On this day in 1951: WBTV in Charlotte and WFMY-TV in Greensboro carry the state’s first Washington Redskins telecast. The image is grainy black and white and the Redskins lose to the Browns 45-0, but North Carolinians like what they see.
The Redskins network was created by team owner George Preston Marshall and sponsored by Amoco gasoline – the NFL’s lucrative TV packages are years away.
Marshall plays to white Southern fans, maintaining an all-white roster until 1962. He signs such regional favorites as Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice, plays exhibitions in Winston-Salem and even includes in the team fight song “Hail to the Redskins” the line “Fight for old Dixie” (later changed to “Fight for old D.C.”).
Interesting stuff, Lew, as always. Marshall’s Amoco-Redskins TV Network actually started in 1950, but WFMY-TV and WBTV were not able to carry the games because AT&T’s coaxail cable had not been completed through the South at that time. So North Carolina’s first two TV stations hooked on in ’51 like you say.
On June 14, 1950, Redskins owner George Preston Marshall signed a contract with the American Oil Company to do Redskins games on TV. That was a NFL first. Since there were no NFL teams in the South, Marshall knew he had a built-in market. To attract that Southern audience he drafted players like Justice, Harry Gilmer from Alabama, Harry Dowda from Wake Forest and Billy Cox from Duke. It worked…the Redskins became THE team for the South. WFMY-TV and WBTV became anchor stations on the Network. Another of the anchor stations was WTAR-TV in Norfolk. The network existed through the 1955 season. Then, in 1956, CBS came into the picture with their regional telecasts. As Woody Durham said at Charlie Justice’s memorial service in October 2003… “There are folks in North Carolina who cannot commit to the Carolina Panthers, because Charlie Justice first made them Redskin fans.”
As you say, Lew, Marshall played preseason games (called Exhibition games in those days), in Raleigh and Winston-Salem. That first game in Raleigh in September of 1954 had the Justice-led Redskins against the Green Bay Packers. 16,000 fans turned out in old Riddick Stadium at $4.00 per ticket. In 1955 Marshall moved the game to Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, but Justice had retired. So Marshall made him an offer to come out of retirement for this one game. Justice declined the offer, but did make a pre-game appearance. Those games in Winston continued through the 1960 season.
But, Redskins broadcast history goes back to the early 1940′s with radio. In 1942, Marshall hired Harry Wismer to do radio broadcasts of Redskins games. Soon after Wismer started broadcasting, he was able to bring on board the American Oil Company to sponsor the broadcasts. Then in 1943, there was a young announcer at Washington radio station WMAL who began reading commercials and doing commentary during the games. Marshall added him to the team. He was Jim Gibbons. That relationship continued through the 1951 season. The 1950 and 1951 seasons were simulcast on radio and TV. I remember Wismer’s commercial line. He would say: “All around town for all around service, visit your Amoco dealer and Lord Baltimore filling stations.”
In 1952, according to a story in the June 24, 1996 issue of The Washington Times, the voice of the New York Yankees, Mel Allen, “descended from Mount Olympus” to replace Harry Wismer as Redskins play-by-play man. Allen joined Gibbons for the 1952 and 1953 seasons on radio and TV. In 1954, Gibbons took over the play-by-play duties. Then, in 1955, Charlie Justice stated doing color commentary. Justice had retired from playing in 1954, but back in 1952 in an exhibition game in Los Angeles he had broken his wrist and missed 4 games. Marshall, determined to make Justice earn his $12,000 yearly salary, put him in the broadcast booth. So he had a little experience. After one season, Justice decided to return to his North Carolina. He may have been the very first player to wind up in the broadcast booth. (A side note to that ’55 season. It was October 23, 1955 and the Redskins were playing the Colts in Baltimore. Following the game Charlie Justice had dinner with then Maryland Head Coach Jim Tatum. It was at this meeting that Justice convinced Tatum that it was time for him to return to Chapel Hill). He did in ’56…but that’s another story for another time.
Many thanks for filling in the blanks, Jack. I knew Wismer went on to own the New York Titans (later Jets) of the American Football League, but I was surprised to find that as Redskins announcer he held a quarter interest in the franchise until he and Marshall fell out. He must’ve been a good talker in more ways than one.