September 16, 1962: The Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys play to a 35-35 tie at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Making his debut for the Redskins, flanker Bobby Mitchell catches 6 passes for 135 yards for 2 touchdowns, and returns a kickoff 92 yards for another touchdown.
By any standard, it was, in spite of the result, an excellent game for him, especially since it was on the road. In the South. By a black man. Who thus became the 1st black man ever to sign a contract for that team. He had been joined in that 1st game by 2 other black players, guard John Nisby and running back Ron Hatcher.
It had taken 16 years since Kenny Washington and Woody Strode re-integrated the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams, and Marion Motley and Bill Willis had debuted along with the Cleveland Browns and their league at the time, the All-America Football Conference.
It had been 15 years since Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodger re-integrated baseball. It had been 3 years since the Boston Red Sox became the last Major League Baseball team to integrate. And all the NBA's teams had already done so. By 1955, so had all the NFL's other teams, and so did all the teams in the rebel American Football League when it was founded in 1960. What had taken the Redskins so long?
Two weeks later, on September 30, the Redskins played their 1st home game of the season, at D.C. Stadium. They beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 24-14. Mitchell caught 7 passes for 147 yards and 2 touchdowns.
In a 50th Anniversary interview in 2012, Mitchell said, "You're performing for a group of people, and you're not sure if they want you, so I had a lot of mixed emotions that game. I still don't believe I performed as well as I did, knowing how I felt all week long getting ready."
The Redskins were owned by George Preston Marshall. Born in 1896 in segregated West Virginia, he moved with his family to Washington as a boy. At the time, Washington was, despite being the nation's capital, a relatively small city, and segregated. In 1919, his father died, and he took over the family business, a chain known as Palace Laundromats. His first foray into sports was a basketball team, named for the city and the business: The Washington Palace Five. It lasted just 2 years, 1926 to 1928.
In 1932, he and 3 partners bought a Boston franchise for the NFL. Like most NFL teams at the time, they played in the biggest stadium in town, which was Braves Field. And so, like many (but not all) NFL teams at the time, he named the football team after the baseball team: The Boston Braves.
After a bad season, both on the field and at the box office, the other 3 partners wanted out. Marshall bought them out, and, for 1933, moved them to Fenway Park, which had fewer seats but better transit access. The Boston Red Sox wouldn't allow a team named the Boston Braves playing in their ballpark, so Marshall changed the name to the Boston Redskins. It was close to "Red Sox," and it allowed Marshall, who valued the color green even more than he valued the color white, to keep the Native American logos instead of buying new uniforms.
But the team never drew fans. At the time, Boston was a good college football town, and people weren't interested in a pro team. In 1936, the Redskins won the NFL Eastern Division, entitling them to host the NFL Championship Game. Marshall was sure he wouldn't get good attendance even for this, so he asked NFL President Joe Carr if he could move the game to the Polo Grounds in New York. Carr gave permission, and 29,545 people came out -- not good, but probably twice as many fans as Marshall would have gotten at Fenway. The Redskins lost to the Green Bay Packers, 21-6.
Marshall moved the team to his hometown for the 1937 season, and the Washington Redskins they would remain through the 2019 season. He drafted Sammy Baugh, who became the 1st rookie quarterback ever to lead a team to an NFL Championship, as the Redskins beat the Chicago Bears. The Redskins lost the NFL Championship Game to the Bears in 1940, beat the Bears in it in 1942, lost to the Bears in it in 1943, and lost to the Cleveland Rams in it in 1945. The Rams then followed the Redskins' example, and immediately moved to another city, Los Angeles.
Marshall capitalized -- pardon the choice of words -- on the popularity of college football by treating the Redskins like a college team, giving them a marching band, a fight song titled "Hail to the Redskins," and big halftime shows. He was also the man who suggested 2 notable rule changes: Making a forward pass legal anywhere behind the line of scrimmage, not just 5 yards as it had been; and moving the goalposts from the end line to the goal line, making it easier to kick field goals. Both rules increased scoring in the NFL. (The posts were moved back to the end line in 1974.)
George Preston Marshall.
He looks like the villain in a Frank Capra movie.
Baugh retired after the 1952 season, and the Redskins fell into decline. Sharing the 27,000-seat Griffith Stadium with baseball's Washington Senators didn't help: Although the Redskins were more popular, they simply couldn't draw more fans than the ballpark would hold, which topped out at 35,000 with the addition of bleachers along the right field fence, behind which there were no permanent seats. Marshall needed money.
Observing that the St. Louis Cardinals, as the southernmost and westernmost team in Major League Baseball, had built a vast radio network, and had thus become "the South's team," Marshall noted that his Redskins were the southernmost team in the NFL, so he did the same thing. By 1956, he had 60 radio stations and 29 television stations broadcasting Redskin games. (This was before the massive TV contracts for the NFL as a whole.)
Marshall was a visionary, but what he didn't want to see loomed larger than what he had foreseen. Those Southern TV stations didn't want to see black players on the Redskins. That was fine with Marshall, who didn't want to see it, either. His stock answer was, "We will sign black players when the Harlem Globetrotters sign white players."
The capital's leading sportswriter, Shirley Povich of The Washington Post, took to writing that, whenever a black player, such as Jim Brown of the Cleveland Browns, scored a touchdown against the Redskins, he had "integrated the Washington end zone." Having had enough of this, Marshall sued Povich for $200,000. Marshall lost.
And he was losing games. The Redskins went 6-5-1 in 1953, and 8-4 in 1955. Other than that, they didn't have a single winning season from 1949 to 1969. They bottomed out in 1960, going 1-9-2, and 1961, going 1-12-1. The other teams had signed black players, and had passed the Redskins by.
Marshall was unmoved: "I am surprised that, with the world on the brink of another war, they are worried about whether or not a Negro is going to play for the Redskins."
It looked like Marshall would finally get his wish, as the new District of Columbia Stadium was built in 1961. But it was built by the federal government, on federal government land, next to the D.C. Armory. In other words, the feds had control over how the stadium was used. The Senators were integrated, so there was no issue with them playing there.
But, on request of the Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy -- with the implicit approval of his brother, President John F. Kennedy -- Stewart Udall, who, as Secretary of the Interior, had the authority to do so, told Marshall that unless he signed a black player, the government would deny the Redskins a lease on D.C. Stadium.
Marshall had been married twice, to an actress and a showgirl -- the latter of whom called him "the Marshall without a plan." Keeping the show business analogy, Marshall said, "I didn't know the government had the right to tell a showman how to cast the play." But it did have the right to determine who was allowed to "act" in its "theater." So Marshall had options, none of which he liked:
* Take the black player and the increased revenue from a new 56,000-seat stadium.
* Keep his racist principle, and stay in Griffith Stadium, a 50-year-old, obsolete, 35,000-seat ballpark, which was in an increasingly black neighborhood, anyway.
* Negotiate a deal to play elsewhere, which probably wouldn't work, since the next-closest stadium bigger than Griffith was Byrd Stadium, on the campus of the University of Maryland, a State-owned institution that wouldn't allow a segregated team; the next-closest was at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, federally-owned; the next-closest was Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, and the Colts were not going to let the Redskins groundshare with them; and the next-closest was Scott Stadium on the campus of the University of Virginia, a school which had a black graduate as far back as 1953, but no black football players until 1970, and even if they had been willing to let the Redskins play there, they were over 100 miles away.
* Or buy some land, and build his own stadium, where he could make his own rules, but that would force him to spend his own money, which he might not have had enough of, anyway.
Marshall caved: He promised to make a black player his choice in the 1st Round of the 1962 NFL Draft. Udall relented, and the stadium opened on October 1, 1961, with the Redskins losing to the New York Giants, 24-21. (This was also the day that Roger Maris hit his 61st home run of the 1961 season.)
Marshall kept his half of the deal: On December 4, 1961 -- the NFL Draft was held late in the preceding year until 1967 -- he drafted Ernie Davis of Syracuse University, who had become the 1st black player to win the Heisman Trophy. Davis knew Marshall's reputation, and he refused to play for him. The Browns, who'd already had success with a Syracuse running back with Jim Brown, provided a way out: They traded Bobby Mitchell to Washington for the rights to Davis. Davis agreed to play for Cleveland, and Mitchell agreed to play for Washington.
But Davis would never play for the Browns: He developed leukemia, and died in 1963. Mitchell did play for the Redskins, until 1968, and was a big part of their revival. He scored 91 touchdowns, and his 14,078 combined net yards was then the 2nd-highest total in NFL history. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983. From 1969 until 2003, he worked in the Redskins' front office. He died in 2020, and the team retired his Number 49.
By the time Marshall had his epic clash with Udall, the Redskins were already no longer the southernmost team in the NFL. Clint Murchison Jr. wanted a team in Dallas, but Marshall stood in the way, because he wanted that southernmost distinction. So Murchison bought the rights to the fight song, "Hail to the Redskins." He told Marshall that if Marshall allowed his Dallas Cowboys into the League, he would sell the rights to the song to Marshall for one dollar; if not, Marshall would owe him royalties every time the song was played. Again, Marshall's love of money overrode everything else, and the Cowboys entered the NFL.
In 1963, due to his contributions to the League, Marshall became one of the charter inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and attended the induction ceremony at the new complex in Canton, Ohio. Shortly thereafter, he suffered a stroke that left him legally incompetent to manage his own affairs, let alone those of the team.
This complicated the team's return to competitiveness, before Edward Bennett Williams and Jack Kent Cooke, to whom Marshall had sold minority shares of the team, were able to get through the red tape. (Williams, a Washington native, was considered one of America's greatest lawyers; and Cooke had previously owned the Toronto Maple Leafs minor-league baseball team, and later owned the Los Angeles Lakers and Kings.)
Marshall died in 1969, and had a well-attended funeral in Washington, but was buried in his native West Virginia. That same year, District of Columbia Stadium was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. A monument to Marshall was installed outside RFK Stadium, but removed in 2020, after it was vandalized as part of the George Floyd protests.
In 1988, the Redskins won Super Bowl XXII, beating the Denver Broncos, 42-10. Their quarterback was Doug Williams, the 1st black quarterback to play in a Super Bowl, the 1st to start in one, and the 1st to win one.
Edward Bennett Williams sold his shares of the Redskins to Cooke in 1974, and Cooke remained the main owner through 3 Super Bowl wins, until his death in 1997, shortly before the 91,000-seat stadium, bearing his name, that he'd built in the suburb of Landover, Maryland was set to open. His family sold the team to Daniel Snyder in 1999, and the stadium was renamed FedEx Field.
Cooke has sometimes been called the best team owner in sports history, but never considered changing the racist named "Redskins." Snyder has been one of the worst, but finally gave up in 2020. At the same time that the Marshall monument was removed, Marshall's name was removed from the Redskins' Ring of Fame at FedEx Field, and the Redskins name was dropped. For the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the team was simply known as "The Washington Football Team," until a new name could be agreed upon. In 2022, the new name was chosen: The Washington Commanders.
Griffith Stadium, close to the campus of Howard University, the "historically black" school sometimes called "the Black Harvard," was torn down after the 1965 season. In 1975, a new building for the Howard University Hospital opened on the site.
The Senators left Washington after the 1971 season, becoming the Texas Rangers. The Redskins left RFK Stadium after the 1996 season. This left D.C. United of Major League Soccer as the stadium's last tenant. In 2005, the Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals, and they played at RFK through 2007, until Nationals Park was built. In 2018, DCU moved to Audi Field, 3 blocks from Nationals Park. There is now a plan to demolish RFK Stadium in 2023, and build a new stadium for the Commanders on the site.
(UPDATE: Demolition of RFK Stadium began on December 7, 2022. The D.C. Council approved a new stadium for the site on August 1, 2025. It is planned to open for the 2030 season.)
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September 16, 1962 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played on that day:
* The New York Giants lost to the Cleveland Browns, 17-7 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 27-21 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
* The Baltimore Colts beat the Los Angeles Rams, 30-27 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.
* The Detroit Lions beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 45-7 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.
* The Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 34-7 at Green Bay City Stadium. (The 2nd stadium with that name, built in 1957, it was renamed Lambeau Field in 1965.)
* And the Chicago Bears beat the San Francisco 49ers, 30-14 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco.
In the AFL that day:
* The New York Titans lost to the San Diego Chargers, 40-14 at Balboa Stadium in San Diego. (The Titans, then owned by Harry Wismer, a former minority owner of the Redskins, were sold the next year, and became the Jets.)
* The Boston Patriots beat the Houston Oilers, 34-21 at Harvard Stadium in Boston. (The Patriots took on the "New England" name when they moved to suburban Foxborough, Massachusetts in 1971.)
* The day before, the Denver Broncos beat the Buffalo Bills, 23-20 at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo.
* And the Dallas Texans (who became the Kansas City Chiefs the next season) and the Oakland Raiders had the week off.
In Major League Baseball:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 4-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Gene Conley outpitched Whitey Ford. Mickey Mantle went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Carl Yastrzemski went 2-for-3 with 2 walks and an RBI.
* The New York Mets beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-2 at the Polo Grounds. Roger Craig went the distance for the win, his 9th of the season, against 23 losses. He was supported by a home run from Marv Throneberry, who, contrary to his reputation, did not make an error at 1st base -- although Craig did make an error on the mound. Frank Robinson went 0-for-4.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Art Mahaffey outpitched Bob Gibson. Johnny Callison hit a home run. Stan Musial went 0-for-4.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 7-4 at D.C. Stadium. As with most baseball teams at the time, when they rented to a pro football team, the baseball had schedule preference, so the Redskins had to open the season on the road.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-4 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Smoky Burgess won it with a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Roberto Clemente went 2-for-3 with 2 walks. Rookie Willie Stargell appeared as a pinch-hitter, but struck out. Willie Mays went 1-for-3 with a 3-run homer and a walk.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Bob Buhl pitched a 4-hit shutout. Ernie Banks went 1-for-3 with a walk. Duke Snider, in his last season with the Dodgers, appeared as a pinch-hitter, but did not reach base.
* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Houston Colt .45s, 5-4 at Milwaukee County Stadium. The Colts became the Astros in 1965. Hank Aaron only appeared as a pinch-hitter, and drew a walk.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew hit a home run off Jim "Mudcat" Grant, who would later become the Twins' ace.
* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Baltimore Orioles, 12-5 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Brooks Robinson went 4-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs.
* And the Detroit Tigers beat the Los Angeles Angels, 4-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the Angels groundshared until their stadium in Anaheim opened in 1966. Al Kaline went 1-for-3 with a walk.
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