Forgive the sentimentality but every man, from cradle to the grave, has an inalienable right to resist the prospect of change, either by stomping his foot, walking a picket line or going on a hunger strike. So it is with the anticipated defection of the Los Angeles Rams to St. Louis.
It's an immense setback for the National Football League as tradition, once again, is thrown for a serious loss.
The Rams used to be the most glamorous team in pro football history. They had something none of the others had -- a first-rate organization and an owner, the late Dan Reeves, a man of immense vision and undeniable integrity who realized the future of the NFL would best be served by locating a franchise in California.
It was Reeves who "opened up the West" for the NFL, taking the Cleveland Rams to Los Angeles in 1946. To gain approval, he had first to promise to pay the visiting teams whatever travel expenses were incurred from what was perceived as halfway across the country, the Mississippi River, to Los Angeles, in the event there was a shortfall in take-home receipts at the box office.
The enormous venue of Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, looking down on a grass-carpeted stage, provided a breathtaking panorama. It offered the NFL a look at what a major-league setting was supposed to represent but which, until that time, it never had. Los Angeles, with no apologies to New York or Chicago, gave what was then a league-wide "mom and pop" operation an instant prestige.
The Rams captured the imagination of the nation. It had players with such colorful and fascinating nicknames as "Crazy Legs," "Deacon Dan," "Cricket," "Skeet," "Dutch," "Vitamin T" and "The Tank." They and their colleagues created a million memories, whether they were scoring touchdowns or gathering in such celebrity haunts as the Coconut Grove, the Brown Derby or at what was something of a pioneer in sports bars, the Bull In The Bush.
Such truly outstanding performers as Bob Waterfield, Jim Benton, Tom Fears, Norm Van Brocklin, Andy Robustelli, Dick Huffman, Fred Gehrke, Les Richter and Merlin Olsen were all a part of the Rams' glittering cast.
If you were looking for other top names, the ones that had forgedbrilliant reputations in college football, the Rams had those, too, including Kenny Washington, Tom Harmon and Glenn Davis, even if unfortunate injuries denied them NFL longevity.
Washington, Harmon and Davis, the personification of excitement when they had their signals called, wouldn't have been interested in playing for just any NFL club. But the Rams? They were different. This was the first team to have a logo on the helmet (starting in 1948) and, to this day, the ram horns painted by one of its halfbacks, Gehrke, give them an individuality that sets them apart because it's such a realistic fit.
It used to be the spoken belief among players with visiting teams that if they wanted to make All-Pro or the Pro Bowl, an almost guaranteed way to do it was to have a top day in L.A. That was when the Rams were the only game in town and the city's sportswriters, without a doubt, were among the most influential in the country.
The Rams were the first pro team to have a scouting department, headed by Eddie Kotal, who beat the bushes for talent. Jimmy Phelan, a storied football figure, was once asked why the Rams seemed to sign so many outstanding free agents. "I think it's because they like to go out there to sleep under the palms," he quipped.
In 1958, the Rams were the first club in pro football to draw a million fans home and away. There was a game in Los Angeles late that season when the Baltimore Colts, featuring Alan "The Horse" Ameche, John Unitas, Lenny Moore, Raymond Berry, Jim Parker, Gino Marchetti and Art Donovan, already had wrapped up the NFL's Western Division.
They were to meet the Rams in a playing-out-the-string encounter that wouldn't influence the standings. The Colts had won and were waiting for the ultimate Eastern winner (the New York Giants) to be decided. There was no way to forecast what was about to happen. But that afternoon, a crowd of 100,202, the most ever to see the Colts play in their 35-year history, turned out at the Coliseum.
The Rams' publicity director, one Bert Rose, who was later to be a general manager of two NFL clubs, said, "This has to be one of the most astonishing things to ever happen in sports because its the second-to-last game on the schedule and the outcome has absolutely no influence on anything either team does. But we have over 100,000 in the stands."
From being a classic franchise, the pride of the NFL, the Rams have regressed to being one of the worst. That's why they're preparing to migrate to St. Louis for a better financial deal. It's a form of football prostitution, a mark against the NFL that such a move can even be considered.
"I was playing at Southern California when the Rams came to Los Angeles and you can't begin to realize their impact," said Paul Salata, a former San Francisco 49ers and Colts receiver. "Compare the Rams to any team you want to name, including the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers, and you'll find their presence in California lifted the NFL to heights of affluence and influence it never dreamed possible."
Retired NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, who started with the Rams as an intern, clipping newspaper stories for the team scrapbook, always maintained that as strong a constituency as the Rams had, the area could not support two pro football entities. He fought hard to keep the Raiders in Oakland, to deny them entree to Los Angeles but lost. Subsequent events proved he knew precisely what he was talking about.
Now the Raiders, who in 1982 filled the Coliseum void the Rams created when they deserted two years earlier for what they erroneously believed to be a better life in Anaheim, have become the foremost franchise in L.A. One more season and the Rams, instead of jilting Los Angeles for St. Louis, could have been celebrating their golden anniversary in the Golden State.
So much for history and its enchanting past.