Pete Rozelle

He was born Alvin Ray Rozelle in South Gate, California, near Los Angeles, on March 1, 1926. His uncle gave him the nickname "Pete" when Rozelle was only five years old. Raised in nearby Compton, Rozelle showed an early interest in sports, playing tennis and basketball for Compton High School. He graduated from Compton High in 1944 with World War II still raging in Europe and the Pacific. Fresh out of high school, Rozelle enlisted in the U.S. Navy, in which he served until 1946. After leaving the Navy, he returned to California and enrolled at Compton Junior College, where he served as the school's athletic news director. Rozelle also worked briefly as an assistant to the public relations director of the Los Angeles Rams, which had selected the junior college's athletic fields for its training camp. After completing two years at the junior college, he headed north to continue his studies at the University of San Francisco (USF). He remained close to sports at USF by editing the Rams' game programs in his spare time. While still a student at USF, Rozelle married Jane Coupe of Chicago, whom he had met while in the Navy. The couple, who eventually divorced, had a daughter, Anne Marie, born in 1958.

After graduation in 1950, Rozelle went to work for USF as its athletic news director. In that job, he attended a broad range of sporting events, building a network of contacts that would serve him well in the years to come. In 1952, Tex Schramm, general manager of the Rams, hired Rozelle as the team's public relations director. He stayed with the Rams for three years until 1955 when he left to join the San Francisco public relations firm of P.K. Macker. When Schramm left the Rams in 1957 after conflicts with some of the team's owners, NFL Commissioner Bert Bell asked Rozelle to take over as general manager of the Rams. The new general manager's ability to resolve conflicts within the Rams organization was particularly impressive to Dan Reeves, who owned fifty percent of the team.