George Preston Marshall George Preston Marshall ( 1896 – 1969 ) was the owner and president of the Washington Redskins of the National Football League ( NFL ) from 1932 until his death in 1969 . Biography . Contributions . Marshall was born in Grafton , West Virginia on October 11 , 1896 to Thomas Hildebrand ( " Hill " ) Marshall and Blanche Preston Marshall . In 1932 , while he was the owner of a chain of laundries in Washington , D . C . , founded by his father , he and three other partners were awarded an NFL franchise for Boston . This team became known as the Boston Braves , as they played on the same field as baseball ' s Boston Braves . Marshall ' s partners left the team after one season , leaving him in control . In 1933 he moved the team from Braves Field to Fenway Park , changing the team nickname to the Redskins . In 1937 he moved the team to Washington . He was romantically tied to silent screen actress Louise Brooks throughout the 1920s and 1930s , and she gave him the nickname " Wet Wash " due to his owning of the laundry chain . He was married to film actress - author Corinne Griffith from 1936 to 1958 . Although his team enjoyed great success , Marshall is known more for many of the frills which now mark the modern football game . During the early days of the NFL , college football was more popular . Marshall decided to incorporate elements of the college atmosphere into the professional league . Innovations which he introduced include gala halftime shows , a marching band , and a fight song . The Redskins marching band is currently only one of two officially sanctioned by any NFL team . The fight song , " Hail to the Redskins " is one of the most famous in the NFL . Marshall , along with George Halas , suggested two major rules changes designed to open up the game and increase scoring which were subsequently adopted . One was to allow a forward pass to be thrown from anywhere behind the line of scrimmage , rather than at a minimum of five yards behind the line which was previously the rule . Another was the move of the goal posts from the end line to the goal line , where they were ( and are ) located in Canadian football , to encourage the kicking of field goal s . This change remained in place for about four decades until NFL goal posts were returned to the end line in the mid - 1970s as part of an effort to lessen the influence on the game of kicking specialists . Upon obtaining the team in 1932 , Marshall also pushed to standardize the schedule so that each team played the same number of games , that the teams be split into divisions with the winners meeting in the championship game , and that game gate receipts be split between the home team and the visitor on either a 60 – 40 split or a guaranteed amount of money , whichever was larger . Marshall did many things to try to endear the team to the people of Washington . During the 1937 season , Marshall rented a train and brought 10 , 000 fans to New York to watch the team play the New York Giants . These actions paid off , and even today , Redskins fans are considered among the league ' s most loyal , and some of the most likely to travel in large numbers to away games . In the 1950s , Marshall was the first NFL owner to embrace the new medium of television . He initiated the first network appearances for any NFL team , and built a huge television network to broadcast Redskins games across the South . Later life and death . Marshall suffered a debilitating stroke in 1963 , soon after his induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame . He died in August 1969 , and his funeral was held at the National Cathedral in Washington with a huge crowd in attendance . Marshall is buried in Indian Mound Cemetery , Romney , West Virginia . Legacy . His legacy includes the George Preston Marshall Foundation which serves the interests of children in the Washington , DC area . The $ 6 million he left had the qualification that none of it could be used " for any purpose which supports or employs the principle of racial integration . " Racism . Marshall was a very hands - on owner . For most of his tenure as the team ' s owner , he frequently micromanaged the team . The notable exception was during the Flaherty era — perhaps coincidentally , the franchise ' s first successful era . However , he is best known - albeit unfavorably - for his intractable opposition to having African - American s on his roster . According to professor Charles Ross , " For 24 years Marshall was identified as the leading racist in the NFL " . Though the league had previously had a sprinkling of black players , blacks were excluded from all NFL teams just one year after Marshall entered the league . While the rest of the league began signing individual blacks in 1946 and actually drafting blacks in 1949 , Marshall held out until 1962 before signing a black player . ( His intractability was mocked in " Washington Post " game stories by legendary writer Shirley Povich , who sarcastically used terms from the civil rights movement and related court cases to describe games : for instance , he once wrote that Jim Brown " integrated " the end zone , making the score " separate but unequal " . ) Moreover , the signing only came when Interior Secretary Stewart Udall issued an ultimatum – unless Marshall signed a black player , the government would revoke the Redskins ' 30 - year lease on the year - old D . C . Stadium ( now Robert F . Kennedy Memorial Stadium ) , which had been paid for by government money and was owned by the Washington city government ( which , then and now , is formally an arm of the federal government ) . Marshall ' s chief response was to make Ernie Davis , Syracuse ' s all - American running back , his number - one draft choice for 1962 . Davis , however , demanded a trade , saying , " I won ' t play for that S . O . B . " He got his wish , as the team sent him to Cleveland for All - Pro Bobby Mitchell . Mitchell was the first African American football player to play a game for the Redskins , and he played with the team for several years , initially at running back , but he made his biggest impact at wide receiver .