Carroll Rosenbloom | |
|---|---|
 Rosenbloom,c. 1953 | |
| Born | (1907-03-05)March 5, 1907 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Died | April 2, 1979(1979-04-02) (aged 72) Golden Beach, Florida, U.S. |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Owner of theBaltimore Colts andLos Angeles Rams |
| Spouse(s) | Velma Anderson (divorced) |
| Children | 5, includingSteve Rosenbloom andChip Rosenbloom |
Dale Carroll Rosenbloom (March 5, 1907 – April 2, 1979) was an American businessman.[1] He was the owner of twoNational Football League (NFL) franchises: he was the first owner of theBaltimore Colts and later switched teams, taking ownership of theLos Angeles Rams in1972.[2][3]
During his stewardship of both franchises, Rosenbloom amassed the best ownership winning percentage in league history (.660), a total regular season record of 226 wins, 116 losses and 8 ties, as well as 3NFL championships (1958,1959,1968), and oneSuper Bowl (V).[4]
Rosenbloom has been described as the NFL's first modern owner and the first players' owner.[4] Rosenbloom was part of the NFL inner circle that negotiated the league's network TV contracts withNBC andCBS and theAFL–NFL merger, both of which contributed to professional football becoming both profitable and the most watched spectator sport in the United States.[4][5][6]
Born Dale Carroll Rosenbloom inBaltimore,Maryland, to Anna and Solomon Rosenbloom, he was the eighth of nine children, raised in aJewish family.[7] His father, an immigrant from RussianPoland, started a successful work-clothing manufacturing company.[2]
As a youth,Sports Illustrated described Rosenbloom as an "indifferent student" but a "good athlete," and competed infootball,baseball, andboxing.[2]
Rosenbloom graduated fromBaltimore City College in 1926 then later that year attended theUniversity of Pennsylvania inPhiladelphia, where he studiedpsychology andbusiness and was a two-yearletterman as ahalfback on thefootball team in 1927 and1928.[8][9] At the time, the Quakers' backfield coach wasBert Bell, who became thecommissioner of the NFL in1946.[2]
Upon graduation, Rosenbloom returned to Baltimore to work for his father's clothing company. After being sent to liquidate the Blue RidgeOveralls Company, a small factory his father had acquired, Rosenbloom decided he wanted to run the fledgling company on his own. Based inRoanoke, Virginia, Blue Ridge had suffered during theDepression. But Rosenbloom was intent to turn it around. When the U.S.Civilian Conservation Corps was authorized in 1933 and officials needed denim work clothes, Rosenbloom successfully secured Blue Ridge a large order.[2]
By 1940, after attaining distribution through large channels likeSears-Roebuck andJ.C. Penney, Blue Ridge had grown into a prosperous company allowing Rosenbloom to retire at 32.[2] (As a youth, Rosenbloom told his brother Ben he planned to retire at 34.)[2] During a brief retirement, Rosenbloom lived as a gentleman farmer on Maryland'sEastern Shore, growingcorn andpeaches. As well, during this time, Rosenbloom married Velma Anderson.[2]
Rosenbloom's father's death in 1942 cut hisretirement short, however. When Rosenbloom was named the executor of his father'sestate, he chose to return to business life.[2]
By 1959, Blue Ridge had grown to include almost a dozenshirt and overall companies and 7,000 employees, leading some to dub Rosenbloom "America's Overalls King."[4] In the financial interests of his family, Rosenbloom decided to sell the company to P & R, the price being $7 million in cash and more than $20 million in stock. At P & R, Rosenbloom served as a director.[2]
With the success of his firstenterprise, Rosenbloom diversified his business interests. In the late 1950s, Rosenbloom and his partners bought control of Universal Products Co. He went on to buyAmerican Totalisator and other small companies, eventually lumping them all together under the name Universal Controls, Inc.[2]
Rosenbloom was one of the largest individual shareholders inSeven Arts Productions Limited, which backed theBroadway musicalFunny Girl, and the filmsLolita,What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, andThe Night of the Iguana.[2]
After losing theoriginal Colts team after the1950 season, the city of Baltimore petitioned the NFL for another franchise. Around this time,NFL CommissionerBert Bell wanted to find a new home for theDallas Texans, an NFL expansion team that folded after one failed season in1952. Bell sought a competitive new owner with financial resources. From their days together at Penn, Bell thought that Rosenbloom would be a great fit. Although Rosenbloom was hesitant at first to own afranchise, he relented and bought the team, along with a group of other investors. Rosenbloom's share cost him $13,000. In January1953, the NFL awarded the city of Baltimore the franchise, with Rosenbloom as the principal owner.[3][5]
Adopting the nickname of the city's earlier professional incarnation, the Colts, Rosenbloom asked fans to give him five years to create a winning team.[2]
Before their first season, Rosenbloom helped organize one of the biggest trades in sports history: in exchange for tenCleveland Browns, the Colts traded five players. Among the players traded to Baltimore wereDon Shula,Art Spinney,Bert Rechichar,Carl Taseff,Ed Sharkey,Gern Nagler,Harry Agganis, Dick Batten, Stu Sheets, and Elmer Willhoite.[10]
In1954, the Colts hiredWeeb Ewbank as head coach. Ewbank led the Colts for nine seasons and won two conference and NFL Championships with the help of 1956 free agent quarterbackJohnny Unitas.[10]
On November 30,1958, the Colts clinched their first Western Conference title. Four weeks later, the team won its first NFL Championship, beating theNew York Giants 23–17 atYankee Stadium in what is regarded as "The Greatest Game Ever Played," six years after Rosenbloom purchased the team. The televised game, asudden death thriller, served as a launching point for the start of the NFL's enormous boom in popularity.[2][10][11]
The Colts repeated as champions in1959, again defeating the Giants, 31–16, for the NFL Championship before a home crowd at Baltimore'sMemorial Stadium.[11]During the next three seasons, the Colts struggled andGreen Bay won the division.[10] In January1963, Rosenbloom let go of Coach Ewbank and hired former playerDon Shula, then the youngest coach in NFL history at age 33.[10][12][13]
Over the next several seasons the team did not win another championship but did make it to theNFL Championship game in1964, losing to theCleveland Browns27–0, and toSuper Bowl III following the1968 season, again to lose, this time to the underdogNew York Jets, 16–7 (the Jets were coached by Ewbank).[11] (The AFL–NFL Championship Game was retroactively renamed Super Bowl in 1966 prior to the AFL-NFL merger of 1970.)
After the1969 season, Shula left Baltimore forMiami after Dolphins ownerJoe Robbie tempted Shula with about $750,000 and other perks.[7] Rosenbloom was furious and successfully argued that Miami had tampered with Shula. Because of the infraction, the NFL awarded Baltimore with Miami's1971 first-round draft choice.[7]
Following the1970 season on January 17, 1971, the Colts won a fourth league title, defeating theDallas Cowboys16–13 inSuper Bowl V in Miami.[10][11]
A fierce competitor, Rosenbloom had a profound interest in his team succeeding. Describing his commitment to the Colts and his experience running a franchise, Rosenbloom toldSports Illustrated magazine:
"After the first year in football, I found that of all the things I've ever done, this is the thing. There is nothing more rewarding. You have everything wrapped up in one bundle. You meet much nicer people than you do in business. You meet the public, and you must learn to look out for them. There's no place where your word is more your bond than in sports. You'd never find 14 men who deal as fairly with one another as the 14 owners in the National Football League, particularly after some of the things that have gone on in business or on Wall Street. You play a part in the lives of young men, and you help them grow. And then every Sunday you have the great pleasure of dying."[2]
However, while Rosenbloom loved the Colts, due to issues withMemorial Stadium and the city's officials, Rosenbloom wanted to leave Baltimore.[3] In the next offseason in 1972, Rosenbloom completed a historic tax-free swapping of teams with newLos Angeles Rams ownerRobert Irsay.[14] When Rosenbloom left, he received recognition from his players. Colts linebackerMike Curtis said, "I hate to see Carroll go. He was a damn good owner. It wasn't the coaches who made Baltimore a winner for 14 years."[3]
Prior to the1972 season, Rosenbloom assumed control as the majority owner of the Rams.[3][14]
The Rams remained solid contenders in the 1970s, winning seven straightNFC West division titles between1973 and1979. Though a strong team, the Rams lost the first four conference championship games they played in that decade, twice toMinnesota (1974,1976) and twice toDallas (1975,1978) and failed to advance to aSuper Bowl.[15]
In 1978, Rosenbloom announced plans to move the Rams toAnaheim Stadium inOrange County, citing dissatisfaction with theLos Angeles Coliseum and the location as the motives behind the move.[16] (The move eventually occurred in1980, over a year after Rosenbloom's death. The extra time was needed to retrofit the venue, which opened in1966 forCalifornia Angels, from a baseball-only facility into a multi-purpose stadium.)[15]Rosenbloom hired theKerlan Jobe Sports Medicine Group to manage the health of his players. He befriended Dr.Toby Freedman as his contact within the Medical Group and family physician.
While swimming atGolden Beach, Florida, Rosenbloom drowned on April 2, 1979, at age 72.[17][18] An unsigned eulogy by the editors in the respected Los Angeles-based annualPetersen's Pro Football indicated that windy weather had forced the cancellation of a planned morning tennis match, and moved Rosenbloom to swim in the ocean as an alternative form of daily exercise; he had subsequently perished in the surf.[19]
Though Dr. Joseph H. Davis, theDade County coroner, stated, "there is not one scintilla of reason to believe this is anything other than an unfortunate accident," aPBSFrontline documentary called "An Unauthorized History of the NFL" suggested that Rosenbloom, a knowngambler,[20] may have been murdered.[21] SonSteve Rosenbloom stated that his father was a poor swimmer who never went into water alone, tellingFrontline "If he went out alone that day, he was breaking a habit of a lifetime."[22]
The final conclusion was that Carroll, who had been one of the firstheart bypass patients, had suffered aheart attack while swimming. Witnesses at the scene and the Miami coroner's office and the Miami chief of police confirmed this finding.[23]
After Rosenbloom's death, his second wife,Georgia Frontiere, inherited a 70% ownership stake in theLos Angeles Rams. Rosenbloom's five children inherited the other 30% in the form of equal 6% shares.[24][25][26] Rosenbloom's stepson Steve assumed primary owners' functions on an interim basis.[19]
Frontiere's inheritance came as a surprise to many fans, who thought Steve Rosenbloom, a Rams' vice-president, would assume ownership. The actual outcome was not a surprise to close friends and family, however, as Rosenbloom was trying to take advantage of the widow's tax exemption. A draft change of Rosenbloom's will leaving the team to Steve was never executed.[27]
Over 900 people attended Rosenbloom's memorial service, including 15 NFL owners, sportscasterHoward Cosell, the entire Rams organization and actorsWarren Beatty,Kirk Douglas,Cary Grant,Jimmy Stewart,Rod Steiger, andHenry Mancini.[4]
Rosenbloom influenced the modern day NFL in many ways, mainly in that he envisioned that the league could be a successful business. In 1960, the NFL owners were deadlocked about naming a successor to Commissioner Bell. After reviewing 23 ballots, Rosenbloom brought up the name of Los Angeles Rams general managerPete Rozelle as a compromise candidate because he had successfully made the Rams profitable.[4]
At the age of 33, Rozelle was elected commissioner. Rozelle, with the help of Rosenbloom, would spearhead equal revenue sharing of all TV contracts among the 12 league franchises, which helped make the league profitable and caused football to surpass baseball as the most watchedspectator sport in the US by the time of his departure from the post in 1989.[4]
Upon Rosenbloom's death, Rozelle said, "Carroll Rosenbloom played a major role in the growth and success of the NFL, both through the teams he produced and through his active participation in the league's decision making process."[4]
Rosenbloom was also influential in making the AFL-NFL merger possible. He helped push the merger forward in 1970 by taking $3 million and agreeing to move the Colts to theAmerican Football Conference (along with the Browns and Steelers).[4] He was also the NFL's first visible owner and its first players' owner, and envisioned revenue-generating stadiums and luxury suites before anyone else did.[4]
In 1960, the City of Baltimore awarded Rosenbloom the "Man of the Year Award."[28]
Since his death, the Rams' players and coaches give theCarroll Rosenbloom Memorial Award to the team's rookie of the year.[29]
Rosenbloom was elected to the Rams' Ring of Honor.[4]
Rosenbloom was married to Velma Anderson, his first wife, when he met his second wife, 20 years his junior, who was also married, at a party hosted by his friendJoseph Kennedy at his Palm Beach estate in 1957.[2][30][31] Rosenbloom met seven-times-married former lounge singerGeorgia Frontiere, then a TV personality inMiami. Rosenbloom and Frontiere married in 1966, though they had been together for eight years and had two children together.[31] When Rosenbloom died, Frontiere and his five children (Dan Rosenbloom, Steve Rosenbloom, and Suzanne Rosenbloom Irwin, from his first wife, and Lucia Rosenbloom Rodriguez andChip Rosenbloom with Frontiere) survived him. His granddaughter (daughter of Suzanne) is married toBreck Eisner, son of Disney executiveMichael Eisner.[32]
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