Jack Teele
Jack Earl Teele was an American football executive and sportswriter. He served as an executive for thirty-one seasons in the National Football League, including twenty-one with the Los Angeles Rams and ten with the San Diego Chargers, as well as two in the World League of American Football with the Barcelona Dragons.
Early life and education
Jack Teele was born on June 17, 1930, in Bloomington, Illinois. His family moved to Long Beach, California, in 1941. He was one of the first students in the city to attend all levels of education there, having graduated from Garfield Elementary School, Washington Junior High, Long Beach Polytechnic High School, Long Beach City College, and Long Beach State University. He was a member of the Long Beach State men's basketball team as a guard and played in their first-ever season. Teele also played golf.While attending Long Beach City College in 1949, Teele started a sportswriting career with The Independent. After his graduation from college, he spent two years in the Army Intelligence, including thirteen months in Japan. He returned to the United States in 1954, starting a local sports column in The Independent titled "Sports About Town". From 1958 to 1959, he covered the Los Angeles Rams in the newspaper.
Executive career
Los Angeles Rams
In, Teele was hired by the Los Angeles Rams as the director of publicity, replacing Bert Rose who became general manager of the Minnesota Vikings.In the mid-1960s, after being asked repeatedly about the Rams' defensive line, Teele coined the phrase "Fearsome Foursome", to refer to Deacon Jones, Merlin Olsen, Lamar Lundy, and Rosey Grier. He nicknamed them the "Fearsome Foursome", and the name stuck.
In, Teele had helped organize the first Super Bowl, booking the American Football League champion Kansas City Chiefs into the Edgewater Hotel in Long Beach. He also secured the team practice space at Veterans Memorial Stadium, the sports field of Long Beach State University.
After serving nine seasons in the position of publicity director, owner Dan Reeves named him assistant to the president, a position that had Teele second in command of the franchise, following the departure of general manager Elroy Hirsch. Although Reeves held the title of general manager, Teele was the team's executive officer. Reeves died prior to the 1971 season and after Carroll Rosenbloom acquired the team the following year, Teele was replaced by Don Klosterman.
Teele was moved to the position of administrative assistant in 1973. In that role, he was in charge of the team's travel, room and food arrangements, and "myriad other details during training camp and the season," according to The Independent. He remained in that position through the 1977 season, before being named vice president of administration in. He served as vice president of administration from 1978 to, before resigning in March. Rich Roberts, writing in the Los Angeles Times, noted that he served with the Rams under three different owners, six head coaches, and "umpteen different quarterbacks" during his twenty-one year stint with the organization.