Tell me about Jack Kent Cooke

[Monkeydad]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

hey that rhymes!

Anyhow, I think maybe he's confusing JKC with GPM

Definitely. Marshall was the owner who tried to keep the team "white" as long as possible.

Of course, we can't know if he personally was racist or was trying to sell the team to his Southern fanbase as effectively as possible. Marshall WAS the best salesman in pro sports, he had circus acts elephants for halftime shows, started the marching band we still have, did special military days at the game (which happened to fall on Pearl Harbor Day in '41) and was the ultimate businessman in football. Dan Snyder fits his mold of success well, although it's scaled down A LOT from George.

With the Redskins being the southern-most team and had a large fanbase in VA, NC and the south, perhaps he was trying to give them what they wanted or was being pressured by them...who knows. I'm not giving him a pass, I'm glad he finally realized that his promise to buy the BEST players and put he best team he could on the field could not be achieved without black athletes.

Anyways, it wasn't Jack Kent Cooke.

[70Chip]

Originally Posted by Buster

Definitely. Marshall was the owner who tried to keep the team "white" as long as possible.

Of course, we can't know if he personally was racist or was trying to sell the team to his Southern fanbase as effectively as possible. Marshall WAS the best salesman in pro sports, he had circus acts elephants for halftime shows, started the marching band we still have, did special military days at the game (which happened to fall on Pearl Harbor Day in '41) and was the ultimate businessman in football. Dan Snyder fits his mold of success well, although it's scaled down A LOT from George.

With the Redskins being the southern-most team and had a large fanbase in VA, NC and the south, perhaps he was trying to give them what they wanted or was being pressured by them...who knows. I'm not giving him a pass, I'm glad he finally realized that his promise to buy the BEST players and put he best team he could on the field could not be achieved without black athletes.

Anyways, it wasn't Jack Kent Cooke.

I think it was a little from column A and a little from column B.

[birdz4gibbs]

Originally Posted by sportscurmudgeon

Dirtbag:

JKC was indeed a character. He owned/built the Fabulous Forum in LA and owned the LA Kings and the LA Lakers for a time. He owned radio, TV and newspapers too. He once owned a minor league baseball team and tried to buy a major league baseball team and move it to Toronto in the late 50s/early 60s as I recall.


Early on as Skins' owner he stayed in LA and allowed Edward Bennett Williams (Washington lawyer of no small reputation) to run the Skins. Williams owned a small part of the team (7% I think). Then Cooke severed his LA ties - - proximal to one of his several divorces - - and moved east to an estate in Upperville/Middleburg VA. That is when he bought out Williams and became the guiding force of the Redskins and built the team by spending more money on the Skins than any other owner of the 1980s spent on their teams -- except perhaps for Eddie deBartolo in SF. [BTW, Edward Bennett Williams then purchased the Baltimore Orioles and ran that team for a while...]


If you are doing a paper on JKC, leave room for a section on how he thought he might outsmart the Feds and the IRS with regard to his estate taxes and created an arcane will that all but guaranteed that his son could not own the team. That is how the team was up for sale in the late 90s - first to the Millstein Bros and subsequently to Danny Boy - all because JKC's intracate will made it such that the estate had to sell the team to pay the estate taxes that JKC thought he was going to avoid.


As I understand it, the key to his tax machinations was that the Chrysler Bldg in NYC - - which he also owned - - was supposed to be valuable enough to sell quickly and pay all the estate tax that might be due. Unfortunately, the Chrysler Bldg wasn't worth more than about 60% of what the estate needed to raise to pay the estate tax - - even with all of is hedges and shelters and foundations and all that stuff. And that is where the house of cards began to fall...


Just a guess, but Smootsmack should have info for you on this subject too...


Good luck.

not to mentioned he fought with the district of columbia on the stadium location with RFK and formely (jack kent cooke stadium) now FEDEX cause of the potomac river and the residents there.. yeah JKC was a great owner who let the football people he hired joe gibbs ,bobby bethard do their jobs but with his support and his checkbook and the redskins record books with their SB runs speaks for itself..so from the lakers to the chysler building to estate and the redskins...you have jack kent cooke..

you pretty much covered it all right there..

[SmootSmack]

Passed away 12 years ago today

[skinsfan69]

Anyone know what John Cooke is up to these days??? What ever happened to him? I heard he owns a winery somewhere in VA.

[pagouras]

JKC met with Marion Barry, likely to discuss a new stadium deal back in the day. The press eagerly awaited JKC to tell the public what they talked about and he said curiously that they talked about "..cabbages and kings and all sorts of things".

[70Chip]

Originally Posted by skinsfan69

Anyone know what John Cooke is up to these days??? What ever happened to him? I heard he owns a winery somewhere in VA.

He did open a winery. I also seem to remember that he spent a lot of time in Bermuda or some such place. I think he was an avid sailor or something like that. Maybe it was cricket. I remember it because when those Millstein Brothers were trying to get the team, they sent a P.I. to Bermuda to try to spy on John Cooke and get information about him. Maybe it was when they were sueing the League and Casserly and Cooke after they lost their bid.

[Dirtbag59]

Update (April 22, 2009): Just got my paper back today expecting a C or D based on how my professor described his grading criteria. Instead it turns out I ended up with an A (91/100 no A-'s in Georgia). So with that said I want to once again express my appreciation to everyone who helped me out with the thread. This is 30% of my grade in the class so it definitely means a lot. Now all I have to do is help out on the group project that counts as 40% of the grade.

[Slingin Sammy 33]

Originally Posted by Dirtbag359

Update (April 22, 2009): Just got my paper back today expecting a C or D based on how my professor described his grading criteria. Instead it turns out I ended up with an A (91/100 no A-'s in Georgia). So with that said I want to once again express my appreciation to everyone who helped me out with the thread. This is 30% of my grade in the class so it definitely means a lot. Now all I have to do is help out on the group project that counts as 40% of the grade.

Well done. "I am in a state of ecstasy. Never mind that nonsense about euphoria and so on, it is sheer unadulterated, uncompromising ecstasy.'' LOL

[Giantone]

Originally Posted by Dirtbag359

Update (April 22, 2009): Just got my paper back today expecting a C or D based on how my professor described his grading criteria. Instead it turns out I ended up with an A (91/100 no A-'s in Georgia). So with that said I want to once again express my appreciation to everyone who helped me out with the thread. This is 30% of my grade in the class so it definitely means a lot. Now all I have to do is help out on the group project that counts as 40% of the grade.

Congratulations!!!

[Monkeydad]

Originally Posted by Dirtbag359

Update (April 22, 2009): Just got my paper back today expecting a C or D based on how my professor described his grading criteria. Instead it turns out I ended up with an A (91/100 no A-'s in Georgia). So with that said I want to once again express my appreciation to everyone who helped me out with the thread. This is 30% of my grade in the class so it definitely means a lot. Now all I have to do is help out on the group project that counts as 40% of the grade.

Good job!

[SkinsRaj28]

google knows a lot about him.

[tootergray34]

I think he got his start in radio, but he did own the Lakers and Kings and Skins. he was the freaking man at the helm for washington. but my best advice for you is to go where every college kid go's for papers.....wikipedia!