The Redskins arrived in Toronto for Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills bruised and battered, and expected to leave beaten. But there is a symbol of Redskins tradition and history that the team could rally around for the emotional lift they need to overcome their underdog status: Win one for “The Squire.”
If Jack Kent Cooke were still alive — he would have turned 99 last Tuesday — he would be coming home to the place where he built the foundation that allowed him to someday own the Washington Redskins.
And you could be sure that “The Squire,” as he was often called, would not abide his team embarrassing him by losing in his old hometown.
Cooke was born in Hamilton, Ontario, but raised in Toronto. And you can be sure that if the Redskins had come back to Toronto to play an NFL game while Cooke, who died in 1997, was alive, it would have been a homecoming event — with orders not to bring shame to the Cooke name in their native land with a loss.
The story goes that Cooke began his career at the age of 14, selling encyclopedias door-to-door in Toronto. He would go on to build a communications empire.
Cooke would make his mark in Toronto as a sports owner — but not of a football team. In 1951, Cooke bought the Toronto Maple Leafs — not the hockey team, but the minor league baseball franchise.
He turned the Maple Leafs into the most successful minor league franchise of its time. He was named Sporting News minor league executive of the year in 1952.
Cooke wanted desperately to bring major league baseball to Toronto. Football was not on his radar.
He was unsuccessful in attempting to buy the Boston Braves before the franchise moved to Milwaukee, the St. Louis Browns before they moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles, and the Philadelphia Athletics before they moved to Kansas City. He also made a bid to buy the Detroit Tigers.
Cooke would then become an owner in the upstart Continental League, but the league folded before it began when baseball agreed to expand by four teams in the early 1960s.
He was ready to leave Toronto behind in 1960. Through an act of Congress, he became an American citizen and purchased a 25 percent stake in the Redskins, beginning a career as one of the most prominent sports owners in the U.S.
But he was also recognized as one of major figures in sports in Canada, inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 1985.
Cooke likely would have loved to bring his Redskins back to Toronto for an NFL game — at least one of those Super Bowl Redskins teams he reigned over. This one, though, “The Squire” might have just left at home.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
