Sports Career
In 1901 Carr organized and promoted a baseball team. He had always admired Charles Comiskey, who had just started the Chicago White Sox of the American League. By using employees from the railroad, Carr fielded a team named the Panhandle White Sox, but Joe called them the Famous Panhandle White Sox. The team gained national attention as one of the country's best semi-pro teams. In 1904, Carr attempted to reorganize the Columbus Panhandles football team which was also organize through the railroad in 1901. However the team just played two games. However Carr tried again in 1907 and the Columbus Panhandles were finally reborn and existed as a franchise until 1922.
Carr had two ways of keeping the team afloat for 16 seasons. The first idea came while he was organizing his football team. Carr knew that he needed an attraction to get people to come to the games. This led him to recruit what is considered the most unusual family ever to play professional sports, the Nesser family. Over the years, ten family members played professional football, seven brothers Al, Frank, Fred, John, Phil, Ray and Ted. The final three members were Ted’s son Charlie, a nephew, Ted Hopkins, and a brother-in-law John Schneider. Over the next two decades the Nesser family became the backbone of the Panhandle franchise.
Carr would take out ads by describing his Panhandles as the toughest professional team in football, led by the famous Nesser brothers. This was done to attract interest from local fans so they would want to come out and cheer for their hometown heroes. This resulted in the Panhandles becoming a big draw for home teams, and team owners went out of their way to schedule them.
Another way to keep the Panhandles afloat, was for the team to use a railroad company benefit. Since all his players were employees of the railroad, Carr scheduled mostly road games. His athletes would simply use their passes to ride the train for free. Carr saved the team money on travel expenses and stadium rental by playing mostly road games. While the Panhandles' overall record is only mediocre, Carr's promotional skills made them one of the best known early teams in the country.
Read more about this topic: Joseph Carr
Famous quotes containing the words sports and/or career:
“Reading about ethics is about as likely to improve one’s behavior as reading about sports is to make one into an athlete.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“From a hasty glance through the various tests I figure it out that I would be classified in Group B, indicating “Low Average Ability,” reserved usually for those just learning to speak the English Language and preparing for a career of holding a spike while another man hits it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)