Pete Rozelle

He retired as commissioner in 1989 and died at the age of 70 in 1996 in Rancho Santa Fe, California.
. Under Rozelle the NFL thrived and had become an American icon, despite two players' strikes and two different upstart leagues.
. Monday Night Football was a staple of American television viewing, and the Super Bowl was the single most watched event of the year.
. The 1980's saw drug scandals and further struggle with powerful owners over team movement. Tompkins County, New York, Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan, and the Town of Tompkins are named after him.

The 1970's were a decade of league expansion and litigation over issues such as the NFL Players Association and team movement to new markets. Tompkins was the first Vice President actually on a ticket after the passage of the Twelfth Amendment, as opposed to being named Vice President for being the Presidential election's runner-up (as with the first four Vice Presidents) or being appointed by a sitting president (as with Elbridge Gerry). Following the urging of American Football League commissioner Al Davis, Rozelle also agreed to the creation of the Super Bowl and later supported the concept of Monday Night Football. However, others believe that he added the middle initial "D" (which stood for nothing) while a student at Columbia College, to distinguish himself from another Daniel Tompkins there. In October, 1966, he testified to Congress to convince them to allow the merger, promising that if they permitted it, "Professional football operations will be preserved in the 23 cities and 25 stadiums where such operations are presently being conducted."; and "Every franchise of both leagues will remain in its present location." The merger was allowed, but regardless of the promises, numerous NFL teams have since moved, or used the threat of moving to have cities build or improve stadiums. There is evidence that Daniel Tompkins's middle name was Decius. With American Football League Commissioner Al Davis and other AFL and NFL executives, he negotiated the merger between the American Football League and the NFL. Mark's Churchyard, New York City.

However, he didn't cite Rozelle's decision, he cited that the events were so deadly and security concerns.) Rozelles's "aptitude for conciliation" with the league's owners, however, led to his receiving Sports Illustrated magazine's 1963 "Sportsman of the Year" award. He died in Tompkinsville, three months after retiring as Vice President, and was interred in the Minthorne vault in St. They agreed to go on with the games, citing two things: football was Kennedy's sport and that it was a "tradition in sports for all to perform in times of great personal tragedy." (Rozelle's successor, Paul Tagliabue, following the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001, ordered all games cancelled the weekend afterward. He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1821, serving as its president. However, Rozelle and then-White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger had been classmates at the University of San Francisco years before, and Rozelle consulted with him. In 1817 he built a dock along the waterfront in the neighborhood and began offering daily steam ferry service between Staten Island and Manhattan. Rozelle rued his decision to have the NFL play, and frequently stated publicly that it had been his worst mistake. In 1815 Tompkins established a settlement and along the eastern shore of Staten Island that came to be called Tompkinsville.

In November 1963 the NFL played its full schedule of games (untelevised due to uninterrupted coverage of the assassination), only two days after JFK's assassination, while the rival American Football League (AFL) postponed its games out of respect for the fallen president. He was elected Vice President on the ticket with James Monroe in 1816, and was reelected in 1820, serving from March 4, 1817 to March 4, 1825. His business model was essentially a cartel that benefited all teams equally, from revenue sharing to the player draft. He declined an appointment as United States Secretary of State by President James Madison. He got NFL team owners to agree to share revenues between teams, as the American Football League had done since its inception. He was Governor of New York from 1807 to 1817. Following the lead of the rival American Football League, he negotiated large television contracts to broadcast every NFL game played each season. Tompkins was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1801, a member of the state Assembly in 1803, and was elected to the United States Congress, but resigned before the beginning of the term to accept an appointment as associate justice of the state supreme court, in which capacity he served from 1804 to 1807.

The NFL in 1960 was following a business model that had evolved from the 1930's. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1797, practicing in New York City;. When he took office in 1960, there were ten teams in the NFL playing a twelve game schedule to frequently half empty stadiums and were seldom on TV; by the time he resigned, that number had grown to twenty-eight. He graduated from Columbia College in New York City, in 1795. After Bert Bell's death in 1959, Rozelle was the surprise choice for his replacement as NFL commissioner. He was born in Fox Meadows (later Scarsdale), Westchester County, New York. He turned a disorganized, unprofitable team, lost in the growing LA market, into a business success. Daniel D[ecius?] Tompkins (June 21, 1774 – June 11, 1825) was an entrepreneur, jurist, Congressman, Governor of New York, and the sixth Vice President of the United States.

By 1957, Rozelle was offered the GM job with the Rams. He joined the Los Angeles Rams as its public relations specialist. He held a series of public relations jobs in Southern California, marketing the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne Australia for an LA based company. He graduated from USF that year.

He had already worked in public relations for the LA Rams front office and while in the athletic office at USF he marketed the Don's national championship basketball season of 1949 into a national media event. Rozelle began his career at the University of San Francisco, working as a student publicist for the school's football team. He was drafted into the Navy in 1944 and served 18 months in the Pacific on an oil tanker. He graduated from Compton High School in 1944, lettering in baseball and basketball.

Rozelle grew up in suburban Compton, California during the Great Depression. Rozelle is credited with making the NFL into arguably the most successful sports league in the world. Alvin Ray "Pete" Rozelle (March 1, 1926–December 6, 1996) was the commissioner of the National Football League (NFL) from January 1960 to November 1989, when he retired from office.