Dan Reeves

The Rams' championship game was to be their last played in Cleveland, as it was Reeves' decision to relocate the team to Los Angeles for the 1946 season. Poor attendance among the Ohio fans, as well as a high rental fee at the Cleveland stadium, had impelled Reeves to look for a new home for the team. In choosing Los Angeles—which was then 2,000 miles away from the nearest NFL city—the Rams' owner generated heated controversy. Though the city boasted college football, Los Angeles had no pro-football tradition. (A former NFL team, the Los Angeles Buccaneers, had played a road schedule but had never established a home stadium.) Although they pronounced the move financially irresponsible, Reeves' fellow NFL owners eventually conceded, and the Los Angeles Rams were established.

Once in Los Angeles, Reeves made another major contribution to professional football when he employed the NFL's first full-time scouting staff. This network of scouts specialized in visiting universities and evaluating the major-league potential of college athletes. Before long, every other major-league team had copied Reeves' idea, and scouting staffs became standard NFL team fixtures.

In another innovative move, Reeves became the first post-war NFL owner to sign an African American player, halfback Kenny Washington, who joined the team in 1946. A few months later, he hired a second African American player, Woody Strode. It was no coincidence that two major changes—the Rams' move west and its racial integration—had come at the same time. The Los Angeles Coliseum had stipulated that the team must racially integrate if the coliseum was to serve as the Rams' home stadium. Reeves readily agreed, and some credit the Rams owner for helping to inspire racial integration in all American pro sports. A year later the Brooklyn Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson, the first African American major-league baseball player. (Incidentally, Washington and Robinson had been roommates at the University of California at Los Angeles.)

Also in 1946, Reeves opened his own Wall Street firm, Daniel Reeves & Co., with offices in Beverly Hills and New York City. He had become a member of the New York Stock Exchange in 1943, through the firm of Adler, Coleman and Co. Yet the dual responsibilities of his firm and his football team proved too much. In 1947 Reeves transferred his seat to L. Morton Stern, a member of his New York office.

Meanwhile, the Rams encountered serious financial difficulties. During their first years in Los Angeles, the team had to compete for ticket sales with the Los Angeles Dons, who were part of the new All-America Football Conference. Using his business acumen to draw fans to the stadium, Reeves created the "Free Football for Kids" program. By encouraging children's attendance, Reeves invested in a future audience for the Rams. By 1949 the All-America Football Conference had folded, removing the competition for Los Angeles football fans. In another positive move, Reeves hired Pete Rozelle as the Rams' publicity director. Rozelle, who became Reeves' protégé, would later serve as commissioner of the NFL.

Yet the Rams' financial troubles were not over. A year earlier, Reeves' team had suffered a deficit of $250,000, and he was forced to take partners. These included the oil mogul Edwin Pauley—who, along with Reeves, owned one-third of the team—as well as Fred Levy, Hal Seley, and the entertainer Bob Hope. With larger funding, the team was able to increase its promotional campaigns. Crowds soon swelled at Los Angeles Coliseum, which hosted the first NFL game attended by more than 100,000 spectators.