Biography
Pete Rozelle ranks as the most successful executive in the history of American sports. Under Rozelle's management of commissioner, professional American football overtook baseball as America's past-time and television came to maturity as the prime conduit for sports entertainment.
When Rozelle took over the NFL as Commissioner in 1960, the league had only 12 teams and was facing competition from the upstart American Football League. The popularity of pro football was such that attendance at stadiums was lagging and some franchises were making as as $75,000 a season in TV rights. In the first decade under Rozelle, the NFL expanded and instituted the title game between the NFL and AFL that became known as the Super Bowl, preparatory to the 1970 merger of the two leagues under the NFL banner. Stadiums were packed and season tickets became such hard-to-come items that one had to inherit them or wait for the death of other holders before becoming part of the hallowed few with the treasured ducats. In the first decade of his commissionership, the value of a franchise increased dramatically.
Rozelle made the decision to televise games on all of the-then three national networks. In the 1960s, football flourished as it was the ideal sport to exploit the new technologies such as videotape. The popularity of the sport exploded and by the end of the decade it was the nation's #1 sport.
Rozelle also should be remembered for helping break down the barriers that limited opportunities for African American players, though the rival AFL showed the way in drafting black players from small, traditionally African American colleges ignored by the NFL.
Born in South Gate, California, on March 1, 1926, Alvin Ray Rozelle -- who had been nicknamed Pete as a child of five by his uncle -- grew up in the Los Angeles suburb Lynwood, California. He served a two-year hitch in the Navy tour, then attended Compton Junior College and the University of San Francisco, a Jesuit school, where he graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in 1950.
Rozelle worked as a public relations officer for USF's athletic-department while a student, and then was hired as USF's assistant athletic director after graduating, leading to a job with the Los Angeles Rams, which hired Rozelle as publicity director in 1952. In 1955, Rozelle left the NFL for corporate public relations, but the Rams appointed him as general manager in 1955.
Bert Bell, the serving NFL commissioner, had recommended Rozelle as his diplomatic skills would be useful in settling an ownership dispute among the Rams owners. It was his political skills rather than his skills as a sports franchise general manager that made his reputation. Although he was quite successful at marketing the franchise, pioneering the sale of souvenirs, he was less successful at trades and scouting.
When Commissioner Bell died on October 11, 1959, NFL Treasurer Austin Gunsel took over management of the League for the rest of the season. The 50-year old Gunsel was a former F.B.I. agent who had served as both J. Edgar Hoover's administrative assistant and as the head of the NFL's investigative department under Bell before being made League treasurer in 1956 (a post he would hold until his retirement in 1966).
Gunsel was the favorite to be appointed permanent commissioner. However, at the January 1960 NFL general meeting held after the season concluded, the NFL owners -- facing competition from the upstart AFL, which had completed its first season -- elected Rozelle of the Rams the new Commissioner after 23 ballots. Rozelle's diplomacy and intelligence, as well as his marketing skills, had won him the job. He was 34 years old.
Rozelle presided over the League for 29 years, until 1989. When he retired, the NFL was hurt by drug scandals, unresolved labor problems, and Rozelle's long-standing feud with Oakland Raiders coach-owner Al Davis, the former AFL Commissioner who had resigned over the merger with the NFL.
Rozelle died on December 6, 1996, in Rancho Santa Fe, California, from brain cancer. His name had been synonymous with football, as that of Judge Kenesaw M. Landis had been with baseball two generations earlier, during its reign as America's favorite (outdoor) sport.
