Charles C. Pyle

Charles C. "Charlie" Pyle (March 26, 1882 – February 3, 1939), sometimes cattily referred to as "Cash and Carry Pyle," was a theater owner and sports entertainment promoter best known for his touring exhibitions featuring American football star Red Grange and French tennis player Suzanne Lenglen.

Pyle was the founder of the New York Yankees football club in 1926, owning it until the team's demise at the end of the 1928 season.

Biography

Charlie Pyle was born March 26, 1882, in Los Angeles, California. He was large and athletic, standing about 6'1" and weighing 190 pounds in his prime, and he participated in boxing as a boy.Red Grange in Richard Whittingham, ''What a Game They Played: Stories of the Early Days of Pro Football by Those Who Were There.'' New York: Harper and Row, 1984; p. 18.

Pyle became involved in the theater business, owning the Virginia and the Park theaters in Champaign, Illinois — home of the Illinois Fighting Illini football teamHarold (Red) Grange, "How I Turned Pro," ''Pro Football Illustrated, 1948 Edition.'' Mt. Morris, IL: Elbak Publishing Co., 1948; pp. 16–17. — as well as a third in Kokomo, Indiana. Pyle was fastidious in his personal grooming, sitting in a barber shop for a hair trim twice and week and always dressing nattily from a seemingly vast wardrobe.

Signing Red Grange

An avid football fan, Pyle spotted star Illini halfback Red Grange seated in the back row of the Virginia theater in the fall of 1924, Grange's junior year, and send an usher down to bring him to the office so that he could meet him. Pyle gave Grange a complimentary season pass to the Virginia and Park theaters, which was frequently used, keeping the pair in contact for the duration of Grange's stay at the university.

Well into Grange's senior season, during which the running back emerged as a national sports hero, Pyle began to see Grange as a potential commercial asset. One night in 1925 Pyle sent an usher to Grange's seat in the Virginia Theater calling him to his office. When Grange entered and sat, Pyle hit him with an unforgettable proposition, asking, "Red, how'd you like to make a hundred thousand dollars?" Grange's interest was piqued.

"Pyle sensed that maybe some money might be made by showing me off like a sword swallower and he asked me what I intended to do upon leaving school," Grange later recalled Pyle and Grange came to a handshake agreement on an agent–client relationship and he made his way to Chicago to meet with George Halas and Dutch Sternaman, owners of the National Football League's Chicago Bears. Arrangements were made for Grange to join the Bears after his final game with the Illinois collegiate team.

Grange later recalled that at the time "I did not have the slightest idea of playing professional football and intended to get into some commercial business and I know that at the time Pyle wasn't thinking about the National League. In fact he didn't know anything about it, having been in the theatrical game all his life."

Founding the New York Yankees football team

After Grange's becoming a star for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL), Pyle founded the first New York Yankees football team. When Pyle's application for the Yankees joining the NFL was rejected, he announced the formation of the first American Football League in 1926. The league lasted one season before folding.

Pyle then took his team into the National Football League (NFL) for the 1927 season. As one of only twelve teams in the league and splitting the lucrative New York City market with Tim Mara's New York Giants, Pyle had high expectations of financial success going into the year, telling one journalist that he hoped to clear $50,000 for his efforts.Frank Getty
"Professional Football Has Paid Its Own Way,"
''Brooklyn Daily Times,'' Nov. 7, 1927, p. 3A. Pyle said that he carried 21 men on the roster, although only 18 were eligible in a given week due to league rules. These cost him approximately $3,500 per week, he reckoned.

Grange suffered a severe knee injury early in the 1927 system, for which he did not undergo surgery. Robbed of his ability to make explosive cuts as a halfback by his untreated injury, Grange's star faded.

Although the popular Red Grange remained a player and part owner of the Yankees, the number of tickets coming through the turnstile did not meet expectations, and the team folded after the 1928 season.

Professional tennis promoter

In 1926, Pyle signed Lenglen and several of the best tennis players in the world to start the first professional tennis tour, which traveled throughout the U.S. and Canada. Two years later, he inaugurated the first Trans-American Footrace, known as the Bunion Derby, an ambitious, 3455-mile-long foot race from Los Angeles, California, to Chicago, Illinois, to New York City, New York.The Early Years of Route 66 in Phelps County, Missouri
- John F. Bradbury Jr. in "Ozarkswatch", Fall 1993 Pyle lost money on the 1928 race when many towns along the route financial default, defaulted on their sponsorship fees. The next year Pyle organized a 1929 "return" along essentially the same route from New York to Los Angeles.

Later years and legacy

After managing the "Ripley's Believe It or Not" exhibit in the Century of Progress, Chicago World's Fair, Pyle married comedian Elvia Allman, Elvia Allman Tourtellotte in 1937. He became president of the Radio Transcription Company, a position that he held until his death of a heart attack in Los Angeles, February 3, 1939.

A play based on his life, ''C.C. Pyle and the Bunion Derby'', was written by Tony Award winner Michael Cristofer and directed by Paul Newman.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pyle, C. C.
1882 births
1939 deaths
American sports agents
New York Yankees (NFL)
NFL franchise owners
History of tennis
Professional tennis promoters