Carroll Rosenbloom

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name = Carroll Rosenbloom
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birth_date = March 5, 1907
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death_date = April 2, 1979 (aged 72)
death_place = Golden Beach, Florida
death_cause = drowning
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occupation = owner Baltimore Colts and Los Angeles Rams
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spouse = Velma
Georgia Frontiere
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children = Steve Rosenbloom Chip Rosenbloom Lucia Rodriguez
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Carroll Rosenbloom (March 5, 1907 - April 2, 1979) was the owner of two US football teams, the Baltimore Colts (now the Indianapolis Colts) and the Los Angeles Rams (now the St. Louis Rams).

Background

He graduated from the Baltimore City College and attended the University of Pennsylvania and played halfback for the Quakers for two years beginning in 1927. One of the assistant coaches on that team was future NFL commissioner Bert Bell.

After a career in business primarily selling khaki uniforms to the U.S. Army during World War II, Rosenbloom became the majority owner of the Baltimore Colts on January 11, 1953. Rosenbloom was the lead man of a five-man ownership group that was awarded what remained of the defunct Dallas Texans, who had left a string of debts upon their demise the previous year. Adopting the nickname of the city's earlier professional incarnation, the Colts, Rosenbloom hired Keith Molesworth as the team's head coach one day after taking control.

The Colts won three of 12 games in their first season, but Rosenbloom endeared himself to his players by awarding them a $500 bonus after the season. Molesworth was replaced after the season, but remained as the team's chief talent scout.

After first considering one Cleveland Browns' assistant, Blanton Collier, he hired another, Weeb Ewbank on January 14, 1954. Over the next few seasons, the team began to add key draft players, such as future Hall of Famers Raymond Berry, Lenny Moore and, perhaps most importantly, free agent quarterback Johnny Unitas in 1956. After first considering getting rid of Ewbank, Rosenbloom relented with the end result being that the Colts enjoyed their first winning season in 1957, beginning a streak that would last throughout Rosenbloom's ownership with the team.

In 1958, the Baltimore Colts won the NFL Championship, winning a classic overtime battle with the New York Giants, 23-17. This game is often referred to as "The Greatest Game Ever Played". Unitas had led a furious drive for a game-tying field goal in the final minutes that sent the game into overtime. In that period, running back Alan Ameche entered into Baltimore sports lore by plunging into the end zone for the winning score.

Baltimore repeated as champions in 1959, but by the end of the 1962 NFL season, had slipped enough that Ewbank was fired. In his place came the then-youngest head coach in NFL history, Don Shula, who finished with a winning record in his first season, then went 12-2 in 1964. The latter season would end in bitter disappointment for the Colts as they were upset by the Cleveland Browns, 27-0, in the NFL Championship game.

In 1965, injuries to both Colt quarterbacks resulted in running back Tom Matte moving behind center, but a loss to eventual champion Green Bay in a playoff game ended the season. After the team slipped somewhat in 1966, they bounced back the next year with an 11-1-2 season. Their one defeat came in the regular season finale against the Los Angeles Rams, keeping them out of the playoffs.

The 1968 team won all but one of their regular season games, then gained revenge on Cleveland with a 34-0 win in the NFL Championship game. Two weeks later, the Colts lost Super Bowl III to Joe Namath and the New York Jets, with Rosenbloom reportedly complaining that Shula "couldn't win the big one."

Shula would leave the Colts for the Miami Dolphins after the 1969 NFL season, but Rosenbloom successfully argued that Miami had tampered with Shula, and the Colts were awarded Miami's first-round draft choice. During Don McCafferty's (known as "Easy Rider") first season, Baltimore was victorious in Super Bowl V, beating the Dallas Cowboys 16-13. Jim O'Brien's game-winning 32-yard field goal with five seconds remaining decided the game, after Dallas quarterback Craig Morton's late interception helped set up the field goal.

In 1971, Rosenbloom moved the team's training camp to Tampa, Florida, angering the local population. Although the team reached the AFC Championship game, Rosenbloom spent the next offseason completing a historic swapping of teams with new Los Angeles Rams owner Robert Irsay, with Hugh Culverhouse, future owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, helping to broker the deal.

After missing out on the postseason in 1972 under head coach Tommy Prothro, Rosenbloom hired Chuck Knox in January 1973 to lead the team. Over the next six years, the Rams won the NFC Western Division every year and played in four NFC Championship games. In 1978, he replaced the departed Knox with former Washington Redskins coach George Allen, and then replaced Allen with Ray Malavasi after just two exhibition games.

Cause of Death

In 1979, Rosenbloom drowned while swimming in the ocean behind his Golden Beach, Florida, home. An investigation into his death found no evidence of foul play and determined his death to be an accidental drowning.

Four years after his death, in the premiere episode of the PBS series "Frontline", Rosenbloom's death was cited as an example of the seamy side of the National Football League. Using interviews with reported mobsters who claimed Rosenbloom's legs had been held to cause his drowning, the report showed gruesome autopsy photos of Rosenbloom's body.

After his death, Rosenbloom's wife Georgia Frontiere inherited the Rams, moving the team to Anaheim, a year later, and again to her native St. Louis in 1995.