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No formal rule barring African-American players was ever passed or even discussed at league meetings. This change apparently was enforced through a gentleman's agreement. Following the 1933 season, the league became segregated. Since the founding of the NFL in 1920, African-American players, although rare, had been an accepted part of the game.
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Marshall's influence on professional football may have been felt in one other area as well. All of these suggestions were implemented. Finally, Marshall suggested splitting the league into two divisions and having the winners meet in a post-season championship game. Marshall proposed legalizing the forward pass from anywhere behind the line of scrimmage, as well as moving the ball out from the sidelines to hash marks nearer the middle of the field at the end of each play. To do this he suggested moving the goalposts from the back of the end zone to the goal line to make field-goal kicking easier. He believed the key to football's success was to score points and generate excitement. The team continued to lose money.Īlthough the Redskins were not a financial success in Boston, Marshall immediately became a leader of the NFL.
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Marshall bought out his partners before the start of the 1933 season, moved the team across town to Fenway Park, and renamed them the Redskins. The team members occasionally played in war paint and had publicity photos taken in feathered headdresses. Marshall hoped to use the Native American imagery associated with the team's name and his own sense of showmanship to create interest in the Braves. They named the team the Braves because they shared a stadium with the baseball team of that name. In 1932 Marshall and three partners purchased a National Football League (NFL) franchise in Boston. Marshall also promoted automobile racing at New York's Roosevelt Raceway.
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In 1925 he founded the Washington Palace Five of the short-lived American Basketball League. He also became interested in sports promotion. Marshall associated with other show-business personalities and occasionally produced local theater. In 1920 he married Elizabeth Mortensen, a former Ziegfeld Follies dancer they had two children. Launching an aggressive advertising campaign under the motto "Long Live Linen," Marshall expanded the company into a chain of fifty-seven stores.ĭuring this business success, Marshall retained some ties to his theatrical past.
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By the time of his discharge in 1919, he had inherited his father's laundry business. Marshall considered a career in theater management, but he was drafted into the military during World War I in 1918. Although he lacked great acting skills, Marshall enjoyed performing before an audience and learned the importance of publicity and showmanship. After graduating from Friends Select School in Washington, D.C., Marshall briefly attended Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, before beginning a theater apprenticeship as a stock company player. Hill Marshall, the publisher of West Virginia's Grafton Leader and the owner of a Washington, D.C., laundry, and Blanche Preston (Sebrell) Marshall, a homemaker. 9 August 1969 in Washington, D.C.), flamboyant businessman and professional sports entrepreneur who originated many of the ideas that made the National Football League a popular and commercial success. 11 October 1896 in Grafton, West Virginia d. Copyright 2022 Miami Dolphins Ltd., All rights reserved.( b.
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