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The Salt Lake Seagulls Professional Football Team
"Gallopin'" Gay Adelt on Seagulls program cover. All illustrations courtesy of author.
"The Salt Lake Seagulls Professional Football Team
BY MELVIN L. BASHORE
ON A WINDY SEPTEMBER SUNDAY IN 1946over 6,000 curious spectators in the grandstands and bleachers at the Utah State Fairgrounds awaited the kickoff of a startling new sports development in Utah Throughout 1946 the sports pages of Salt Lake City's three major newspapers reported the formative efforts of a group of local businessmen to field a professional football team in Salt Lake City. Initially, the dusty, wind whipped field conditions failed to restrain the anticipation of the eager fans. Messages of welcome and wishes for success were expressed by Gov. Herbert B. Maw, league president J. Rufus Klawans, and team president Frank L. Christensen. Christensen, a bonafide University of Utah All-American and backfield star with the Detroit Lions from 1934 to 1937, booted an oversize mock football to officially launch the Salt Lake Seagulls football team The ball split open to release a flock of live seagulls. Seagull quarterback Dee Chipman wryly observed that the dazed birds "neglected to fly," a "desultory reaction [that] may have been a portent of the future."1
The story of Utah's only venture into professional football began with a meeting of fifteen businessmen in the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce Building on December 3, 1945 News reports and memories of the early organizers are vague, but the participants set in motion at this early date the process of securing a franchise in the Pacific Coast Football League (PCFL). The PCFL was established in 1940 as a West Coast counterpart to the National Football League in the East. Other minor league and professional leagues existed, but during the war years the PCFL was recognizably the second-best football league in the country.2
Sports-minded businessmen subscribed to purchase shares of stock in the venture and a trio of delegates went to the PCFL meetings in San Francisco in February 1946 to try to convince league moguls that Utah "had something to offer them." The Salt Lake delegates succeeded in securing franchise rights in the nine-team league.3 The league determined that rosters would be limited to twenty-five players and that all games would be played on Sunday. Upon the delegates' return to Utah, the organizers began to put together a pro football team. They elected officers and filed incorporation papers for the Salt Lake City Football Corporation.4 Fred Tedesco, city parks commissioner and former college football star, accepted the offer to act as coach and general manager of the team.5
The corporation secured the stadium at the Utah State Fairgrounds as a playing field for games When Klawans, the PCFL president, visited Salt Lake City to confer with club officials and make inspections in early April, he granted final approval to the franchise, commenting that the "setup" in Salt Lake was "as good as any in the league,"6 though he did make some recommendations for improving the stadium facilities The fairgrounds stadium had been used primarily as a rodeo arena. Klawans discussed plans for sodding the field, improving the loudspeaker system, installing a modern scoreboard, and providing press and radio facilities Team officials told him that they expected to be able to seat 15,000 spectators with the addition of temporary bleachers they intended to build.
After Klawans's visit, Tedesco hired Lou Nestman, a utility man with the City Parks Department, to put in the grass, add a sprinkling system, and maintain the field. Nestman worked evenings at the stadium preparing the playing field.7 Officials of the Days of '47 Rodeo approached the football team about the possibility of constructing the bleachers in advance of the football season. The team was under no obligation to build the bleachers until fall, but they agreed to push the work ahead so that the rodeo could benefit from the additional seating capacity.
In the latter part of May the work of building these bleachers for the north, east, and west sides of the playing field began. Tedesco used City Parks Department employees and city-purchased lumber to construct these bleachers In mid-July one employee refused to continue working on the bleacher project because "he sensed the wrongfulness of such employment."8 Others also felt uncomfortable about their work, and several employees went to David O. McKay, then second counselor in the First Presidency of the Mormon church and an influential community leader, to voice their feelings. Upon hearing these allegations, he requested a meeting with city officials to bring this matter to their attention. On July 30, 1946,the commissioners, mayor, and city attorney met in McKay's office to hear the charges against Tedesco, detailed in a five-page report. After presenting these allegations, McKay withdrew from his office, leaving the others to continue in an executive session. They determined that Tedesco would issue his own statement and that the city would "explore" the charges.9 With this turn of events, news about Salt Lake's professional football team began appearing on the front page of the newspaper in addition to the sports page. In a press conference the next day Tedesco admitted using city employees, materials, and equipment to build the bleachers He contended, however, that neither he nor the football corporation acted with any thought of "cheating" Salt Lake City He testified that he had discussed the matter of the football corporation repaying the city with streets commissioner John B. Matheson and city auditor Louis E. Holley at least ten days to two weeks before the "bleacher incident" became a public issue. On August 1Tedesco filed a detailed report, giving an accounting of the bleacher project, and he presented a check to the city for $885.81 to cover the cost of 935 man-hours of labor, materials, and equipment.10
This payment and explanation failed to appease the critics or to clear Tedesco's name from the taint of wrong-doing. Questions of malfeasance in office were studied by the city attorney, and newspaper editorials called for a complete and impartial investigation. Tedesco made a plea to the commissioners to determine whether he had done anything wrong and whether his report was accurate He was upset that the City Commission had asked the city attorney's office for an opinion on the procedure to remove a commissioner before determining that there was cause to remove him. Tedesco asserted that it had long been common practice for city employees, materials, and equipment to be used to assist church, civic, and fraternal enterprises and activities. Just a month before the public outcry about the "football bleachers," the Parks Department had transported and erected bleachers and benches at Saltair for a Mormon church youth dance festival Newspaper editorials began calling for the establishment of a clear-cut policy in the use of city employees and materials
Frank Christensen defended Tedesco's actions in constructing the bleachers, insisting that the football corporation did not stand to profit financially from the rush construction job. Following several days of investigation, the City Commission concluded that Tedesco acted with "poor judgment" but declined to take any disciplinary action.11 David O. McKay, flabbergasted at the commissioners' report, immediately issued a public statement taking them to task for their failure to assume responsibility in the bleacher affair.12 A Deseret News editorial blasted the commissioners for their "inane" report, labeling it one of the most "wishy-washy, spineless stands" ever taken by the city commissioners They asserted that the commission deliberately avoided any consideration of criminal intent, made no recommendations, and took no action. The report attempted to please everybody and offend no one. 13 In the minds of many Tedesco's name was not cleared and the ethics of city officials remained suspect.
Tedesco's eldest child recalled that during the investigation and the public furor that followed the issuance of the report, her father seemed to withdraw from fighting the charges against him. On the other hand, his wife Klea, politically active and "a feisty woman," recognized that David O. McKay was at the stormfront of all the adverse attention being directed toward her husband. She made an appointment to meet with McKay, with whom shewasacquainted through her political associations.14 After his meeting with Klea Tedesco, McKay asked her to return to his office with Fred to hear his side of the story. The meeting was lengthy and, according to Charlene Tedesco Hunter, McKay believed Tedesco's story and changed his view of the bleacher affair According to her recollection, McKay decided that he had been "misled by others" and offered her father an apology.15 Lou Nestman, the City Parks Department employee most intimately connected with the Seagulls, remembered a conversation he had with Klea while she was waiting for Fred in the maintenance sheds one afternoon in Liberty Park. Both Nestman and his brother, a city employee who had worked on the bleachers, had been questioned during the investigation. Nestman, who believed that they had Tedesco "nailed to the cross," told Klea that afternoon, "It looks bad for Fred."Klea replied, "It does, but I think David's going to help us."Nestman thought that the investigation had amassed enough evidence to send Tedesco to the penitentiary "until Klea Tedesco went to David O.McKay."16 Thereafter, public interest was deflected from Tedesco and the bleacher affair to a broader spectrum of moral and ethical issues in the city and state, and the football corporation could set about fielding a team, albeit with a minor blemish on its record before the first game had even been played.17
To spark community interest and identification with the yet unnamed team, a public contest was held in June to select a name. An overwhelming number of the submitted entries suggested that the team be called the Salt Lake Seagulls, which was accepted.18
Despite the abundance of available, talented football players after the end of the war, the creation of the All America Football Conference in 1946with West Coast teams in Los Angeles (Dons) and San Francisco (49ers) made it difficult to obtain high-caliber players in the PCFL The competition for players with the NFL and AAFC relegated the PCFL to a clearly minor-league status for the first time since the league's inception in 1940 It was really not an opportune time for Salt Lake to try to field a pro football team. Nevertheless, while many existing PCFL teams lost star players to the NFL and AAFC, Salt Lake was able to attract a number of local players with NFL experience who desired to return to live in Utah.
The Seagulls acquired players to fill the roster in various ways. Most of the players on the 1946 team received invitations to try out or were signed outright to contracts. A lot of uninvited, walk-on players who tried out for the team did not make the roster cut because they were not in condition to play the 60 minutes of offense and defense that the pro game exacted Tedesco contacted Aldo Richins, a former teammate at the University of Utah in the early 1930s, and asked him to play Richins, at age thirty-six, felt that he was too old to play Tedesco wanted him to serve as a player/coach, but Richins was too busy running a frozen foods plant in Ogden to take that dual role. He told Tedesco that if they would put another old Ute teammate, Sid Kramer, on the playing roster he would give it a try as a player. Richins signed a contract to receive $125 a game, $25 per game less than he had received with the Detroit Lions a decade earlier.
Richins and Kramer reported late to the mid-August training camp on the baseball field at White Park directly south of the State Fairgrounds Kramer, unaware of Richins's advance playing terms, thought he was just tagging along to get in a workout. Despite being much older than the other players in the camp and getting a late start in training, Richins beat all the other players in a race. He had kept in condition by playing baseball and basketball in the industrial leagues. Kramer left the workout surprised at being offered a contract.19
The team did not pay the players for training camp or practices. They had to be on the roster and suitup for a scheduled game in order to receive their contracted salary.20 Sixteen players who were interviewed received salaries ranging from $60 to $250 per game It is possible that some salaries of those with prior NFL experience may have been even higher. Management told the players not to divulge their salaries to each other. The reason for this became evident in 1947, during the team's second season. As quarterback Huck Adelt recalled:
During the first season the players' feelings about Tedesco were divided. Most players liked him as a person, but they generally questioned his ability to coach. Laurie Mauss, a center on the 1946 team, remembered "Feets" Tedesco as "a very likeable guy," but halfback Cliff Hoopiiaina succinctly stated that Tedesco "didn't know from nothin'! [He] didn't know about coachin' pro." Kent White agreed, remarking that Tedesco "didn't really have the capabilities as a pro coach He wasn't that skilled 'Feets' didn't have the charisma to mold a team."22 Although a few of the players regarded Tedesco as a competent coach, the consensus was that, despite being a great guy personally, "'Feets' was not ready for pro coaching."23 By the end of the second season, which was fraught with serious financial difficulties, even Tedesco's general popularity among the players took a steep nosedive. As Huck Adelt noted in regard to the pay issue, even his integrity was called into question at that point.
The training camp and practices were held in the evening because most of the players had full-time jobs during the day During the first year of the team, training camp and practices were generally held on the outfield at White Park. Gordon Lee, a tall end out of Brigham Young University, remembered it as being more like "an alfalfa field." Tackle O'Dean Hess called the dressing rooms at the White Park "kind of pathetic." It was nothing more than a shed in which the players could change clothes, and there were no showers. It reminded Jack Littlefair of a converted "cow barn."24 During the second season the team practiced at several locations, including Fairmont Park, Derks Field, and a park afew blocks south of Derks Field
The two-week preseason training camp was designed to get the players in condition During the 1946 camp Clark Romney, a tackle, lost 25 pounds and Andy Katsanevas, an end, pared down from 240 pounds to 195 pounds.25 After this conditioning period the players began contact scrimmaging and outlining plays. Paul McDonough, the big twenty-nine-year-old end with the most NFL experience, was named assistant coach. In effect, and in the estimation of most of the players, he became the real coach. For those players without pro experience, the lack of discipline in practices came as a shock. Katsanevas remembered that the younger guys "would work their butts off," while the old pros would liearound. Hess, a co-captain of the old Fort Douglas MP's service team, was accustomed to discipline. He felt that the Seagulls team "wasn't under anybody's authority. It was not a disciplined situation."26 Such were the reactions of those unused to the pro football ambiance
Television broadcaster and former pro kicker Pat Summerall provided a graphic description of the lax atmosphere he encountered when he wentfrom college into the pros:
Often the younger players, with all their enthusiasm, naivete, and unbridled desire to impress, had to be tutored in the pro way of playing football When linesman Ray Silcox, a Granite High School graduate, tackled too enthusiastically in practice, tackle George Worthen recollected that they called a "hit" on him and everybody piled on him when he came through the line.28
Although newspapers reported that Tedesco was installing a "deceptive and revolutionary" system, such ballyhoo must have been written to confuse the opposition or to bring curious fans through the turnstiles.29 In truth, the team was only running the outdated single wing, albeit with a minuscule wrinkle here and there. Huck Adelt, the first T-formation quarterback at Utah in 1941 and a backup to Frank Albert on the powerful 1942 St Mary's Pre-flight Air Devils, was surprised when he joined the Seagulls and "saw their unimaginative offense." He explained:
John Mooney recalled that the Seagulls only had plays that went to the right sidelines in the single wing formation; they had no plays that went to the left Gordon Lee simply described the Seagull offense as running "a single wing attack with T-formation people." As he explained it, a team needs powerful backs to run the single wing. The Seagulls "had a [powerful] line to run the single wing, but not the backs."31 Almost all of the former pro players were on the line, but the Seagulls' backs were small and lightweight.
The record of their inaugural season confirmed the weakness of the Seagulls' offense. They achieved a mediocre two wins, five losses, and a tie On amore hopeful note, both wins came in games played at home, and in most of the games that they lost they were competitive The Seagulls finished the season tied for third in their division. A few players made the All-League Team and some were accorded honorable mention.
Despite the anemic record the players had fun, and those few fans who attended the games and followed the team in the sports pages enjoyed an experience new to Salt Lake. As many fledgling pro sports franchises were wont to do, the Seagulls management inflated attendance figures for the press. Before the season got underway Jerry Jones, wealthy owner of the Rainbow Rendezvous dance establishment, had offered to buy the team. The stockholders turned down his offer, believing that they would be able to field a successful and profitable team. Roland Sleater believes that turning down Jones's offer was one of their biggest mistakes. He remains convinced "that for any franchise to work it must have a principle [sic] owner and not just a lot of equal shareholders."32 Tee Branca, a golf pro and team stockholder, recalled that he voted against accepting Jones's offer because he thought that the franchise was going to be a big moneymaker. Theywere "all going to become rich with it." On the contrary, he spent every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday prior to a home game trying to peddle tickets around town.33 It was discouraging trying to sell tickets for a sporting event in a city where almost everyone spent their Sundays going to church.
Although the grandstand and bleachers at the Fairgrounds were never filled to capacity, the facilities had been adequately prepared. The turf, although patchy and hard to make a quick turn on, was deemed by some players to be as good as that found in other PCFL stadiums.34 However, the grassed stadium infield retained its manure stench, a legacy of years of service as a rodeo arena John Mooney recalled that facilities for the press and the statisticians were poorly located. He worked as a statistician for the first game, but he could not really see what was happening because he was situated at ground level.35 Apparently, it was also somewhat difficult for the coaches on the sidelines to see what was happening. Huck Adelt said,
Kent White noted that Tedesco did not encourage the kind of play that would interest the fans. He referred to such action as biting an opponent's leg, although he did mention that Stan Plichta, a second team All-League selection at guard, had used the cast on his arm "like a club."37 Even if there was not much in the way of dirty play, the action was rough enough to put players out of commission. Anthony J. "Hawk" Falkenstein, a guard on the Oakland Giants, recalled that during his visit to Salt Lake to play the Seagulls he had his "nose caved in" and had to have it repaired later on. 38 After three broken noses doctors told quarterback Roy Evans that he should not play again. He sat out for a while, but when "Gallopin"' Gay Adelt was knocked out of a game Evans borrowed Garth Chamberlain's helmet and entered the fray.39 Chamberlain's helmet sported a face guard, something that only a few centers and tackles had Most players of that era disdained the use of a face guard, considering it a sign of weakness to wear one. 40
In 1946 the team flew to its games in Sacramento, Hollywood, Tacoma, and San Diego. They chartered DC-3 army transports and National Guard planes. These airplanes did not have seats so the players sat on packed parachutes Aldo Richins opined that the team "didn't have enough money to do it right."41 On their first trip away a big crowd of fans came out to the airport and hundreds of seagulls were released to send the team off to play the Sacramento Nuggets in gala style. On away games the coaches tried to keep a tight rein on the players by scheduling light workouts and instituting 11 o'clock curfews. The older players summarily ignored the curfews and visited the bars and night spots. Partying and socializingwere not limited to away games or the fraternity of players. Aldo Richins's wife, Helen, recalled that a lot of the players and their wives would drive out to the Coon Chicken Inn restaurant on Highland Drive after a game whether the team had won or lost Although they lived in Ogden, the Richins couple used to gather with other football players and their wives in Paul McDonough's downtown apartment for small parties.42 For a time the team was regularly invited for steak and eggs breakfasts and to preview game and practice films before home games at the Ambassador Athletic Club of which Frank Christensen was president. That welcome inexplicably wore out after awhile The Embassy Club in the Newhouse Hotel was also a regular after-practice and postgame hangout for single players and the old pros, some of whom were heavy drinkers. O'Dean Hess, an elementary schoolteacher, remarked that the Seagull players were an "unusual group to bring together, [but they] made a pretty good team." The pro football lifestyle was exciting, fun, and "everybodywanted to be there."43
The three games scheduled after the San Diego game were all canceled. One interesting cancellation was the home game scheduled against the San Francisco Clippers the week following the San Diego game. The Clippers notified the Seagull management that they were unable to fly out of San Francisco to make the game in Salt Lake because the fog was so bad. When John Mooney, who happened to be in San Francisco to report on another sporting event, called the Tribune office and learned of the "fog-bound" cancellation, he asked, "What fog?" He could see all the way across the bay to Berkeley; it was clear as a bell.The Clippers had simply declined to make the trip to Utah.44
In 1947 the PCFL was able to muster only five teams: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hawaii, Sacramento, and Salt Lake Competition with the NFL and AAFC for good players and fan interest exacted a heavy toll, and the PCFLwould fold after the 1948season. But during 1947 the Seagulls presented a second and final season of entertaining football excitement for Salt Lake fans.
In the early summer the Seagulls management made arrangements to play home games at Derks Field. The grandstand seats at the Fairgrounds were really too far away from the playing field for the fans to get a good view of the action. There was optimism that a new location closer to town might boost attendance.
Many players on the 1946 Seagull roster returned to playin 1947, including almost all of the starters The addition of some new players, including Huck Adelt, may have even strengthened the squad somewhat. A slate of four home and four road games was scheduled, including back-to-back games late in the season with the Hawaiian Warriors. Honolulu fielded a strong team and drew large crowds to its games. As a result, it was so financially attractive for teams to play them in Honolulu that the Warriors did not play any games away from home. The scheduled two-week trip to Hawaii also proved to be an incentive for re-signing Seagull players for the 1947 season.
The Seagulls entered the 1947season with a fair measure of optimism that they would be more competitive. The owners hoped that a more competitive team playing in the new Derks Field setting would bring in more fans at the gate Nevertheless, attendance at the first few games at Derks Field probably totaled even less than the average at the Fairgrounds the previous year. The financial situation became so dismal that Tedesco tore up his contract and coached without pay. After the season home opener a Deseret News editorial called it a mistake for the Seagulls to be playing Sunday games. 45 Their record after three games was two losses and a tie. Although one of the losses, at the hands of the Los Angeles Bulldogs, was only by three points, a newspaper article two days after that game frankly labeled the Seagulls a "hapless" team.46
During a break in the schedule the players were informed that the team was insolvent. In dejection the officers and directors disassociated themselves from any further involvement, leaving Tedesco to handle it all by himself. He told the players that he could not pay them for the game scheduled to be played in Salt Lake against the Bulldogs on October 26.47 He said that if they would forego getting paid for the game against the Bulldogs, he would pay them for playing that game from the income derived from playing the two games in Hawaii. With few other options and almost assured that they would recoup their financial losses after the games in the islands, the players agreed to the arrangement. Practices—held only every other day at this point—were finally discontinued altogether. The players only showed up to play on game day. Amazingly, they beat the Bulldogs by a score of 7 to 6 in the game where their pay was being deferred.48 A few days later a decision was made to cancel the remaining home game
The stockholders raised some money to help pay for the players' transportation to San Francisco. They traveled by car, pooling money for gas, and a few of the players were accompanied by their wives. Once the team arrived in San Francisco, the Warriors would assume all expenses, including board and room and airplane tickets on aDC4 to Hawaii and back On the long flight, some Hawaiian businessmen returning to the islands made friends with the players and wined and dined them all during their stay. The Junior Chamber of Commerce took them sightseeing and hosted them at a sumptuous luau at the governor's house. They held practices every day, but George Worthen remarked that for the most part they "practiced drinking beer."49
Hawaii won both football games against the Seagulls, the second by a lopsided score of 52-0. Some team members believed that the partying and drinking may have played a big part in the losses, particularly in the second game An alternative explanation lies in some of the league findings made public at the conclusion of the season. Four of the Warrior players were banned from playing in the PCFL for life and eleven others were suspended indefinitely for gambling in their final season game against the Los Angeles Bulldogs. Hawaii was a very strong team and had a farm club arrangement with the Los Angeles Rams Although there was no mention that the banned players had gambled in any other games, upon later reflection Seagulls players found some incidents in their games with Hawaii puzzling. Several players had noticed wide-open betting going on in the stands. Huck Adelt reflected:
At this late date and without additional evidence, an explanation for the large point spread in the second Seagull-Warrior game can only be conjectured At the conclusion of the game, the Seagull players just wanted to forget the sorry debacle and pick up their pay envelopes—including the money owed them for the earlier gratis Bulldog game.
After cleaning out their stadium lockers, the players lined up at the pay door to get their money from Tedesco. Gay Adelt was first in line. Not only had it been a rough game for him, but it came on the heels of a long night of drinking He missed the curfew on the night before the game and did not get back to his bed in the Plantation Hotel until 4 a.m. the morning of the game. 51 When Adelt saw that his pay envelope did not include the promised back pay, he asked, "What about paying us for the Bulldog game?" Tedesco replied, "I'll have to look at it." Adelt started "cussing him up and down." Tedesco took a swing at Adelt and then Gay broke the half-door down and pummeled "Feets" to the locker room floor Gay thumped Tedesco's head up and down on the concrete before the players jumped in and pulled him off. It was a brief fight, but Tedesco was a bloody mess. The players picked up their pay envelopes for the Hawaii game and flew back home Cliff Hoopiiaina commented that it was "a good thing we had our return tickets already paid for."52 Tedesco must have given the back pay business a closer look because he paid the players a few days after returning home. Everybody got their pay in the end, but some of the players learned later that Tedesco did not have to share any profits from the Hawaii games with the stockholders. They had told Tedesco that he could take all the risk and any of the rewards of the Hawaii contests. Some thirty to forty thousand fans attended the Hawaii games, and Tedesco received a guaranteed amount plus a percentage of the gate Gordon Lee said that "they would have asked for more to play in Hawaii than their contracts stated" if the players had known about the stockholders' arrangement with their coach.53
Although the season and history of Utah's only professional football team ended on an acrimonious note, over four decades later the players recalled those years with wistful fondness. Except for the few still-living players, Utahns' memory of the Seagulls has mostly faded. Nonetheless, the Seagulls deserve to be remembered as filling a unique niche in Utah sports history—even if they were more colorful off the field than on it.
NOTES
Mr. Bashore is a member of the Professional Football Researchers Association. A version of this paper was presented at the 1991 Annual Meeting of the Utah State Historical Society in Park City.
1 Dee Chipman, "The Salt Lake Seagulls," Deseret News, Magazine Section,July 15, 1984, pp 4-6.
2 Salt Lake Tribune, December 4, 1945; Bob Gill, Best in the West: The Rise and Fall of the Pacific Coast Football League, 1940-48 (Huntington, W. V.: Professional Football Research Association, 1988), p. 289.
3 Roland Sleater, appointed a director of the Seagulls, recalled attending the PCFL meeting in San Francisco The Salt Lake delegates had to overcome strong opposition from the Hawaiian Warriors team, which was concerned about the extra travel distance Roland Sleater to author, September 7, 1990 All private letters, interview audiotapes/transcriptions, notes of conversations, and other documents not cited as being in a private or institutional collection are in the possession of the author.
4 Articles of Incorporation, No 14586, Utah State Archives, Salt Lake City Christensen was very busy with his business (manufacturing industrial diamonds) and reluctantly accepted the position of president only after they convinced him that he "might be a help to the community." Interview with Frank L Christensen, August 11, 1990.
5 Tedesco was elected city commissioner for Salt Lake City in November 1941 and put in charge of the parks department Prior to that he was a physical education teacher at Bryant Junior High School and a supervisor of Rotary and YMCA boys' clubs. A 1933 graduate of the University of Utah, majoring in physical education, he was twice an all-conference quarterback at Utah and received AllAmerican mention from the New York Sun in 1932 A very popular commissioner, he was reelected in 1945 by one of the largest majorities ever received for that office In 1949 he resigned as commissioner to accept a position as general manager of a soft drink bottling company Biographical information obtained from newspaper clippings in Fred Tedesco scrapbooks in possession of Fred Tedesco, Jr.
6 Deseret News, April 1, 1946.
7 Conversation with Lou Nestman, August 3, 1990.
8 Deseret News, August 1, 1946.
9 Salt Lake Tribune, July 31, 1946.
10 Salt Lake City, City Council Minutes (1945-47), p 507, Utah State Archives The August 1, 1946, entry indicated that the detailed report would be filed. A file labeled Special Report No. 138 was located by the City Recorder's Office, Salt Lake City It contained a cover letter signed by Fred Tedesco in which he stated that the bleacher construction project was engaged in "with every thought of honesty and sincerity Everything was done out in the open." The letter also stated that the report would be attached; however, no report was in the file or attached to the letter.
11 Salt Lake Tribune, August 6, 1946.
12 Ibid., August 7, 1946.
13 Deseret Evening News, August 6, 1946.
14 Emily Klea Bullock Tedesco (1911-63) was president of the ladies auxiliary of the Utah Municipal League during 1944-45, national committeewoman of the Young Republicans of Utah during 1944-48, and a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1956 She was raised in a Mormon family and married Fred Tedesco, a son of immigrant Italian Catholics, in 1936.
15 Telephone conversation with Charlene Tedesco Hunter, April 4, 1991.
16 According to Nestman's recollections, his brother had been questioned by a grand jury Retired Salt Lake Tribune sports editorJohn Mooney also seemed to remember that a grandjury had been convened, concurring with Nestman that "they damn near went tojail." Telephone conversation with John Mooney, August 23, 1990. However, there is no mention in the newspapers of a grand jury being convened until October 1946 A Deseret News editorial asked "Do We Need to Call a Grand Jury?" but concluded—not yet. Deseret News, August 16, 1946. No records of a grand jury prior to October were found in a search of records at the Third District Court and Utah State Archives Wesley F Emery, a citizen who served on the federal grandjury convened in October 1946, vowed that the bleacher incident was not the subject of inquiry Telephone conversation with Wesley F Emery, August 29, 1990.
17 Salt Lake Tribune, August 7-9, 1946 McKay called the bleacher affair "a minor incident in the greater undertaking to have a moral cleanup" of the city in preparation for the centennial celebration in 1947 In response to McKay's criticism, Mayor Glade and Police Chief L C Crowther, with the support of the City Commission, announced a drive against vice and gambling that included removing marble games and card tables from local taverns.
18 Deseret News, June 25, 1946.
19 Interview with Aldo Richins, August 4, 1990; and telephone conversation with Sid Kramer, July 31, 1990.
20 George "Pudge" Leatham, a 190-pound end on the Seagulls in 1947, said that he was told by the coaches not to disclose his pay He also had a clause written into his contract stating that he would get workmen's compensation if he was injured The contract also stipulated that if an injury kept him from working at his daytime job he would turn over any insurance money to the football team Telephone conversation with George Leatham, July 21, 1990 When guard Kent White was injured, he received workmen's compensation Telephone conversation with Kent White,July 19, 1990.
21 Horst I. "Huck" Adelt to author, August 28, 1990.
22 Telephone conversations with Laurie Mauss,July 16, 1990; Cliff Hoopiiaina, July 26, 1990; and Kent White Tedesco received the nickname "Feets"when he was a student at West High School in Salt Lake City According to family lore, Fred had to wear his older brother's shoes to school because his mother had taken his school shoes to be repaired His older brother's shoes were so large that it "took two steps in the big shoes to get them to move one step." Conversation with Fred Tedesco,Jr., August 1990.
23 Richins interview.
24 Telephone conversations with Gordon Lee, August 3, 1990; O'Dean Hess, August 16, 1990; andJack Littlefair, August 1, 1990.
25 Telephone conversations with Clark Romney, August 7, 1990, and Andy Katsanevas, August 1, 1990.
26 Katsanevas and Hess conversations.
27 Stuart Leuthner, Iron Men: Bucko, Crazylegs, and the Boys Recall the Golden Days of Professional Football (New York: Doubleday, 1988), p 160.
28 Telephone conversation with George Worthen,July 15, 1990.
29 Deseret News, September 5, 1946.
30 Adelt letter, August 28, 1990.
31 Mooney and Lee conversations.
32 Sleater, letter, September 7, 1990.
33 Telephone conversation with Tee Branca, August 23, 1990.
34 Such an assertion must be viewed in the context that Hughes Stadium, the home field of the Sacramento Nuggets, was used as a stock car racing oval a day before the game with the Seagulls, leaving the turf laden with dust on a blisteringly hot day.
35 Mooney conversation.
36 Adelt letter, August 28, 1990.
37 White conversation.
38 AnthonyJ Falkenstein to author, October 3, 1990.
39 Telephone conversation with Roy Evans, August 8, 1990.
40 Nicholas Skorich, a guard for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1946 to 1948, said, "We thought that it was sissy to wear a face mask." Leuthner, Iron Men, p 59.
41 Richins interviews.
42 Ibid.
43 Hess conversation.
44 Mooney conversation.
45 Deseret News, October 8, 1947.
46 Ibid., October 14, 1947.
47 Telephone conversation with Dee Chipman, September 20, 1990.
48 Cliff Hoopiiaina asserted that the linesmen were paid for the Bulldog game, but the backs were not When I recounted Hoopiiaina's version of the Bulldog pay arrangement to end Gordon Lee, he said that "it was pretty close." It was understandably difficult to get a consensus on the Bulldog pay situation because of Tedesco's policy of players not divulging pay information to each other.
49 Worthen conversation.
50 Adelt letter, August 28, 1990.
51 Chipman and Nestman conversations.
52 The account of the fight is an amalgamation of recountings in conversations with Dee Chipman and Cliff Hoopiiaina; telephone conversation with Elmer Leake, July 26, 1990; and Adelt letter, August 28, 1990.
53 Lee conversation.
