduated.

  6. Along with the owners and coaches, he helped establish rules on the field that helped the NFL separate itself from the college game.

  7. He established statistics for NFL players starting in 1932.

  8. He split the NFL into two divisions and created the NFL Championship Game in 1933.

  9. He wrote the first ever Official NFL Record & Fact Book (originally titled Official Guide of the National Football League) in 1935.

  10. Along with the owners, he created the NFL draft in 1936.

  11. He sold and developed the NFL's first ever promotional filmChampions of the Gridiron-in 1938 (released in 1939).

  In his nearly nineteen years as NFL president, Joe F. Carr helped build a foundation that is still being used today. "It's the number one sport in the world. It's almost a trillion dollar business with the media. The Super Bowl is the number one sporting event in the world. That pretty much speaks for itself," says Gregory Carr, grandson of Joe F. Carr. "It was just overwhelming to me. As I got older I could see exactly what happened and how it developed and why it developed because of my grandfather," says Michael Carr, grandson of Joe F. Carr. "I really believe to this day it would not be the NFL if it wasn't for my grandfather. It had been disorganized and had structural problems. They would have trouble getting teams in large cities. They wouldn't have the direction. Just the strong-willed direction that my grandfather provided, I just don't think it would've been the same."4

  Carr's dogged determination combined with his unwavering belief in the game of professional football made him the perfect man to lead the NFL in its early years. His vision of what the NFL could be during its formative years never wavered and he kept to his plan of building a foundation of a big-city organization. His recruitment of franchise owners in these big cities also paid off in a big way. "[They let] the man with the expertise run the league. The owners were comfortable in taking the second chair and saying to my grandfather 'OK you do it.' But another factor was that they were all very good friends," says James Carr. "He was good friends with George Halas, he was good friends with Art Rooney and he was very good friends with Tim Mara. That deep friendship that developed between my grandfather and the owners led to a type of trust in which they felt, 'OK Joe, you're the man. You have the exp
erience. You can do the job, go ahead and do it and you're not going to get interference from us.' There was a trust buildup due to these friendships."5

  "Well they all loved football. They weren't in it for the money. My father, Bert Bell, his life was football, " says Bert Bell Jr., son of Bert Bell. "My grandfather really liked the people he worked with. He definitely liked the people that were involved in the NFL. They all got along with each other back then," says Jordan Wright, granddaughter of George Preston Marshall. "I don't think anybody could've dreamed of what it had grown into. [My father] had that commitment and the love of the game. He used to say he didn't really work at it because it was so important to him and he was so pleased that what he believed in had come to fruition in the present success of the NFL and we were all the benefactors," says Virginia McCaskey, daughter of George Halas.6

  "I have a theory that the NFL has been blessed with the right commissioners who had the right talents at the right time," says Dan Rooney. "Joe Carr is the most underrated guy in the Hall of Fame. He came up with the rules and uniform player contracts. Bert Bell had been everything including a coach. Pete Rozelle turned it into what it is today and Paul Tagliabue took it to the next level. Now Roger Goodell, and he worked for both Pete and Paul."'

  Over the NFL's first nine decades, Carr is one of only eight men who have held the position of president-commissioner. The eight men include Jim Thorpe, Joe F. Carr, Carl L. Storck, Elmer Layden, Bert Bell, Pete Rozelle, Paul Tagliabue, and Roger Goodell. Only Rozelle's twenty-nine year run (1960-1989) as commissioner was longer than Carr's tenure. Each man has contributed greatly to building professional football to its current status as the world's most popular sport. For Joe F. Carr, his lasting legacy is that he helped move the NFL from its small-town roots to the big city-giving the sport the proper place to become a successful business. Along the way he helped recruit a fantastic group of sportsmen and businessmen to run these big-city franchises. In a 1969 interview with author Myron Cope, Chicago Bears owner George Halas spoke of the early owners "league first" philosophy that Carr instilled: "One of my principles was always to do anything that was to the benefit of the league, and that was the case with all of the other teams, too. They were not selfish. They did not think just in terms of 'What's good for me?' They thought in terms of the league, and that's one of the reasons why the league has been so successful-why the game has grown into the greatest sport in the country."8

  Carr's leadership and unbelievable vision of what the sport could become has endured for nearly a century. When looking back at Carr's legacy, some people might say, "Isn't it a shame that he didn't live to see professional football become the country's number one sport." But just like former Hall of Fame president Earl Schreiber said in his presenter's speech in 1963, "actually he's already seen it. Like he kept trying to tell so many of these people and so many others. Joe Carr saw it all down the tracks ... through the mist ... a long time ago."9

  Many sources and interviews were used for this book, including the Joe F. Carr Scrapbook that the Carr family has kept for over eighty years. I made a copy of each page of the scrapbook and those pages produced two binders. The two binders have a total of 564 pages. I gave each page a number so within the notes, each reference to the scrapbooks is titled JFC Scrapbook, Binder 1 or 2, with the page number. After the release of this book I will donate a copy of the two binders to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I also used many of the publications from the Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA), which I have been a member of since 1993. I want to thank the late Bob Carroll, former executive director of the PFRA and editor of the PFRA publication Coffin Corner, for giving me permission to use the PFRA's publications and articles-especially the series Bulldogs on Sunday (1892-1939)-in this book.

  Another vital source was my access to all the "NFL Meeting Minutes" (19201939) during Carr's time as NFL president. These minutes are permanently located in the archives at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

  Also, I was able to obtain two years of the NFL Bulletins (1934-1935), which were originally released by Carr's NFL office in Columbus, Ohio. The NFL Bulletins came from the Bert Bell family collection that went up for public auction several years ago. The original copies of these Bulletins have been donated to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

  All attendance figures were taken from Bob Carroll, Michael Gershman, David Neft, and John Thom, eds., Total Football II: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League (1999), as well as Bob Gill and Tod Maher, The Pro Football Encyclopedia (1997). Both of these great encyclopedias use actual newspaper accounts of the games to report attendance figures. The figures are not actual paid admissions, just reported figures from game recaps.

  INTRODUCTION

  1. Carr's cheery greeting to journal writer Emerson Davis from the Ohio State Journal, December 6, 1931.

  2. Chicago Tribune, July 9, 1933. Columbus Citizen, November 24, 1932.

  3. Joe F. Carr file, Pro Football Hall of Fame, newspaper article, January 27, 1933.

  4. Population numbers came from U.S. Bureau of the Census, Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990 (Washington, D.C.: Author, 1996). The population numbers are for the counties the NFL franchises resided in-since most teams did have fans commute from different areas to attend games from 1920 to 1940.

  5. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Population of States and Counties.

  CHAPTER 1: THE IRISH WAY (1841-1878)

  1. The family name of Karr (sometimes the spelling was K-e-r-r) was used by the family from the birth of Michael Karr in 1841 to 1900 when they went by the current spelling of Carr. Columbus City Directories 1866-1939.

  2. 1840 Irish Census. James Carr, author interview, July 31, 2004.

  3. 1850-1860 Irish Census.

  4. 1860 Ohio Census.

  5. Ed Lentz, "As it Were," This Week in Westland, August 30, 1993, 12.

  6. Gregory Carr, author interview, July 31, 2004.

  7. 1870 Columbus City Directory.

  8. Michael Carr, author interview, July 31, 2004.

  9. The information on Margaret Hurley came from the Ohio Census, obituary, Ohio State Journal, July 20, 1898, and Margaret Mooney, author interview, July 31, 2004.

  10. James Carr, author interview, July 31, 2004.

  11. Diocese of Columbus: The History of Fifty Years, 1868-1918, 176-186. [AU1: ]

  12. History of St. Patrick's Church (Columbus: Saint Patrick Press, 1994), 1-17. [AU2]

  13. The information on the Karr children came from Ohio Censuses, baptismal records at St. Patrick Church (Columbus, Ohio), and family tree research done by Margaret Mooney, great-niece of Joe Carr.

  CHAPTER 2: GROWING UP IN COLUMBUS, OHIO (1879-1893)

  1. 1880 Columbus City Directory.

  2. Margaret Mooney, author interview, July 31, 2004.

  3. Joseph Francis Carr was born on October 23, 1879, in Columbus, Ohio, according to his baptismal record. On the baptismal record his last name is spelled K-e-r-r. The original baptismal record was found and is kept at St. Joseph's Cathe dral in Columbus, Ohio. Rev. Michael M. Meara performed the baptism for the Carr family. A copy also exists at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

  4. 1880 Ohio Census. The information on Bridget Karr was given by Margaret Mooney, author interview, July 31, 2004, and James Carr, author interview, July 31, 2004.

  5. Robert Quinn (1870-1954) was the general manager for the Columbus Senators for fifteen years (1902-1917) before spending twenty-nine years in Major League Baseball with four different teams. After his retirement, Quinn spent four years as the president of the Baseball Hall of Fame (1948-1951). Ohio State Journal, March 13,1954.

  6. Robert Drury, obituary, Ohio State Journal, August 19, 1933.

  7. 1900 United States Census. Jim Heavey, author interview, March 28, 2009.

  8. Chicago Daily Tribune, October 21, 1911. In October 1917 John Karr had another police raid of his cigar shop in Chicago for gambling; see Chicago
Daily Tribune, January 18, 1917; September 18, 1917.

  9. Heavey, interview.

  10. Ohio State journal, undated article titled "The Good Ole Days." JFC Scrapbook, Binder 1, p. 57.

  CHAPTER 3: THE LOVE OF A FAMILY IS REPLACED BY A LOVE OF SPORTS (1894-1906)

  1. The gold school medal that Joseph F. Karr won was excellence in Bible history (written on the front). The actual medal is 2 and 5/16th inches in length and 1 and 1/2 inches wide and belongs to the Carr family in Columbus.

  2. Machinist information came from newspaper article written by Russ Needham, Columbus Citizen, January 9, 1931. Gregory Carr, author interview, July 31, 2004. Michael Carr, author interview, July 31, 2004.

  3. James Carr, author interview, July 31, 2004.

  4. Ohio State Journal, July 23, 1898. Columbus Dispatch, July 21, 1898.

  5. The information about the Carr family name came from the Carr family and research done by Margaret Mooney. Also, Columbus City Directories, 1864-1940.

  6. Margaret Mooney, author interview, July 31, 2004.

  7. Ohio State Journal, May 24, 1939.

  8. Canton Repository, May 21, 1939.

  9. Chris Willis, The Columbus Panhandles: A Complete History of Pro Football's Toughest Team, 1900-1922 (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2007), 6-9.

  10. Columbus Dispatch, February 6, 1905. Columbus Press-Post, February 6, 1905.

  11. Gregory Carr, interview.

  12. Columbus City Directories, 1899-1914.

  13. Information on the Massillon-Canton game is from Bob Carroll, The Tigers Roar: Professional Football in Ohio, 1903-09 (North Huntingdon, PA: Pro Football Researchers Association, 1990), 45-80.

  14. Michael Carr, interview.

  CHAPTER 4: THE COLUMBUS PANHANDLES AND THE GREAT NESSER BROTHERS (1907-1909)

  1. Robert W. Peterson, Pigskin: The Early Years of Pro Football (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 45-46.

  2. Joe F. Carr, as told to Michael Fanning, "Post-Graduate Football," unpublished, 1938, 18.