Washington Football Team: A history of the franchise’s owners

GEORGE PRESTON MARSHALL (Majority owner, 1932-1969)

Marshall retained majority ownership until his death in 1969 but over a several-year period in the early-60s, ill health forced him to relinquish daily operations. By 1965, though still the nominal owner, he was uninvolved in team business.

Coming to terms with Marshall and his extraordinary career in professional sports is a chore for any serious fan of the franchise he founded. On the one hand, he was the man who, along with a few soon-to-be-forgotten partners, birthed the franchise into existence in 1932 as the Boston Braves. Five years later, he was the man who moved the team to its new home in Washington. In those early days, under his leadership, Washington won two Championships, and was often a contender for the title.

But those early achievements barely scratch the surface of what George Preston Marshall meant to the NFL. Unlike prominent owners the likes of Chicago’s George Halas, Marshall had no particular football knowledge. He presided over a dry cleaning empire, and harbored ambitions of becoming an actor. It was this latter passion – a passion for show business – that made Marshall instrumental in elevating the league from its second-class status to the new national pastime by the end of his life.

Marshall proposed numerous on-field rule changes to make the game more exciting. The most important of these – liberalizing the ability of the quarterback to throw a forward pass, the use of hash marks to allow an offense better spacing – became fundamental components of what the game would become.

And off the field, he brought the showman’s touch, creating the concepts of a marching band and uniformed cheerleaders, halftime shows, radio and then television networks, as well as many other successful and less-than-successful innovations.

George Preston Marshall was elected into the inaugural call of the Pro Football Hall of Fame with very good reason.

And yet, Marshall embodied many of the worst qualities you could find in an owner. His meddlesome nature caused him to constantly interfere in games, running onto the field to harangue an official over a questionable call or to make suggestions/demands of his coaches regarding personnel and play-calling. He was also notoriously stingy, and this caused him to lose many fine players over the years.

Marshall was wise enough to hire the outstanding coach Ray Flaherty when the team moved to Washington, and he was savvy enough to retain him even after Flaherty openly challenged the owner’s attempts to involve himself in on-field decisions. That decision paid off in a championship in 1937. But as soon as he got his chance, Marshall would jettison Flaherty for more acquiescent coaches, and that decision would lead into a long, slow slide into mediocrity and beyond.

Worst of all, Marshal was a bigot. He was the last owner to integrate his team, and he only did so under the threat of federal sanctions. By that time, in the early 1960s, he was presiding over the worst franchise in the league, a laughingstock that struggled to win even a game or two. His apologists claim the owner bore no racist intentions. They claim this was a business decision. There were no teams in the south at this point. The shrewd businessman in Marshall jumped on this opportunity to extend his fan base into the deep south, and he maintained that such a fan base would not tolerate black players.

At best, this was short-sighted and weak-willed. At worst, it was a crass rationalization of his inherent racism. Subsequent research suggests that the latter is closer to the truth.

Whether you choose to accept such things as being products of a particular time or not is your own decision. At least one part of his legacy is undeniable. Without George Preston Marshall, there may have never been a professional football team in Washington DC. A team probably would have been established in Baltimore, and that may have been it for the region.

Marshall sold off a quarter interest of the franchise to a Canadian businessman living in California in the early 1960s, but rules regarding cross-ownership in multiple leagues prevented the new minority owner from taking an active role in the team’s operations. Consequently, when Marshall’s health began deteriorating in 1963, another minority owner with a mere five percent stake began to seize control. And his name was …