Showdown: JFK and the Integration of the Washington Redskins

In 1961-as America crackled with racial tension-the Washington Redskins stood alone as the only professional football team without a black player on its roster. In fact, during the entire twenty-five-year history of the franchise, no African American had ever played for George Preston Marshall, the Redskins' cantankerous principal owner. With slicked-down white hair and angular facial features, the nattily attired, sixty-four-year-old NFL team owner already had a well-deserved reputation for flamboyance, showmanship, and erratic behavior. And like other Southern-born segregationists, Marshall stood firm against race-mixing. "We'll start signing Negroes," he once boasted, "when the Harlem Globetrotters start signing whites." But that was about to change.

Opposing Marshall was Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, whose determination that the Redskins-or "Paleskins," as he called them-reflect John F. Kennedy's New Frontier ideals led to one of the most high-profile contests to spill beyond the sports pages. Realizing that racial justice and gridiron success had the potential either to dovetail or take an ugly turn, civil rights advocates and sports fans alike anxiously turned their eyes toward the nation's capital. There was always the possibility that Marshall-one of the NFL's most influential and dominating founding fathers-might defy demands from the Kennedy administration to desegregate his lily-white team. When further pressured to desegregate by the press, Marshall remained defiant, declaring that no one, including the White House, could tell him how to run his business.

In Showdown: JFK and the Integration of the Washington Redskins, sports historian Thomas G. Smith captures this striking moment, one that held sweeping implications not only for one team's racist policy but also for a sharply segregated city and for the nation as a whole. Part sports history, part civil rights story, this compelling and untold narrative serves as a powerful lens onto racism in sport, illustrating how, in microcosm, the fight to desegregate the Redskins was part of a wider struggle against racial injustice in America.

Redskins Reprogramming

As an 80's school girl living a stone's throw from the White House, saying no to drugs was just about as important as the Redskins. Just about.

Being a Redskins fan came as naturally to me as breathing and hauling ass after the ice cream man. Back when we had men in our family, they were all die hard fans. Seeing as though I hung out with the men on Sunday afternoons, due to the cooking and knitting that went on upstairs, it rubbed off very early and heavily. Sundays were sacred: mass and football. Combine them both and it was almost a High Holy Day in our modest middle class abode. Hail Mary and Hail to the Redskins. Amen.

In school, the season was held up on an altar as well. If the Redskins won, we received a homework free night. When the team made the playoffs, we would get extra credit for watching the game. No kidding. And even though we wore putrid green plaid uniforms, we were allowed to accessorize only during football season - and only in burgundy and gold. After morning prayers on Fridays, which included praying for the players, the team's fight song would echo over the loudspeaker. Every mouth sang with fervor except for the few hated Dallas fans in the school. Football season sucked fat cactus cowboy hats for them and then some.

In 1983, the Redskins triumphed over the Miami Dolphins 27-17 and it was like a snowy Christmas in January. Besides getting no homework for an entire week, those of us lucky enough to go to the post game parade received an excused absence from school. The kids that didn't attend, watched it on TV from the classroom. This was HUGE because the only other time we were allowed to watch TV in school was when the Space Shuttle launched. So, in my mind as well as in many of my peers, the Washington Redskins were right up there with the astronauts. Real American heroes.

I guess it no wonder why I am the fan I am today. I was brainwashed - pure and simple. Will the Redskins ever reenter the glory days of my youth? Stayed tuned this season to find out.

Go Skins! (Amen.)