Fight for Old DC: George Preston Marshall, the Integration of the Washington Redskins, and the Rise of a New NFL by Andrew O'Toole, and: Game Changers: Dean Smith, Charlie Scott, and the Era That Transformed a Southern College Town by Art Chansky (review)

The National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened on September 24, 2016, explores many sports firsts, notably Jackie Robinson and the integration of Major League Baseball in 1947. Other black athletic firsts are the focus of two engaging and well-researched narratives: Andrew O'Toole's Fight for Old DC: George Preston Marshall, the Integration of the Washington Redskins, and the Rise of a New NFL and Art Chansky's Game Changers: Dean Smith, Charlie Scott, and the Era That Transformed a Southern College Town. O'Toole's Fight for Old DC examines Washington Redskins owner George Preston Marshall's influence on the National Football League (NFL) and his fierce opposition to integration. In Game Changers, Chansky, by contrast, emphasizes the relationship between University of North Carolina (UNC) head basketball coach Dean Smith and star player Charlie Scott, who became the university's first African American scholarship athlete in 1967. Though unique in topics and scope, both books tackle the connection—or bond in the case of Smith and Scott—between a white owner or coach and a black player against the backdrop of segregated cities that were resistant to change.

O'Toole, the author of books on NFL coaches Paul Brown and Art Rooney, argues that along with Chicago Bears owner George Halas and NFL commissioners De Benneville "Bert" Bell and Pete Rozelle, few elevated the NFL like Marshall. A former laundry man who was always good for a quote (or seven), Marshall replaced coaches like underwear and sparred frequently with the press. In his attack on lauded sports columnist Shirley Povich, Marshall said, "'Povich is one guy, when he was circumcised the wrong piece was thrown away'" (p. 67). While the Redskins struggled on the field, in part because the team refused to draft black players, Marshall revolutionized the NFL with his eye for marketing and entertainment. He was the first to propose a number of significant rule changes, including moving the goalposts to the goal lines and legalizing the forward pass behind the line of scrimmage, both of which enhanced fans' viewing experiences. He also pioneered the halftime show and even choreographed the Redskins Marching Band's performances. "'Nothing is duller,'" Marshall noted, "'than two teams scrimmaging without music or bands'" (p. 20). Branding the Redskins as Dixie's team, he negotiated a television deal that carried the team's games from Washington, D.C., to Florida.

On the issue of race, however, Marshall was far from enlightened. While the Cleveland Browns won with black All-Pro Jim Brown and the Los Angeles Rams signed many black players, Marshall ordered his scouts to ignore African American talent, asserting that no black player was good enough to make his cellar-dwelling team. Marshall hired African Americans to work the gates, concessions, and stands, and he happily accepted their dollars to enter Griffith Stadium. He relished the protests that greeted him at home and on the road. Povich was the only local columnist to regularly challenge Marshall's racism. Halas, Rooney, Bell, Rozelle, and sportswriter Mo Siegel generally avoided the controversy. Everything changed when Marshall signed a stadium lease with the federal government, which included a provision that mandated integration on and off the field. Marshall might have sidestepped the clause if not for Stewart L. Udall, President John F. Kennedy's secretary of the interior, who doggedly pursued compliance. Finally, in 1962 the Redskins became the...