Political Venue: The History of RFK Stadium, Part Eight

Not getting any youngerEventually we get to the part where the Redskins played football in RFK for decades. Then left. Curly R's special series on the history of RFK Stadium concludes.Part One: Faded GloryPart Two: Government InterventionPart Three: Football and RacePart Four: A Complex RelationshipPart Five: Ernie Davis, Bobby Mitchell and Ron HatcherPart Six: Palace IntriguePart Seven: The Stadium Becomes LegendPart Eight: CodaReferences=====Responding...

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Political Venue: The History of RFK Stadium, Part Seven

Home cookingNaming the stadium after Bobby Kennedy was an inside baseball affair, bureaucratic infighting at its best. The name change also signaled a change in the fortunes of a franchise. Curly R's special series on the history of RFK Stadium continues.Part One: Faded GloryPart Two: Government InterventionPart Three: Football and RacePart Four: A Complex RelationshipPart Five: Ernie Davis, Bobby Mitchell and Ron HatcherPart Six: Palace IntriguePart...

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Political Venue: The History of RFK Stadium, Part Six

LBJ Stadium?Team owner George Preston Marshall could hold out no longer, black players were coming to the Redskins, but who expected Ernie Davis and Bobby Mitchell? Curly R's special series on the history of RFK Stadium continues.Part One: Faded GloryPart Two: Government InterventionPart Three: Football and RacePart Four: A Complex RelationshipPart Five: Ernie Davis, Bobby Mitchell and Ron HatcherPart Six: Palace IntriguePart Seven: ThursdayPart...

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Political Venue: The History of RFK Stadium, Part Five

When Bobby Mitchell cameAfter deciding to make the Redskins a new home in DC, the government decided to get in George Preston Marshall's business. One way or another, a black player was coming to this team. Curly R's special series on the history of RFK Stadium continues.Part One: Faded GloryPart Two: Government InterventionPart Three: Football and RacePart Four: A Complex RelationshipPart Five: Ernie Davis, Bobby Mitchell and Ron HatcherPart Six:...

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Political Venue: The History of RFK Stadium, Part Four

Colored players need not applyAn intractably racist owner, a presidential administration committed to equal rights. The Redskins and the government were on a collision course. Curly R's special series on the history of RFK Stadium continues.Part One: Faded GloryPart Two: Government InterventionPart Three: Football and RacePart Four: A Complex RelationshipPart Five: Ernie Davis, Bobby Mitchell and Ron HatcherPart Six: WednesdayPart Seven: ThursdayPart...

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Political Venue: The History of RFK Stadium, Part Three

Colored players need not applyWith the government already agreeing effectively to bail out the Redskins in the form of a new stadium, all that remained was to work out the details. The absence of black players happened to be one of those details. Curly R's special series on the history of RFK Stadium continues.Part One: Faded GloryPart Two: Government InterventionPart Three: Football and RacePart Four: A Complex RelationshipPart Five: Ernie Davis,...

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Political Venue: The History of RFK Stadium, Part Two

Shovel readyBy the 1960 season, the Washington Redskins had long faded from their heights of the 1930s and 40s, attendance was winding down and the city was rapidly falling out of love with NFL football. Who better to rescue the team than the government? Curly R's special series on the history of RFK Stadium continues.Part One: Faded GloryPart Two: Government InterventionPart Three: Race and FootballPart Four: A Complex RelationshipPart Five:...

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Political Venue: The History of RFK Stadium, Part One

What came beforeRobert F. Kennedy Stadium, former home of the Washington Redskins, celebrated its fiftieth birthday in 2011, on October 1st. Fifteen years gone are the stadium's football days of tailgates, bouncing bleachers, noise and home field advantage. Today RFK sits, an aging memorial to past glory, slowly decaying by the Anacostia River, still looking down East Capitol Street toward Capitol Hill and the government that gave birth to it,...

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Coming Tomorrow: The History of RFK

Sunday bestLast Saturday, a Washington milestone passed: The fiftieth anniversary of the opening of RFK Stadium. It was precisely fifty years ago, 1 October of 1961, that the Redskins played their first game in what was then known as DC Stadium. The Redskins would play every home game there for the next thirty-six years, through the 1996 season.The stadium, the experience, the emotion, the home field advantage all became part of the culture of the...

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