RIP Stewart Udall

Stewart Udall, who was Secretary of the Interior under JFK and LBJ, passed away over the weekend, at age 90. I'm listening to Andy Pollin and Steve Czaban and I did not know this tidbit about Udall and his part in sports history.

When George Preston Marshall built RFK stadium, he built it with federal funds and (still) is owned by the City of Washington, in which makes it federal property . Udall told Marshall that if he didn't want his lease of the stadium yanked by the feds, Marshall had to integrate the Redskins. The Redskins were the last holdout in integrating their team, no thanks to Marshall.

Marshall drafted Ernie Davis, who refused to play for "that S.O.B." and eventually drafted Bobby Mitchell.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Preston_Marshall#Racism

 

Read a really good obit on Udall today.
Didn't know he had been an all-conference basketball guard at Arizona or many of his other accomplishments. He lived a life worth copying.
His great grandfather also carried out the Mountain Meadow Massacre and was later executed for it.

 

Read that Udall considered himself a "jack" Mormon - whatever that means.

 

"Jack" Mormon typically means someone who follows the tenets of the LDS Church, but drinks/smokes/etc.

 

Sounds perfect - you can drink / smoke/ gamble and have 3 wives.

 

Not quite. Besides, one is enough.

 

Jack Mormon is the rough equal of someone calling themselves a Recovering Catholic or the Bacon eating Jew who hands out Christmas presents.

 

A great conservationist and lover of the great outdoors.

The Udalls are like the Kennedys of the Rockies.

 

I can envision a Jewish kid's uncle walking in and saying "Mazel, mazel, good things! Merry Christmas, kid!" as he hands out Christmas presents during Hanukkah.

 

You mean they chased anything in a skirt?

 

This explains the origin of a great band name: Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons.