Athletes - Carroll Rosenbloom

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	Athletes - Carroll Rosenbloom

Carroll Rosenbloom March 5, 1907 - April 2, 1979 was a legendary football owner of two teams, the Baltimore Colts and the Los Angeles Rams, now the St. Louis Rams.

Background

He attended the University of Pennsylvania in the late 1920s and played halfback for the Quakers in 1928-1929. After a successful career in business primarily selling khaki uniforms to the U.S. Army during World War II, Rosenbloom became the majority owner of the Baltimore Colts in the early 1950s. After losing the original Colts team in 1950, the city of Baltimore petitioned the NFL for another team, and in January 1953, the NFL awarded Baltimore a new franchise with Rosenbloom as the principal owner. Adopting the nickname, the Colts, for the new franchise, Rosenbloom set about making the team a winner. He hired Weeb Ewbank as head coach in 1954 and added future Hall of Fame players Raymond Berry, Lenny Moore, Art Donovan, and the great quarterback Johnny Unitas in the mid-1950s and made the Colts one of the best teams in football. In 1957, the Colts had its first winning season and did not have another losing season under Rosenbloom's ownership. The Colts won the NFL Championship in 1958, repeated in 1959, and appeared in two Super Bowls. Under coach Don Shula, the Colts lost Super Bowl III in 1969 to Joe Namath and the New York Jets. Rosenbloom is said to have complained about Shula that he "couldn't win the big one." Shula left the Colts for the Miami Dolphins in 1970 where he had a long, successful, and famous career as their head coach, including having the only undefeated season in NFL history and winning the 1972 Super Bowl. During 1971, the Colts did win Super Bowl V by beating the Dallas Cowboys 16-13 in the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida in the first Super Bowl to be played on artificial turf. Don McCafferty, also known as "Easy Rider" by his players, was the Colts' coach for the victory. This was set up when the Cowboys' running back, Dan Reeves, then later head coach of the Denver Broncos and the Atlanta Falcons, fumbled the ball with less than two minutes left in the game, setting up the Colts in Dallas territory and setting up Jim O'Brien's game-winning 32-yard field goal.

In 1966, Rosenbloom was a member of the NFL Executive Committee which designed and approved the merger between the NFL and its rival, the American Football League (AFL). In 1972, Rosenbloom was involved in the historic swapping of teams with Los Angeles Rams owner Robert Irsay. Hugh Culverhouse, who later became the owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, helped broker the deal. Ironically, it was Irsay who moved the Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis in the 1980s. Under Rosenbloom's ownership, the Los Angeles Rams became one of the NFC's best teams in the 1970s, winning seven NFC West Division titles, playing in five Conference championship games and in one Super Bowl.

Cause of Death

In 1979, Rosenbloom drowned under suspicious cicumstances while swimming in the ocean behind his Golden Beach, Florida home. Rosenbloom was a strong and talented swimmer, and some people felt his death may have been foul play due to the fact that Rosenbloom had a reputation as a high stakes gambler. An investigation into his death did not find evidence of foul play and was determined to be an accidental drowning.

Changes after death

His death did lead to strange developments with the Rams as his widow, Georgia Frontiere, inherited 70% of the team upon Rosenbloom's death. The inheritance was designed as a tax dodge so that Georgia would not have to pay high taxes on Rosenbloom's estate, and it appears that he never intended for her to have a role with the team. But that was not Georgia's intention at all as she immediately took over control as owner and through her lawyers and tax attorneys began to make major changes to the team's organization. She quickly fired her stepson Steve Rosenbloom as the head-office executive and began hiring people loyal to her. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Georgia moved the Rams to St. Louis, which was a financially risky proposition initally but soon proved to be a goldmine as the city of St. Louis provided a publicly funded stadium for $260-million, and more than $22-million was guaranteed in annual luxury suite and ticket revenues. For a period of time, the St. Louis Rams were exposed to a great deal of public humiliation as the press and other NFL teams made fun of them for having the league's only female owner. There is a popular story that the Rams once entered the visiting team locker room at another team's stadium and found that the towels and the soaps provided to them were pink and that a lot of pink bunting had been hung on the walls. However, Georgia got the last laugh in 2000 when the Rams, under head coach Dick Vermeil and MVP quarterback Kurt Warner beat the Tennessee Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV and Georgia was on the platform hugging Vermeil when the Lombardi trophy was awarded to the Rams as the winners.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Carroll Rosenbloom ]

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