Secretary Stewart Udall - An Unsung Hero for Justice & Washington Football

The foundation of a franchise. The roots. Lots of names get mentioned. Secretary Stewart Udall almost never does. Until now.

Bobby Mitchell, Doug Williams, Sonny Jurgensen, Joe Gibbs, and John Riggins.

Some of the most influential names that have been a part of the Washington football organization.

But what if I were to tell you that it was someone that never held a position, or played a down in burgundy and gold, that had the greatest influence.

Would you believe me?

As Thomas Smith talked about on NPR's All Things Considered back in 2011 when promoting his book Showdown: JFK and the Integration of the Washington Redskins, “His [George Preston Marshall] excuse for being the only holdout was the [Washington NFL team] are the South’s team and the South is segregated. So is the nation’s capital, and this is my primary audience.”

Even as the civil rights movement continued to grow and you saw integration across many segments of life, Marshall refused to integrate the Washington football team. That is until the newly appointed Secretary of the Department of the Interior Stewart Udall was appointed.

Who Was Stewart Udall?

Stewart Udall was born in Arizona in 1920. He attended the University of Arizona for a couple of years until World War II broke out and served in the Air Force for four years. Upon returning from the war, he attended the University of Arizona’s law school in 1946 and was active in integrating the school’s cafeteria.

Udall’s activism continued once he graduated - where he served on the School Board of Amphitheater Public Schools desegregation of that school system and then was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1954.

In 1961 Stewart Udall became Secretary Udall after being nominated by President John F. Kennedy and then subsequently under Lyndon B. Johnson until 1969.

Secretary Udall was influential in passing some of the most important environmental protection acts of the 1960’s including the Clear Air, Water Quality and Clean Water Restoration Acts and Amendment, the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965, and the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966.

The Endangered Species Act is what the media and fan favorite new nickname “Red Wolves” currently resides on and helps protect it.

To continue his push for equality and ensure Black Americans had the same opportunity in the National Parks division, he traveled to Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU’s) across the country to identify some of the brightest minds to fill roles.

This led to Secretary Udall meeting Robert Stanton at Huston-Tillotson University who ultimately became the first Black American to serve as the Director of the National Parks Services in 1997.

Secretary Udall passed away on March 20, 2010.

His Legacy Includes Washington Football

What we have all come to know about where the RFK Stadium site is that it sits on federal land that is leased out to the city. The government, along with the accompanying House Natural Resources Committee, needs to approve how the land will be used before it can be used for its intended purpose.

Secretary Udall would have turned 100 this year. While his legacy as a member of Congress and the positives he contributed to protecting our environment will be celebrated throughout this year, we all should remember, thank, and celebrate him for making the right stand to help push the NFL and the Washington football organization in the direction of desegregation.

See documents and news clippings from Secretary Udall’s fight to desegregate Washington Football

I had the honor and opportunity to sit down with Secretary Udall’s son, Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), to ask him about his father’s push towards desegregating the Washington football team.

Here's a transcript of that conversation with Senator Tom Udall.

TU: Before we get started, I would like to say something as I have been reflecting on this time. One of the humorous parts of this whole story is that I remember hearing this when I went to the stadium with my father. The Secretary of the Department of the Interior had a box at the stadium and would usually invite a number of guests. After signing Bobby Mitchell, the joke in the town was that my father is the best coach the team had in a long time.

Given the football team has performed poorly in recent years, maybe the name change will give the team a boost. Sometimes a team just needs a boost in a particular point and time. I heard more and more about who Bobby Mitchell was while I was in Washington. I called Bobby up and had a great meeting in my office, along with his [about, and] had a conversation about his life and the fact that he had stayed for 41 years with the football team and worked in all those different capacities. He [Bobby] loved the team. I made sure to call his wife and had a long conversation with her when Bobby passed away earlier this year.

AL: Secretary Udall worked to desegregate schools in Arizona. What was he able to take from that and bring it to the fight between him and George Preston Marshall?

TU: My father fought for civil rights his whole life. He is remembered as a conservation champion, but also a champion for racial justice and equality. He would be proud of the conversations we are having about racial equality today.

My father and Mo (Secretary Udall’s brother) helped integrate the University of Arizona cafeteria when black students were forced to eat outside. My father helped integrate Tucson schools in the 1950’s before Brown v. Board of Education.

He voted for the 1957 and 1960 civil rights bills. My father also helped integrate the National Park Service and fought to force the Mormon Church to allow African Americans to serve in the priesthood. He came in prepared to win. My father and uncle saw discrimination when he was in the military and I heard from them frequently when they would be talking about how deplorable it was that how minorities were treated in the armed forces during World War II.

AL: How much did your father know about George Marshall and the Washington football team before becoming the Secretary of the Interior?

TU: I know that my father knew football. My father was a House member from 1954 – 1960 and Congress was in Washington, D.C. much more on the weekends. My sense is that my dad enjoyed the sport and would be staying in touch with the sports page and what was going on at the time.

Being as soon as he became Secretary of the Department of the Interior and had a box at the D.C. Stadium, he probably heard a lot more about Marshall and where he was coming from. There was a sense that this was something that really needed to be righted. The part from everything that my father had gathered from Marshall was that he wanted to make sure his boss, President Kennedy, and Attorney General Robert Kennedy should know what he was going to do, knowing he was going to be out there on a branch and did not want it to be sawed off.

AL: Besides Marshall being a stubborn racist, what was Secretary Udall’s biggest obstacle in getting the team integrated?

TU: There was a sense that perhaps the Department of Interior should not be involved in what a professional sports team does with its own roster. But my father felt he had to use the tools at his disposal to get this done. “Best coach the team had in a long time.”

My father’s solicitor general told him that if you are the Secretary of the Interior, the most important person you are going to hire is the chief lawyer. My father brought Frank Berry, and the way he got to the issue and knowing he was going to do it right, he said to Frank “I feel an obligation to do something about this because it sits on my land with the National Park Service as the landlord, is there anything I can do?” Under the law his father could refuse to renew the lease if the team didn’t integrate which my father saw as a very strong tool to do something good in the world.

Page 2 of the letter:

AL: How would your father feel today in the fight that has happened over the team name that has intensified over the past couple of decades? Was there consternation over the name in the 1960’s or as the decades progressed?

TU: My father was a major advocate for Indigenous people and a key part of his public service in standing up for those rights. He would be right there to compel the team to change its racist name.

AL: Did your father find it a lonely battle after the administration said that “this would be his fight” and that “the Interior Department would be on the front lines of this battle alone?”

TU: I think my father was involved in many lonely fights in his career. He was a visionary and ahead of his time and that tends to happen when you are that way. I believe that history has judged him kindly. My father did his homework. He knew the action he wanted to take but notified President Kennedy and Attorney General Kennedy that this is what he thought would be the right thing to do. He believed that they gave him the assurances to move forward.

University of Arizona

AL: A DC newspaper ran a Letter to the Editor that stated, “In other words, Marshall is guilty until he can prove himself innocent. This may be the America of JFK and his political appointees, but I doubt if the rest of us will be willing to go along with it beyond 1964, if that long.” Was there any concern from your father that there could be re-election consequences?

TU: I do not think that thought entered my father’s mind. This was about doing the right thing and to hell with the consequences.

AL: Was your father upset that the NFL and Commissioner Pete Rozelle would not use their power to force Marshall’s hand?

TU: I never heard him talk about that, but I think that when he felt these things passionately, he would think that others in power should be trying to do the same thing. I really believe that if he had run into Commissioner Rozell at any point, he would have told him that ‘you ought to be on my side and doing the right thing.’

AL: What did your father think when it was found out that Washington traded their first-round pick instead of drafting Ernie Davis?

TU: I think my father was willing to see it play itself out. He felt he had sent a very strong message to Marshall on how they need to come out. And they came out with Bobby Mitchell.

AL: Do you believe that the team should recognize your father’s ties to the franchise’s history and the important role he played in it?

TU: Perhaps the best tribute the team could pay my father would be to change the racist name today. I think my father played an important role in the team’s history and I know that my dad would not have cared about the recognition.

What my dad did was pretty remarkable, and it is important for the team to acknowledge its history of discrimination. It is important today for the team to grapple with it, especially when it comes to the name. It is important to acknowledge the franchise’s short comings and find a better way to move forward.

Washington Should Recognize Secretary Udall as Part of Their History

George Preston Marshall did not give up his ownership until his death in 1969. If President Kennedy did not win in 1960, I cannot think of a reason why Washington would have been integrated before 1970. What Secretary Udall did was not only the right thing, but also gave fans the opportunity to watch the likes of Bobby Mitchell, Charley Taylor, Lonnie Sanders, and others.

With the re-branding and a new name coming quickly down the road, it is time to look at the whole franchise’s history. Who has had impacts on it that helped shape it to what it is today and the history we celebrate?

Owner Daniel Snyder has already moved in the right direction by removing George Preston Marshall’s name from the lower bowl of FedEx Field and renaming it with Bobby Mitchell’s name. Something that has been long overdue.

There is nothing to recognize and honor Secretary Udall’s influence on integrating the team which led to the historic moments that we all cherish from RFK Stadium.

While Senator Udall believes that the changing of the name would suffice, there really is more that should be done. Mr. Snyder should move to put something in Ashburn, the new training camp site, or even the new stadium to show the importance that Secretary Udall played in the teams early racist years.

After all, Secretary Udall was the best head coach that the team had in the 1960’s.

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Alan Lepore joins "Washington Football" on SI.com, while still doing outstanding work as an editor/writer at FullPressCoverage.com or @FPC_Redskins. You can follow him on Twitter @AlanLepore or on instagram @leporealan. Alan is a Villanova University MPA Nonprofit Management candidate and is a fundraising/development professional.