George Preston Marshall: entrepreneur, racist

Marshall outside the Redskins downtown DC office

This is part two in a series on the integration of the Washington Redskins

Part 1:The fight for old DC
Part 2: George Preston Marshall: entrepreneur, racist

Before we can begin to understand the events of 1961-62 leading to the integration of the Washington Redskins, we must come to know George Preston Marshall. More so than any player in the first 40 years of the team’s history save Sammy Baugh, George Preston Marshall was the public face of the Washington Redskins. The Redskins were his team and Marshall, the “Big Chief,” put his imprimatur on every decision both on and off the field. Marshall’s legacy had a lasting impact not only on the Redskins but on the National Football League. He was behind many of the early innovations of the game we watch today. An understanding of Marshall and the way in which he handled his team is crucial in order to understand the decision to integrate.

George Preston Marshall was one of the most flamboyant, innovative, shrewd, reactionary, enigmatic, and contradictory figures in the history of professional football. Marshall never let his often controversial opinions go unexpressed, yet he could charm a room and win over even his staunchest critics. In the words of one Washington Star reporter, Marshall was “… a character in the truest sense of the word … he played many roles in his lifetime and he played them to the hilt” Wellington Brink of Holland’s Magazine gushed over Marshall as, “… a mirror of America. In him reflect the heritage and aspirations of a land as old as redwoods and young as the New Deal. As much as any one I know, George Preston Marshall embodies the bone and sinew of western democracy—a zest for pioneering, a pride in achievement, a bubbling imagination, a fierce independence, a driving energy, a broad resourcefulness and an ebullient faith and optimism.”

Born in Grafton, West Virginia in 1896 to T. Hill Marshall, the descendant of Virginia confederates and owner of the Palace Laundry in Washington, DC the city George Preston Marshall called home. Marshall was initially drawn to the theatre where he indulged his flair for showmanship, although he never earned more than minor roles in small plays. Marshall’s biggest ovation came in 1917 when he announced to a Canadian playhouse that the United States declared war on Germany. He would go on to serve in the armed forces during World War I before inheriting the Palace Laundry from his father. In the laundry business Marshall’s flair for showmanship and promotion would serve him well. Marshall painted all his laundry trucks blue and gold and made his drivers wear even more colorful uniforms. He came up with the advertising slogan “Long Live Linen,” and an innovative piece of advertising, he took out a blank full-page ad in a local newspaper, with small type at the bottom reading “This page was cleaned by Palace Laundry.”

Young George transformed what was a small family-run business into a 57-chain giant in Washington, DC. Marshall’s first experience with professional sports came in 1926 when he financed a professional basketball team in Washington—the Palace Five. When the team did not produce a profit at the gate Marshall quickly sold the team. Professional football however, fit Marshall’s personality much better. In 1932, he bought the Boston Braves and changed the team’s name to “Redskins” to separate his squad from Boston’s other baseball team also called the Braves. Marshall’s penchant for showmanship surfaced in his first meeting with NFL owners in 1932. As the owners were getting ready to end their conferences for the day, Marshall, the newcomer, stood up before the owners and took the stage, foreshadowing the lust for the spotlight that would mark his legacy:

“I realize that you men know your football inside and out. I know football from the spectator’s point of view. But that’s why I’m speaking to you. From the spectators’ it is boring. The way I look at it, we’re in show business. And when a show becomes boring to the public you throw it out and put a more interesting one in its place. That’s why I want to change the rules. I want to give the public the kind of show they want.”

Shortly after that the NFL created a rules committee and all of Marshall’s proposals were adopted. They were revolutionary changes to the game of football. The league split into two divisions with a championship game to give more teams a chance at winning while simultaneously generating greater fan interest. He proposed an annual all-star game that became the Pro Bowl, the college draft, roster limitations, moving the goal posts from the back to the front of the end zone to foster more field goal attempts, and tapering the end of the ball to invigorate the passing game, which Marshall believed delighted the fans more than the plodding running style of most NFL teams.

In addition to the on-field product Marshall introduced the first halftime shows, the first marching band, and the first cheerleaders to professional football. Marshall’s second wife, silent screen star Corinne “Connie” Griffith Marshall authored the Redskins fight song Hail to the Redskins. He also created a radio and later a television network to broadcast Redskins games. Perhaps the most enjoyed feature of Marshall’s football extravaganzas was the arrival of Santa Claus. Santa Claus would arrive at Griffith Stadium by parade float, helicopter, or parachute. One year Santa missed Griffith Stadium field entirely landing helplessly over the right field wall. Marshall, according to Jack Walsh of the Washington Post, “got as much mileage out of Mr. Claus as the department stores.”

Marshall would not let even the most inclement of weather interfere with putting on a show. Some times he could have cared less about the game itself, as Sam Huff explains:

One time, we were going to play the Redskins {Huff achieved fame as a fearsome linebacker with the New York Giants] and had a hell of a snowstorm in Washington. You know, six to eight inches of snow. And they had a tarpaulin on the field. And they couldn’t—they didn’t have any equipment to get the snow off of the tarpaulin… I heard this with my own ears, the game was delayed. Nobody was allowed to go out and drive. They were not prepared for that much snow in Washington, DC. So they shoveled … the people there shoveled sidelines and markers… you know, in the snow. So we played on top of six inches of snow. But, before that, I remembered George Preston Marshall coming to the Giant locker room and saying to, I think it was Jack Mara, Wellington Mara’s brother—might have said it to Wellington, I don't know; one of them—he said, “We’re ready to go,” and Mr. Mara said, “You got the tarpaulin off the field?” He said, “No,” we got boots for the band.” See? He loved the band.

Boston sports fans showed the Redskins little in the way of fan support. So upset with local support, when the Redskins won the 1936 Eastern Division Title, he moved the NFL Championship Game against the Green Bay Packers from Boston to New York’s Polo Grounds. In Boston, the Redskins barely broke even. At one game they drew less than $5,000 in gate receipts with tickets prices that ranged from $1.00 to $1.65. The team lost $46,000 its first year in Boston. Marshall was upset with the local Boston newspapers as well. He had tried to cozy up to the press so they would write about his team to generate fan interest. However, Boston’s sportswriters largely ignored the Redskins and Marshall vowed not to “play football in a place that gave more publicity to a girl’s hockey team than football” said Bernard Nordlinger Marshall’s attorney and Redskins minority stockholder. In 1937 Marshall moved the Redskins to his native Washington and the team was an instant success.

Under the tutelage of head coach Ray Flaherty and the passing of the legendary Sammy Baugh, the Redskins won the 1937 NFL championship. In Washington, the Redskins either contended for or won the NFL championship until 1945. Almost immediately upon their arrival in Washington the Redskins and their fans began a love affair that has lasted for over 75 years. This fan devotion is directly attributable to the promotional savvy and showmanship of George Preston Marshall.

At the end of the 1937 season the Redskins faced the New York Giants in the Eastern Division Title game at the Polo Grounds. Marshall organized an “impromptu” parade of more than 10,000 Redskins fans complete with a 150-piece marching band in full Native American headdress blaring Hail to the Redskins, down Seventh Avenue through the heart of Manhattan. Marshall chartered special trains from Washington to New York to orchestrate the parade. A New York journalist observed, “George Preston Marshall slipped unobtrusively into New York today at the head of a 100-piece band."  The Redskins won the game 49-14, but more importantly, unlike in Boston, Marshall got his fan base, a fan base that to this day would prove to be the one of the most loyal in all of professional sports.

Marshall’s innovations and contributions would earn him charter membership in the Professional Football Hall of Fame.

Unfortunately, for a man who made his mark on professional football by being creative and advocating change, Marshall was an extreme reactionary when it came to matters of race, and the formation of a player’s union. Marshall’s frugal ways were known throughout the league. He lost the services of future Hall of Fame running back Cliff Battles over the issue of a slight raise in salary in 1937. When Battles was in the Bears locker room after Chicago’s 73-0 victory over the Redskins in the 1940 title game, Marshall accused Battles of giving the Redskins plays to the Bears. Marshall lashed out in the press at Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney for driving up player salaries by signing a college player for $15,800 a season. He flatly refused to pay his players for pre-season exhibition games when other teams in the league began to do so. One time Marshall callously released running back Vic Jancowicz from the team after he suffered debilitating, career-ending injuries in an auto accident. Marshall never offered Jancowicz any monetary assistance.

When it came to running his team he was tight fisted and would quibble over the price of a stamp, however he had no trouble ordering private train for himself and his entourage to follow the team on road games. Marshall also ran into trouble when he was accused in 1943 of stealing funds from an Army relief charity game as alleged by legendary Washington Post reporter Shirley Povich. Marshall sued Povich and the paper for $200,000 in damages for libel and defamation. Povich and the Post won the case. The jury ruled that Marshall had not been defamed. Povich was a constant gadfly for Marshall.

This would not be the only time Marshall would be accused of embezzling funds. In 1956 Harry Wismer, the team’s broadcaster and minority stock holder leveled charges that Marshall improperly took team funds totaling over $500,000 for his own personal use. The funds in question were used for a limousine and chauffeur and maids to clean Marshall’s home in Georgetown. Marshall and the other stockholder Milton King of the Washington law firm of King & Nordlinger ousted Wismer from the Redskins’ board of directors. King was also the team’s attorney. Wismer claimed that he was forced out for urging Marshall to sign African-American players and because he was critical of Marshall’s handling of the Jancowicz situation. Marshall and King voted replaced Wismer with Gene Archer, a local radio and television personality, whose only claim to fame was singing the national anthem at the Republican National Convention, prompting Shirley Povich to write, “What the hell is Gene Archer doing on the board of directors of the Redskins?” Wismer’s suit was eventually dismissed. Marshall’s dubious financial dealings date back to his initial “investment” in the team. He and his two other investors agreed to put up $1,500 as the initial investment fee plus another $1,500 as a guarantee that the new Boston franchise would finish out the 1932 season. Marshall never paid either amount and when he bought out his partners he repaid them only the original $1,500 investment.

In one of the most delicious ironies in NFL history, Marshall’s dogmatic love and for the show and miserliness gave birth to the Redskins most hated rival the Dallas Cowboys. Although Connie Griffith wrote some of the original lyrics to Hail to the Redskins, it was Barnee Breeskin a local conductor who wrote the music and owned the rights to the song. Breeskin and Marshall had a falling out and Breeskin sold the rights to the song to Clint Murchison the owner of the nascent Dallas Cowboys franchise, whose existence was predicated on Marshall voting for expansion. Marshall’s Redskins were the only team south of the Mason-Dixon Line and marketed directly at the south, was not going to let a Murchison horn in on his market. Murchison held the rights to Hail to the Redskins as ransom for Marshall’s vote for the expansion Cowboys. Marshall reversed his position, recovered his beloved fight song, and thus a rivalry was born.

Many in the Redskins commentariat are critical of current owner Daniel Snyder for his meddling in football matters. Marshall however, makes Snyder look like and absentee owner. Marshall would call plays in from his owner’s box and order his coaches to make substitutions. Cliff Battles once said of Marshall, “… he would sit on the bench, and if a player went by him on his way into the game, Marshall was liable to tell the player anything. He might tell him to run or kick or pass.”  In his column about the lawsuit and ousting of Wismer by Marshall, Shirley Povich quipped, “Marshall … preferred to localize the directorships of men actively participating in club affairs. On that count, Marshall himself has always qualified handsomely and participating in club affairs so vigorously that some of his head coaches found themselves out-participated.”  Marshall fired 9 head coaches in a 17-year span.

Marshall was so thoroughly convinced that he knew the game of football better than anyone that he had the temerity to lecture legendary coaches Jim Tatum and Paul “Bear” Bryant on the proper execution of the T-formation. Marshall was so obsessed with the T-formation so much that he had all his coaches install it in the offense. He would constantly call down to the field to give “advice” to his coaches prompting one sportswriter to label it “Marshall’s AT&T formation”. The most memorable of Marshall’s meddling came when the team was still in Boston. Marshall ordered his coach “Lone Star” Dietz to kick off if they won the coin toss. The Redskins won the toss and Marshall headed back to his owners box. To his astonishment, when Marshall sat down to watch the game, he saw the Redskins readying to receive a kick off. Marshall called down to Dietz in a fit of rage. “Dammit Dietz, I thought I told you to kick off, not receive.” Dietz replied, “Where have you been George? We did kick off, and they ran it back for a touchdown.”

The only aspect of Marshall’s personality that outsized his flamboyancy, penny pinching, and meddling was his racism. Although Marshall was outspoken on many subjects, and never let pass an opportunity to speak his mind, he rarely spoke about his racist leanings. In fact when Harry Wismer alleged that one of the reasons Marshall ousted him from the board of directors was over his pleas to sign Black players, Marshall avoided the allegation altogether and refused to make any public statements about it. Jack Walsh writing the Washington Post’s obituary on Marshall wrote:

“On the racial question Marshall always was quite careful about what he said on the record and what he put in writing. He had a stock answer: ‘I'm not in the business of exploiting any race or religion. I'm solely interested in fielding a winning football team.’ However, it seemed more than coincidental that his Redskins never gave as much as a preseason tryout to Negro before 1962 when seven went to training camp and four made the team.”

However, there were times when Marshall did speak clearly and openly on the subject of race, although short in length, these pronouncements made his racism absolutely clear to anyone with the eyes to see it. Marshall, in reaction to questions of his discriminatory policies, quipped, “We’ll start signing Negroes when the Harlem Globetrotters start signing whites.” One sportswriter called Marshall’s racist practices “the Marshall Plan” and NAACP stood for “Never at Anytime Colored Players.” Marshall’s bigotry wasn’t reserved for just African-Americans. The famous composer Oscar Levant asked Marshall if he was anti-Semitic, Marshall replied, “Oh no I love Jews, especially when they’re customers … No one of intelligence has ever questioned my theories on race or religion.”

Hail to the Redskins originally contained the verse “Fight for old Dixie”, to pander to the team’s southern fan base, it was later changed to “Fight for Old DC.” Marshall had the team’s marching band play the Confederate anthem Dixie at halftime. He even lead a rendition of that song at the team’s “Welcome Home Luncheon” every year after training camp. At the 1962 Welcome Home Luncheon, the first season of the Redskins integrated roster, Bobby Mitchell told Steve Sabol of NFL Films that he was:

“surprised at one point in the luncheon everybody stood up to sing Dixie and he was standing up and George Preston Marshall was standing behind him and I guess the song started and Mitchell was standing there looking shocked and he felt a tap on the shoulder. It was Marshall, who bellowed, ‘Bobby Mitchell sing!’”

Marshall’s southern heritage definitely played into his racial philosophy. Indeed, the Holland’s profile of Marshall stated that the “Redskins rip and snort across the five yard stripes, fill the air with footballs in the Marshall approved Southern style  [emphasis mine].”  Marshall also directed the team’s marching band to play Dixie before during and after home games. Even after his death Marshall’s racism provoked controversy. In his will Marshall left a considerable endowment to fund a charity dedicated to helping underprivileged children in the Washington area. The document however, contained a provision that stipulated no money was to be used to help minority children. This provision was later dropped in a lawsuit involving Marshall’s children and the Redskins new majority stockholder, famed trial lawyer Edward Bennett Williams.

George Preston Marshall was savvy entrepreneur, master showman and promoter, NFL pioneer and innovator, miserly businessman, and a racist. He was both a revolutionary and reactionary who loved profit and the spotlight. The contradiction of George Preston Marshall’s personality would come to be a significant factor in the integration of the Washington Redskins. The sad irony is that the changing spirit of the times would pass by the man who had, at one time, been synonymous with innovation and change.

Next: Part 3: The Integration, Segregation, and Re-integration of Pro Football.