Charles Bidwill

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Charles Bidwell
Date of birth	September 16, 1895
Place of birth	Chicago, IL
Date of death	April 19, 1947 (age 51)
Position(s)	Owner Administrator
College	Loyola University Chicago
Team(s) as a coach/administrator
1933-1947	Chicago Cardinals
Pro Football Hall of Fame, 1967

Charles W. Bidwill, Sr. (September 16, 1895 - April 19, 1947) was an owner/administrator of the Chicago Cardinals.

Charles Bidwill, Sr., who owned the team for 14 seasons from 1933 until 1946, when the franchise was located in Chicago.

In spite of Bidwill's enthusiasm for the game, the Cardinals were not a successful club during the 1930s and early 1940s and were always completely overshadowed by the cross-town rival Chicago Bears. In 1944, it was even prudent for the Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers to merge for a year to ease the financial strain and manpower crisis created by World War II.

Still, Bidwill stayed the course. The end of the war brought another problem to the struggling owner. It came in the form of the AAFC and another rival team in Chicago, the Chicago Rockets. But it was Bidwill who delivered the AAFC one of its most stunning defeats when he signed everybody's All-America, Charley Trippi of Georgia, to a then unprecedented $100,000 contract. Trippi was the final link in "Blue Shirt Charley's" so-called "Dream Backfield" of Paul Christman, Pat Harder, Marshall Goldberg, and Trippi. Bidwill died in April 1947, but this quartet would lead the Cardinals to an NFL championship in 1947 and a division title in 1948.

[edit] External link

• Pro Football Hall of Fame: Member profile