De Benneville ("Bert") Bell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of John Cromwell Bell and Fleurette de Benneville Myers. Bell was expected to enter law, politics, or business. His father had been attorney general of Pennsylvania and his brother, John Cromwell Bell, Jr. , was in turn lieutenant governor, governor, and a justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He much preferred a nickname "Bert" to De Benneville.
Bert played football, basketball, and baseball while a student at the Haverford prep school in Philadelphia. At the University of Pennsylvania, which he entered in 1915, he was a better than average quarterback and punter. Under his generalship the 1915 club upset a mighty Michigan team but lost to Oregon in the Rose Bowl. World War I interrupted Bell's education; in 1918 he served with a field hospital unit in France. He returned to captain the Pennsylvania team of 1919 but left the university in 1920 without a degree.
In the 1920's and early 1930's Bell dabbled in business and football coaching, although he devoted much of his time to heavy drinking, gambling, and courting chorus girls. Each fall from 1920 through 1928 he served as an assistant to first John Heisman and then Louis A. Young in coaching the backfield of the Pennsylvania football team; in 1930 and 1931 he was the backfield coach for Temple University. At Pennsylvania he gained notoriety for developing the "hidden ball" trick, now outlawed, in which the players wore patches at their elbows designed as footballs.
In the 1920's Bell also managed hotels in which his father had an interest, first the St. James and later the Ritz Carlton in Philadelphia, and was a part owner of a brokerage house. The stock market crash of 1929, in which he experienced heavy losses, checked Bell's taste for gambling. In 1933 he and six friends purchased the franchise of the Frankford Yellow Jackets of the National Football League (NFL) for $2, 500. In honor of the Blue Eagle, the symbol of the New Deal's National Recovery Administration, they renamed the club the Philadelphia Eagles. Investing in a professional football team in 1933 was risky. College football was far more popular and only a few NFL franchises were profitable. The Great Depression added to the woes of the league. The Eagles allegedly lost $80, 000 between 1933 and 1936; in the latter year Bell acquired total ownership of the club for a mere $4, 500. Only a substantial inheritance from his father in 1935 saved Bell from financial ruin.
Bell served as club owner, general manager, and coach of the Eagles. Under his coaching the team won only ten games, lost forty-four, and tied two. Fewer than 5, 000 fans usually attended home games. Following the 1940 season, in a complicated three-way transaction, Bell sold the Eagles and obtained half interest with Arthur J. Rooney, Jr. , in the Pittsburgh Steelers. He served at various times as coach, general manager, and president of the Steelers until 1946, when he sold his interest in the club upon assuming the commissionership of the NFL. Before Bell became commissioner, reasoning that the league needed a system to equalize competition between the weaker and stronger teams, he persuaded the owners to accept a "draft" system. Starting in 1936 the teams chose college players in reverse order of their league standing at the close of the previous season. While the draft may not have functioned effectively as an equalizer of competition, it did serve the interest of owners in forcing prospective athletes to negotiate with only one club. After World War II professional baseball, basketball, and hockey copied Bell's system.
As commissioner, Bell made many important contributions to professional football. He spearheaded the passage of special sports antibribery laws in several states and also hired former Federal Bureau of Investigation agents to maintain surveillance of gamblers, players, owners, and NFL radio broadcasters. In order to reduce the advantages of professional gamblers who often had access to knowledge unavailable to the public, Bell required that teams announce at least forty-eight hours in advance of the games the names of players who were unlikely to appear in a contest. Bell guided the NFL through a costly war with the All-America Conference, which was organized in 1946. Competition for talent drove up player salaries, costing the combined leagues an estimated $6 million. On December 9, 1949, the All-America Conference "surrendered, " but the Cleveland, San Francisco, and Baltimore franchises were taken into the NFL on favorable terms. When the owners were unable to agree upon a procedure for the division of the players made available by the dissolution of the rival conference, Bell assigned them to NFL clubs. He also reached an understanding with the Canadian Football League that sharply reduced player raids.
Television presented another challenge to Bell. Although it was a major force in destroying many minor-league professional baseball teams in the 1950's, it proved to be a boon to football. Bell persuaded the NFL owners to permit only road games to be televised. In 1951 the federal government filed an antitrust suit against the league for this policy but lost. By 1959 each club was receiving nearly $100, 000 annually from television rights. Bell made sure that the radio and television commentators would be league boosters rather than critics; he insisted that announcers refrain from criticizing players, coaches, owners, or game officials. Bell employed his authority broadly to prevent "any action detrimental to the welfare of the National Football League. " He united the faction-ridden owners into a single economic cartel, a far stronger one than existed in any other professional team sport.
Under Bell's leadership professional football rose to new heights of popularity and financial stability. Average game attendance nearly doubled between 1946 and 1959; only two clubs reported profits in 1946, but only two lost money in 1959. By the late 1950's some 40 million fans regularly watched NFL games on television. While the players benefited from the league's prosperity, Bell and the owners tightly restricted their economic freedom. Testimony before a congressional committee in 1956 revealed that the "option clause" in player contracts was only a nominal right, for the owners apparently had a gentleman's agreement to blacklist any player who tried to exercise the option by signing with another club. Under pressure from the committee, Bell, without even consulting the owners, agreed to recognize the Players Association. Omens of a new era of professional football characterized by a three-way power struggle between the NFL, the Players Association, and the American Football League (organized in 1959) were already present when Bell died of a heart attack while watching a game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Bert Bell was for some time owner of the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers but he achieved greater success while serving as the National Football League commissioner. On this post Bell made many important contributions to professional football. For example, he establish the National Football League Draft in order to afford the weakest teams the first opportunity to sign the best available players; Bell tailored the game's rules to strengthen its appeal to mass media and enforced a policy of blacking out local broadcasts of home contests to safeguard ticket receipts; he also facilitated in the development of the first pension plan for the players, etc. Under Bell's leadership professional football rose to new heights of popularity and financial stability. Average game attendance nearly doubled between 1946 and 1959.
A heavyset man, with twinkling eyes and a ready smile, Bell seemed to be able to disarm the most fierce antagonists. Despite his upper-class origins, he had a "common touch, " being equally at ease with owners, reporters, players, and congressmen.
Frances Upton, who starred in several Broadway musical comedies, persuaded Bert to give up drinking as a condition for her friendship. The couple married on January 4, 1934; they had three children. Marriage and a family helped bring stability to Bell's chaotic life.
