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Showdown (eBook)
256 Seiten
Beacon Press (Verlag)
978-0-8070-0075-5 (ISBN)
In 1961--as America crackled with racial tension--the Washington Redskins stood alone as the only professional football team without a black player on its roster. In fact, during the entire twenty-five-year history of the franchise, no African American had ever played for George Preston Marshall, the Redskins' cantankerous principal owner. With slicked-down white hair and angular facial features, the nattily attired, sixty-four-year-old NFL team owner already had a well-deserved reputation for flamboyance, showmanship, and erratic behavior. And like other Southern-born segregationists, Marshall stood firm against race-mixing. 'We'll start signing Negroes,' he once boasted, 'when the Harlem Globetrotters start signing whites.' But that was about to change.
Opposing Marshall was Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, whose determination that the Redskins--or 'Paleskins,' as he called them--reflect John F. Kennedy's New Frontier ideals led to one of the most high-profile contests to spill beyond the sports pages. Realizing that racial justice and gridiron success had the potential either to dovetail or take an ugly turn, civil rights advocates and sports fans alike anxiously turned their eyes toward the nation's capital. There was always the possibility that Marshall--one of the NFL's most influential and dominating founding fathers--might defy demands from the Kennedy administration to desegregate his lily-white team. When further pressured to desegregate by the press, Marshall remained defiant, declaring that no one, including the White House, could tell him how to run his business.
In Showdown, sports historian Thomas G. Smith captures this striking moment, one that held sweeping implications not only for one team's racist policy but also for a sharply segregated city and for the nation as a whole. Part sports history, part civil rights story, this compelling and untold narrative serves as a powerful lens onto racism in sport, illustrating how, in microcosm, the fight to desegregate the Redskins was part of a wider struggle against racial injustice in America.
From the Hardcover edition.
In 1961as America crackled with racial tensionthe Washington Redskins stood alone as the only professional football team without a black player on its roster. In fact, during the entire twenty-five-year history of the franchise, no African American had ever played for George Preston Marshall, the Redskins' cantankerous principal owner. With slicked-down white hair and angular facial features, the nattily attired, sixty-four-year-old NFL team owner already had a well-deserved reputation for flamboyance, showmanship, and erratic behavior. And like other Southern-born segregationists, Marshall stood firm against race-mixing. ';We'll start signing Negroes,' he once boasted, ';when the Harlem Globetrotters start signing whites.' But that was about to change. Opposing Marshall was Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, whose determination that the Redskinsor ';Paleskins,' as he called themreflect John F. Kennedy's New Frontier ideals led to one of the most high-profile contests to spill beyond the sports pages. Realizing that racial justice and gridiron success had the potential either to dovetail or take an ugly turn, civil rights advocates and sports fans alike anxiously turned their eyes toward the nation's capital. There was always the possibility that Marshallone of the NFL's most influential and dominating founding fathersmight defy demands from the Kennedy administration to desegregate his lily-white team. When further pressured to desegregate by the press, Marshall remained defiant, declaring that no one, including the White House, could tell him how to run his business. In Showdown, sports historian Thomas G. Smith captures this striking moment, one that held sweeping implications not only for one team's racist policy but also for a sharply segregated city and for the nation as a whole. Part sports history, part civil rights story, this compelling and untold narrative serves as a powerful lens onto racism in sport, illustrating how, in microcosm, the fight to desegregate the Redskins was part of a wider struggle against racial injustice in America.From the Hardcover edition.
The Washington Whiteskins
On November 23, 1947, the Washington Redskins held a fanappreciation day for their iconic quarterback, Sammy Baugh. They presented him with a glistening maroon car with wide, white-walled tires, the number '33' on the front bumper plate, and a door panel reading 'Slingin' Sam--the Redskins Man.' On that special day, before more than 30,000 fervid fans, Baugh had one of his best games, rifling six touchdown passes to down the defending league champion Chicago Cardinals, 45--21. After the game, he drove his sister and brother-in-law to Philadelphia. On his return to Washington that same evening, an oncoming vehicle forced him into a skid that demolished his spiffy new automobile. Baugh was unhurt, but the car wreck would come to symbolize the Redskins' football fortunes in the years following World War II. From 1946 through 1961, the Redskins enjoyed only three winning seasons, appeared in no title or championship games, and amassed a record of 69 wins, 116 losses, and 8 ties. They devoured eight head coaches and played no black athletes.
The most obvious reason for the Redskins' futility is that they did not have enough skilled players, and for that crucial shortcoming, George Marshall must be held accountable. His skill at promotion did not extend to the building of a winning franchise. His monumental ego, and perhaps the team's past success under Sammy Baugh, gave him an exaggerated sense of his understanding of the game and his ability to assess talent. Arrogant, autocratic, meddlesome, bigoted, and caustic, he also failed to establish a comfortable work environment for his players and coaches.
By the mid-1940s, if not earlier, Marshall had developed an obsession with football that bordered on the pathological. To paraphrase Washington Post writer Richard Coe, George Marshall not only owned the Redskins, but the Redskins 'owned' him. 'I've never found anything I enjoyed more,' Marshall said of football. 'If I get out of football, I'll retire, there's nothing else I'd want to do. To do anything well, you have to enjoy it first. And not just for the money, either. Anything else is just another form of prostitution.' In 1946, he sold his laundry business to devote more time and attention to football. Aside from football, only the theater captivated him. When he went out on the town, which was often, he did so mainly for selfaggrandizement and promotion of the Redskins.
Marshall's preoccupation with football strained his family life. He rarely saw his two children from his first marriage, and his union with Corinne became a sham. 'How anyone can be interested in football when he's married to Corinne Griffith is one of the great mysteries of life,' wrote one baffled sportswriter. She lived most of the year in Beverly Hills, California, where she sold real estate. Marshall saw his wife occasionally when the Redskins travelled to Occidental College in southern California for training camp, but mostly the couple lived separate lives. Corinne moved west because she resented subordinating her life to football. On a local 1953 television program called The Redskin Show, Marshall said of Corinne: 'She used to be the Corinne Griffith of the movies until she became more famous as Mrs. George Preston Marshall.'
Corinne did try to take an interest in football. She wrote the lyrics to 'Hail to the Redskins,' helped choreograph halftime shows, initially attended games, and plugged the team in a 1947 book, My Life with the Redskins. But she never developed any affection for the game....
Erscheint lt. Verlag | 6.9.2011 |
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Sprache | englisch |
Themenwelt | Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Ballsport |
Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte | |
Weitere Fachgebiete ► Sportwissenschaft | |
ISBN-10 | 0-8070-0075-2 / 0807000752 |
ISBN-13 | 978-0-8070-0075-5 / 9780807000755 |
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