Athletes - Bert Bell

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	Athletes - Bert Bell

DeBenneville (Bert) Bell (February 25, 1895 - October 11, 1959) was co-founder (with Lud Wray--a former college teammate) of the Frankford Yellow Jackets in 1924 (whose name was changed to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1933), and commissioner of the National Football League from 1946 until his death.

Bell grew up in a prominent Philadelphia family, the son of John Cromwell Bell, Pennsylvania's attorney general. Once commenting on his son's plans for college, the elder Bell said, "Bert will go to Penn (the University of Pennsylvania) or he will go to hell." While there, Bell played quarterback for the Quakers' football team, a stretch that was interrupted by World War I service at the Mobile Hospital Unit in France.

After graduating, Bell served as backfield coach at his alma mater from 1920 to 1928, then held the same position for two years at Temple University in 1930 and 1931. In 1933, he became co-owner of the Eagles for $2,500.

On May 6, 1934, he married Broadway actress Frances Upton. They would have three children (sons Bert, Jr. and Upton, and daughter Jane).

Taking the approach of making the overall league stronger, Bell was credited with establishing the NFL draft in 1935. By 1937, the Eagles had lost $90,000 and were put up for public auction. Bell became sole owner with a winning bid of $4,500, but after continuing financial struggles, he became co-owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers with his friend Art Rooney in a bizarre transaction in which Rooney sold the Steelers to Philadelphia businessman Alexis Thompson, who then traded franchises with Bell. By 1943, a wartime manpower shortage led the Steelers and Eagles to temporarily merge into the "Pennsylvania Steagles" (officially known as "Phil-Pitt"). The following year, the Steelers merged with the Chicago Cardinals.

On January 11, 1946, Bell was selected to replace Elmer Layden as NFL commissioner and subsequently sold his ownership in the Steelers after being given a three-year contract at $25,000 per year. One year later, the contract was changed to a five-year pact at the same salary, a move that was followed in 1949 by a ten-year agreement that boosted his annual pay to $30,000.

Among his accomplishments as commissioner, Bell merged the league with the All-America Football Conference, developed the league's relationship with the new medium of television, and did battle with the Canadian Football League over scheduling and player rights. One of his first major acts dealt with a gambling scandal that marred the 1946 NFL Championship game. In response, he was able to create laws in virtually every state that made it a crime for athletes not to report a bribe attempt. In addition to all these duties, Bell also single-handedly plotted out league schedules each season on his dining-room table by using a giant checkerboard.

He died of a heart attack on October 11, 1959 at Philadelphia's Franklin Field, while watching a game between the team he co-founded, the Eagles, and the Pittsburgh Steelers, which he briefly co-owned during World War II. Bell had been under a doctor's care for two years and had recovered from a heart attack the previous February.

He coined the phrase, "On any given Sunday, any team can beat any other team." The Bert Bell Benefit Bowl, colloquially referred to as the Playoff Bowl and first played in 1960 (the year after Bell's death), was named for him. Bell's older brother, John C. Bell, Jr., was governor of Pennsylvania from January 2, 1947 to January 21, 1947.

He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963.

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Athletes - Bert Bell

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