THE GAME'S GRIEVOUS LOSS

Tex Maule

October 19, 1959

He was a small, paunchy man with a face like a pudgy hawk and a gravelly voice. He lived in a world of giants whom he ruled absolutely. He was, as much as any one man could be, responsible for the burgeoning of professional football, and he was the best commissioner any professional sport has had since the death of Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Bert (De Benneville) Bell, who took over as commissioner of the National Football League in 1946, was responsible for the eminently sane policies of the league on television and procurement of personnel, the two factors which made pro football the success it is today. Before he was commissioner, he was an owner and a coach in the league and not very effective in either pursuit. He was fair in his dealings with owners and players. Sunday he died watching a football game between the Eagles and the Steelers in Philadelphia, and he left a vacancy no one else can fill.