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James Rosenquist
Pop Art Master
James Rosenquist: When I started painting, and there wasn't much of a market, and there wasn't a big audience, there was a space of time -- maybe a year -- where I worked and they weren't for sale. I didn't have an accountant. I wasn't involved in any business. I mean, having a gallery is putting your work up for sale. Boom! So I didn't have that. And I think that's a strength that a person has. So if someone says, "I don't like that." I say, "Oh, you don't like that? You should see what else you wouldn't like." Because you have something over them. It's that secret life there, somewhere, of these works. And if you want to show them, you can show them something. Instead of baring your soul and showing them everything.
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Pete Rozelle
Pro Football Hall of Fame
You're in a strange position, because you work for these people, and yet, it's up to you to enforce the constitution and by-laws that they set up. So there's discipline involved, and you have to take issue with them on some things they might want to do, and say, "Well, you can't do that." But they were pretty good. Most of them understood. I know that George Halas was, of course, almost the founder of the National Football League, a great Chicago Bear coach and owner. And I remember, I had to call him in, and he flew in from Chicago. Called me from the airport, and asked if we could meet out there. I said, "No, I want to see you in my office. And he came in and we talked over whatever the problem was at the time. But he didn't get mad. He was very supportive of me. He had respect for authority and knew they had to have a strong commissioner. Not someone who would do just what was, at the time, the thing to do, but one that would stick to their guns and do what they felt was right.
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Pete Rozelle
Pro Football Hall of Fame
Pete Rozelle: There were reports that some players had been betting on games. It was never established they ever bet against their own team. But in the final analysis, I developed enough information through investigation that -- the big one was Paul Hornung, who was a great star with the Green Bay Packers, and Vince Lombardi was his coach. I remember when I called Vinnie and asked him to come in to see me. So he flew into New York. He was a remarkable man. Paul was the star of his championship team, and I laid out the information that we had about Paul, what Paul had been doing. And again, never betting against the Packers, but betting on football. Vince looked at it, he said, "Well, you have no choice, do you?" I said, "I don't think so, Vinnie. Let's go get a drink." He really handled it like a man. Because coaches have an inordinate interest in their football players, and he wanted that talent on the field, and they will argue almost on any case, saying, "Well, you should let him play." But Vince was outstanding in that way. He, the man in authority -- from respect for his authority with the players, with everyone in the Green Bay organization -- but he also gave authority to the commissioner.
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Pete Rozelle
Pro Football Hall of Fame
Pete Rozelle: That was a direct challenge to the NFL constitution, which said you have to have a three-quarters approving vote if you're going to move your franchise. And we had Davis challenge that in his move from Oakland to Los Angeles. And it was sitting there in the constitution, and I couldn't just say, "Oh, I'm not going to press this." I brought it to the attention of the owners, and I said, "I think we have to defend this constitution." So we had two trials over a couple of years. They were long ones. And the trial was in Los Angeles, where he ultimately won with the jury. So he was permitted to move from Oakland to Los Angeles. And that decision in itself triggered a couple of other moves. From Baltimore to Indianapolis, that bothered people in the Baltimore area of course. But stability is a great thing in sports, and the fans feel a definite loss when they lose a franchise, it's not good for a sport.
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Bill Russell
Cornerstone of the Boston Celtics' Dynasty
So he says, "I'm going to make a list of six guys, and you make a list of six guys. And we find one guy that fits on both lists, that could be our new coach." There was no match. So he says, "Well, I'm going to hire this guy." I says, "Oh no. If you hire this guy " -- he brought his name up -- " if you hire him, I'm retiring with you." He says, "You mean that?" "Yes, I do. I'm not going to play for him. I don't even want to be in the same room with him." And so he said, "What do you want me to do?" I go, "Okay. I'll take it. You offered it to me first, I'll take it. But if it doesn't work -- and we'll see whether it works or not -- we can bring in somebody else, even if it's midseason and I will never complain and I'll play just as hard for him as I play for you." Because we were both interested in what was good for the Celtics and not what makes him look good or me look good or bad or whatever. It has nothing to do with anything. That's how I became the player-coach. But one thing I have to add is that, because I'm kind of hard-headed, I refused to have an assistant coach. And one of the reasons -- not the total reason, but one of the reasons -- was I knew that to do a good job right I had to completely, totally immerse myself into the position. And if I hired an assistant coach I would start laying off things for him to do that I should be doing, things that I watched Red do for ten years. See, he never had an assistant coach. Like one time he said to me, "Do you want me to hire you an assistant coach?" I said, "Yeah, we'll just hire one of yours." He had never had one!
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