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Dan Reeves (American football executive)

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This article is about the owner of the National Football League's Rams franchise. For the NFL player and coach, see Dan Reeves. For other people named Dan Reeves, see Dan Reeves (disambiguation).
Dan Reeves
File:Dan Reeves (American football executive).jpg
Born
Daniel Farrell Reeves

June 30, 1912
New York City, New York, USA
DiedApril 15, 1971(1971-04-15) (aged 58)
New York City, New York, USA
Cause of deathHodgkin's disease
Resting placeGate of Heaven Cemetery
Hawthorne, New York
EducationGeorgetown University
(no degree)
Occupation(s)businessman and sports entrepreneur
Known forOwner of the NFL's Cleveland/Los Angeles Rams franchise, 1941–1971
Spouse(s)Mary V. Corron Reeves
(m.1935–1971, his death)
Children6

Daniel Farrell "Dan" Reeves (June 30, 1912 – April 15, 1971) was an American sports entrepreneur, best known as the owner of the National Football League's Rams franchise from 1941 to his death in 1971.[1][2]

Reeves is remembered for his pioneering move of the Rams from Cleveland to Los Angeles 78 years ago in 1946, where it became the first American major league sports franchise on the Pacific Coast.[3] He was also the first NFL owner to sign an African-American player in the post World War II era, inking deals with halfback Kenny Washington and end Woody Strode in 1946, as well as being the first to employ a full-time scouting staff.

Reeves was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967.

Early years

Born in New York City to Irish immigrants James Reeves and Rose Farrell, Reeves' father and an uncle, Daniel, had risen together from fruit peddlers to owners of a grocery-store chain, bringing wealth to the family.[4]

Reeves was a graduate of the Newman School in Lakewood, New Jersey, and attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., which he left before acquiring his degree. While attending Georgetown, Reeves met his future wife, Mary V. Corroon. The couple were married on October 25, 1935 and would together have six children.[4]

The Reeves family's grocery chain was sold to Safeway Stores in 1941, generating capital and freeing the youthful Dan Reeves, age 29, to pursue his dream of owning a professional football franchise.[4]

Purchase of Cleveland Rams

Together with his friend and business partner Robert Levy,[5][6] Reeves purchased the Cleveland Rams franchise in 1941 from a local ownership group for $135,000.[7] The team was a comparatively young one, launched in 1936, and finances were tight, with as few as 200 season ticket holders and no television revenue, forcing some players to work for as little as $100 per game.[7] The team did not operate in 1943, and Reeves became the sole owner in December, while serving stateside in the U.S. Army Air Forces.[8]

Despite its financial woes, the previously unsuccessful franchise began to turn around in 1944; the Rams won Western division title in 1945 and the championship game behind rookie quarterback and league MVP Bob Waterfield, a future member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.[9]

Move to Los Angeles

Immediately following the conclusion of the 1945 season, with its championship game played in icy Cleveland before 32,000 fans on December 15, Reeves announced his intention to move his team to sunny southern California, and the league approved the move on January 12, 1946.[10] On January 15, Rams team representatives went before the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission with a plan to lease use of the facility for home games — it was already the home venue for college football for both UCLA and USC of the Pacific Coast Conference.[11] On January 23, the Coliseum Commission approved use of the 103,000-seat stadium for Rams' Sunday home games during the 1946 season.[12]

In moving to Los Angeles, Reeves became the owner of the first American professional sports franchise to be located on the Pacific Coast, preceding the 1949 entrance of the San Francisco 49ers of the All-America Football Conference into the NFL and the 1957 relocation of the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers by nearly a decade.[13]

The team proved to be extremely successful on the field, with quarterback Bob Waterfield helping the team to three straight league championship games from 1949 to 1951, culminating in another championship trophy.[9] Boasting some of football's most glamorous stars, the Rams drew extremely well at the ticket office. Topped by a crowd of 102,368 for a San Francisco 49ers game in 1957, attendance for Rams games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum topped 80,000 on 22 occasions during the teams' first two decades in California.

Reeves also owned one of Los Angeles' first ice hockey teams, the Western Hockey League's Los Angeles Blades, which lasted from 1961 to 1967 and played nearby the Coliseum at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Given the Blades' success, Reeves was an early favorite to get a National Hockey League franchise during the 1967 NHL expansion, but the league awarded the team to Los Angeles Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke.[14]

Innovations

The innovative Reeves made several other significant contributions to pro football. He instituted the famed "Free Football for Kids" program that enabled youngsters to enjoy the game in their formative years and then, hopefully, become ardent fans as adults. His signing of the ex-UCLA great, Kenny Washington, in the spring of 1946 marked the first time a black player had been hired in the NFL since 1933.

Reeves' experimentation in the early days of television provided the groundwork for pro football's current successful TV policies. He was also the first to employ a full-time scouting staff.

Reeves's tenure as principal owner was never seemingly without controversy, for example, during the 1962 season, a public auction was conducted to try to find a new buyer for the financially strapped Rams franchise, which estimated that it had been losing an average of $300,000 a season for the past few years up to that date; with an unchallenged bid of about $7.1 million,[15] Reeves was able to secure 51% majority ownership of the team for the price of $4.2 million. An ecstatic Reeves immediately phoned his wife Mary, exclaiming, "We've bought the Rams! Can we afford it?" By the time of his death in 1971, the team's worth was estimated at $20 million.

Relationship with George Allen

In 1965, Reeves lured away head coach George Allen from the Chicago Bears. Allen made key trades and draft choices, which returned the team back to prominence within the next three seasons of his tenure. Allen allegedly had agreed on the deal with Reeves with two years remaining on his contract with the Bears, and a protracted legal battle followed.[16]

By 1968, Reeves had sought to go in a new direction as far as to find a new head coach for the team. On Christmas Day, Reeves attempted to fire Allen, but due to the wide public outcry of the Rams' fans over the dismissal, he finally relented and retained Allen as the head coach for the next two years, then fired him again after the 1970 season.[17]

Pro Football HOF enshrinement and death

Reeves was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967. For his contribution to sports in Los Angeles, he was honored with a Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum "Court of Honor" plaque by the Coliseum commissioners. A longtime smoker, Reeves's health began to deteriorate by 1969. Reeves, who was also diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease succumbed to cancer in his New York City apartment on April 15, 1971.

After Reeves' death, Baltimore Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom assumed control of the Rams in July 1972,[18] spinning off the Colts to Robert Irsay in a swap of franchises between the owners and their investors.[19] Reeves was survived by his wife Mary and their six children.[1][2]

References

  1. ^ a b "Dan Reeves, LA Rams' owner, dies". Press-Courier. Oxnard, California. Associated Press. April 16, 1971. p. 24.
  2. ^ a b "Services held for Dan Reeves". Wilmington Morning Star. North Carolina. UPI. April 17, 1971. p. 5C.
  3. ^ "Dan Reeves proved Indians were gone". Spartanburg Herald-Journal. South Carolina. Associated Press. April 18, 1971. p. C3.
  4. ^ a b c Wendy Kagan, Dan Reeves Biography: Brought First Major Team To West Coast, Hired Coach George Allen, Chronology, Awards And Accomplishments," Famous Sports Stars encyclopedia, sports.jrank.org/
  5. ^ "Cleveland grid team to be sold". Pittsburgh Press. May 1, 1941. p. 32.
  6. ^ "Cleveland Rams sold". St. Petersburg Times. Florida. INS. June 12, 1941. p. 9, section 2.
  7. ^ a b Tom Reed, "How Moving a Franchise from Cleveland to L.A. Benefited the Browns and Fostered Social Change," Cleveland Plain Dealer, www.cleveland.com, Feb. 3, 2014.
  8. ^ "Reeves sole Rams' owner". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. December 9, 1943. p. 14.
  9. ^ a b "Bob Waterfield: Biography," Pro Football Hall of Fame, www.profootballhof.com/
  10. ^ "Rams transfer to Los Angeles". Milwaukee Journal. Associated Press. January 13, 1946. p. 1, sports.
  11. ^ "Rams to Go After Coliseum Lease," San Mateo Times, vol. 35, no. 13 (Jan. 15, 1946), pg. 7.
  12. ^ "Los Angeles Pros to Use Coliseum," Tucson Daily Citizen, vol. 75, no. 20 (Jan. 23, 1946), pg. 12.
  13. ^ A.S. "Doc" Young, "The Black Athlete in the Golden Age of Sports, Part VI: The Black Athlete Makes His Mark," Ebony, May 1969, pg. 118.
  14. ^ Bass, Alan (2011). "Chapter 7: Los Angeles Kings". The Great Expansion: The Ultimate Risk That Changed the NHL Forever. pp. 87–93. ISBN 1-4502-8605-4.
  15. ^ "Reeves buys Los Angeles Rams for record sum of $7.1 million". Ocala Star-Banner. Associated Press. December 28, 1962. p. 5.
  16. ^ (Chicago) Bears take matter to court, AP article, The Miami News, Jan 12, 1966, accessed April 11, 2012.
  17. ^ Florence, Mal (December 31, 1970). "Allen fired by Rams' owner for second time in 2 years". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Florida. (Los Angeles Times). p. 1C.
  18. ^ "Colts' owner now sole owner of Rams". The Bulletin. UPI. July 14, 1972. p. 12.
  19. ^ Los Angeles (Rams) Owner Dan Reeves dies of cancer, UPI Article for The Palm Beach Post, Apr 16, 1971, accessed April 11, 2012.
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