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Defensewins · 04-08-2005, 10:06 PM

It is a little late to worried about the name Redskins. Kind of silly at this point.
I found this interesting....
In July 1932, when George Preston Marshall was awarded the inactive Boston football franchise, he originally named the team "Braves" because it used Braves Field, home of the National League baseball team. It wasn't until 1936 when Preston moved the team to Washington (because nobody in Boston went to the games) that he changed the name to Redskins.
The ironic part of it of all of this is Preston Marshall was described by many, most notably Shirley Povich, as a pompous racist. Marshall kept the Redskins segregated until 1961, despite getting bombarded by Povich and the national media. We were by far the last team to sign a black player. It wasn't until the Kennedy administration, that Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall warned [George] Marshall to hire black players or face federal retribution. The reasoning was that since the Redskins’ new stadium was being built in the District with federal funding; the Department of the Interior had final say on decisions surrounding it. Udall notified Marshall that the Interior Department had approved regulations prohibiting job discrimination by any party contracting to use ‘any public facility in a park area. If Marshall continued his ban on blacks he would be denied use of D.C. stadium The Redskins would have no place to play and could not survive financially without the use of D.C. stadium. So his hand was forced after years of defying the NFL and the Goverment.

04-08-2005, 10:06 PM	#7
Defensewins Playmaker Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 3,765	Re: This again It is a little late to worried about the name Redskins. Kind of silly at this point. I found this interesting.... In July 1932, when George Preston Marshall was awarded the inactive Boston football franchise, he originally named the team "Braves" because it used Braves Field, home of the National League baseball team. It wasn't until 1936 when Preston moved the team to Washington (because nobody in Boston went to the games) that he changed the name to Redskins. The ironic part of it of all of this is Preston Marshall was described by many, most notably Shirley Povich, as a pompous racist. Marshall kept the Redskins segregated until 1961, despite getting bombarded by Povich and the national media. We were by far the last team to sign a black player. It wasn't until the Kennedy administration, that Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall warned [George] Marshall to hire black players or face federal retribution. The reasoning was that since the Redskins’ new stadium was being built in the District with federal funding; the Department of the Interior had final say on decisions surrounding it. Udall notified Marshall that the Interior Department had approved regulations prohibiting job discrimination by any party contracting to use ‘any public facility in a park area. If Marshall continued his ban on blacks he would be denied use of D.C. stadium The Redskins would have no place to play and could not survive financially without the use of D.C. stadium. So his hand was forced after years of defying the NFL and the Goverment.