Alvin Ray "Pete" Rozelle was an American businessman and executive.
17 Facts About Pete Rozelle
2.
Pete Rozelle became the youngest commissioner in NFL history at just the age of 33.
3.
Pete Rozelle is credited with making the NFL into one of the most successful sports leagues in the world.
4.
Pete Rozelle was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.
5.
Pete Rozelle graduated from Compton High School in 1944, with Duke Snider, lettering in tennis and basketball.
6.
Pete Rozelle was drafted into the US Navy in 1944 and served 18 months in the Pacific on an oil tanker.
7.
Pete Rozelle enrolled at USF that year and worked as a student publicist for the USF Dons athletic department.
8.
Pete Rozelle led negotiations with AFL and NFL executives to merge the two leagues.
9.
Pete Rozelle played an important role in making the Super Bowl the most watched sporting event in the United States.
10.
In 1970, Pete Rozelle proposed his concept, Monday Night Football, to Roone Arledge, then the head of the ABC television network.
11.
Pete Rozelle represented the NFL, testifying in court to block the Raiders' move.
12.
Pete Rozelle was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985 while still serving as its commissioner.
13.
In 1990, Pete Rozelle received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
14.
Pete Rozelle was honored with the "Lombardi Award of Excellence" from the Vince Lombardi Cancer Foundation in 1991.
15.
Pete Rozelle was awarded full custody of Anne Marie after his 1972 divorce due to Coupe's alcoholism.
16.
Pete Rozelle remarried in December 1973 to Carrie Cooke, a former daughter-in-law of Jack Kent Cooke, owner of the Washington Redskins.
17.
On December 6,1996, seven years after his retirement in 1989, Pete Rozelle died of brain cancer at the age of 70 at Rancho Santa Fe, California, and was interred at El Camino Memorial Park in San Diego.