American football player
 Pyle in 1926 | |
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| Born: | (1882-03-26)March 26, 1882 |
| Died: | February 3, 1939(1939-02-03) (aged 56) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
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Charles C. "Charlie" Pyle (March 26, 1882 – February 3, 1939), sometimes cattily referred to as "Cash and Carry Pyle," was a theater owner and sports entertainment promoter best known for his touring exhibitions featuring American football star Red Grange and French tennis player Suzanne Lenglen.
Pyle was the founder of the New York Yankees football club in 1926, owning it until the team's demise at the end of the 1928 season.
Biography
Signing Red Grange
Pyle was the owner of the Virginia and the Park theaters in Champaign, Illinois — home of the Illinois Fighting Illini football team. An avid football fan, Pyle spotted star Illini halfback Red Grange seated in the back row of the Virginia theater in the fall of 1924, Grange's junior year, and send an usher down to bring him to the office so that he could meet him. Pyle gave Grange a complimentary season pass to the Virginia and Park theaters, which was frequently used, keeping the pair in contact for the duration of Grange's stay at the university.
Grange later recalled that at the time "I did not have the slightest idea of playing professional football and intended to get into some commercial business and I know that at the time Pyle wasn't thinking about the National League. In fact he didn't know anything about it, having been in the theatrical game all his life."
Well into Grange's senior season, during which the running back emerged as a national sports hero, Pyle began to see Grange as a potential commercial asset. "Pyle sensed that maybe some money might be made by showing me off like a sword swallower and he asked me what I intended to do upon leaving school." He and Grange came to a handshake agreement on an agent–client relationship and he made his way to Chicago to meet with George Halas and Dutch Sternaman, owners of the National Football League's Chicago Bears. Arrangements were made for Grange to join the Bears after his final game with the Illinois collegiate team.
Founding the New York Yankees football team
After Grange's becoming a star for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL), Pyle founded the first New York Yankees football team. When Pyle's application for the Yankees joining the NFL was rejected, he announced the formation of the first American Football League in 1926. The league lasted one season before folding.
Pyle then took his team into the National Football League (NFL) for the 1927 season. As one of only twelve teams in the league and splitting the lucrative New York City market with Tim Mara's New York Giants, Pyle had high expectations of financial success going into the year, telling one journalist that he hoped to clear $50,000 for his efforts. Pyle said that he carried 21 men on the roster, although only 18 were eligible in a given week due to league rules. These cost him approximately $3,500 per week, he reckoned.
Although the popular Red Grange was a player and part owner of the Yankees, the number of tickets coming through the turnstile did not meet expectations, and the team folded after the 1928 season.
Professional tennis promoter
In 1926, Pyle signed Lenglen and several of the best tennis players in the world to start the first professional tennis tour, which traveled throughout the U.S. and Canada. Two years later, he inaugurated the first Trans-American Footrace, known as the Bunion Derby, an ambitious, 3455-mile-long foot race from Los Angeles, California, to Chicago, Illinois, to New York. Pyle lost money on the 1928 race when many towns along the route defaulted on their sponsorship fees. The next year Pyle organized a 1929 "return" along essentially the same route from New York to Los Angeles.
Later years and legacy
After managing the "Ripley's Believe It or Not" exhibit in the Chicago World's Fair, Pyle married comedian Elvia Allman Tourtellotte in 1937. He became president of the Radio Transcription Company, a position that he held until his death of a heart attack in Los Angeles, February 3, 1939.
A play based on his life, C.C. Pyle and the Bunion Derby, was written by Tony Award winner Michael Cristofer and directed by Paul Newman.
References
- entry on C. C. Pyle on infoplease.com
- Listing of C. C. Pyle on chicagohistory.org
- ^ Harold (Red) Grange, "How I Turned Pro," Pro Football Illustrated, 1948 Edition. Mt. Morris, IL: Elbak Publishing Co., 1948; pp. 16–17.
- ^ Frank Getty, "Professional Football Has Paid Its Own Way," Brooklyn Daily Times, Nov. 7, 1927, p. 3A.
- ^ "The Great American Foot Race". Archived from the original on June 15, 2008. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
- The Great "Bunion Derby": Across America by Foot in 1927 Archived 2011-05-18 at the Wayback Machine - Running Times magazine
- The Early Years of Route 66 in Phelps County, Missouri - John F. Bradbury Jr. in "Ozarkswatch", Fall 1993
- Wallis, Michael (1990). Route 66: The Mother Road. New York: St. Martin's. p. 15. ISBN 0-312-08285-1.
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| See also | Los Angeles Wildcats (XFL) |
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