National Football Foundation

Pete Rozelle’s career in sports began after serving in the Navy in World War II when he was attending Compton Community College. He worked there as the student athletic news director and also worked part-time for the Los Angeles Rams as a public relations assistant. In 1948, Rozelle met Pete Newell, head coach for the University of San Francisco Dons basketball team, during a recruiting visit to Compton and impressed him so much that Newell helped arrange for Rozelle to get a full scholarship to work in a similar capacity at San Francisco. He graduated from USF in 1950 and was hired by the school to remain there as the full-time athletic news director.

In 1952, he re-joined the Rams as its public relations specialist, a job he held until 1955. He then held a series of public relations jobs in Southern California, marketing the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia for a Los Angeles based company. In 1957, Rozelle returned to the Rams to take their general manager position. After turning around the struggling franchise, Rozelle was the surprise choice for replacing Bert Bell as NFL commissioner in 1960.

NFL sources credit Rozelle with bringing concepts such as gate and television profit-sharing, policies already in place in the rival American Football League, to the NFL. In 1962, Rozelle was re-elected to a five-year contract to remain as commissioner. Rozelle’s most notable decision as commissioner was allowing the games to be played two days after the JFK assassination, a decision he would regret, but others would laud. Rozelle was named the 1963 Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated.

Rozelle remained the commissioner after the AFL and NFL merged in 1966, a move that he is credited for. However, Rozelle was not a part of the original merger discussions and had always declined a game between AFL and NFL champions. Rozelle did testify before Congress that he supported the merger and oversaw the creation of the Super Bowl and the development of “Monday Night Football.”

Rozelle retired as commissioner in 1989. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985, and he was honored with a Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum "Court of Honor" plaque by the Coliseum commissioners for his contributions to Los Angeles sports. Rozelle died of brain cancer in 1996 at the age of 70.