page_title: History of the Washington Football Team
section_title: Disarray and resistance to integration (1946 to 1961)
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Washington Football Team / Disarray and resistance to integration (1946 to 1961)
caption_attribution_description: Congressional Pictorial Directory, 109th US Congress
context_page_description: The Washington Football Team has played over 1,000 games. In those games, the club has won five professional American football championships including two NFL Championships and three Super Bowls. The franchise has also captured 15 NFL divisional titles and five NFC championships.
  The team won the 1937 and 1942 Championship games, as well as Super Bowl XVII, XXII, and XXVI. They also played in and lost the 1936, 1940, 1943, and 1945 Championship games, as well as Super Bowl VII and XVIII. They have made 24 postseason appearances, and have an overall postseason record of 23 wins and 19 losses. Only five teams have appeared in more Super Bowls than Washington: the New England Patriots, Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers, Denver Broncos, and the San Francisco 49ers; Washington's five appearances are tied with the Oakland Raiders, Miami Dolphins, New York Giants, and Green Bay Packers.
  All of the franchise's league titles were attained during two ten-year spans. From 1936 to 1945, the Redskins went to the NFL Championship six times, winning two of them.
context_section_description: The Redskins’ early success endeared them to the fans of Washington, D.C. However, after 1945, the franchise began a slow decline that was not ended until a playoff appearance in the 1971 season.
  The 1946 season began with the signing of former-player Turk Edwards as head coach. He was the coach until 1948 and finished with an unimpressive record of 16–18–1. The only highlight that occurred during his tenure was Sammy Baugh's 1947 season, where he threw 354 passes, completed 210 of them for 2,938 yards (2,687 m), setting three all-time NFL records in one season. A major blunder also occurred during his tenure. With the ninth overall pick in the 1946 NFL Draft, the Redskins chose Cal Rossi, a back out of UCLA. However, Rossi was a junior, and at that time ineligible to be drafted. After waiting a year, the Redskins drafted Rossi again in the first-round of the 1947 NFL Draft, but he never had intention to play football professionally.
  After the end of Edwards’ coaching career, the Redskins hired three different head coaches during the next three seasons: John Whelchel, Herman Ball, and former player Dick Todd, but none were successful.
  Nevertheless, this did not stop George Preston Marshall from trying to make the Redskins the most successful franchise in the league. His first major innovation occurred on June 14, 1950, when it was announced that American Oil Company planned to televise all Redskins games, making Washington the first NFL team to have an entire season of televised games. Before that, in 1944, the Redskins formed a radio network to broadcast their games throughout the southern United States.
  His next major change came in February 1952, when he hired former Green Bay Packers and Chicago Cardinals coach Earl “Curly” Lambeau. However, after two seasons, Marshall fired Lambeau following the Redskins loss in their exhibition opener to the Los Angeles Rams and hired Joe Kuharich. In 1955, Kuharich led the Redskins to their first winning season in ten years and was named both Sporting News Coach of the Year and UPI NFL Coach of the Year.
  After Kuharich resigned as coach to accept the Notre Dame head coaching position, Marshall hired Mike Nixon before the 1959 season. Over the next two seasons, Nixon proved to be statistically the worst coach the Redskins have had in terms of winning percentage, with a record of 4–18–2. In the 1961 draft, the Redskins made another poor draft choice in QB Norm Snead and passing over Fran Tarkenton, who later became a Hall-of-Famer after his career with the Vikings and Giants. In 1961, the Redskins moved into their new stadium called D.C. Stadium (changed to Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969). The first game in new D.C. Stadium occurred on October 1, 1961, in front of 37,767 fans. However, the Redskins failed to hold a 21–7 lead and lost to the New York Giants 24–21. Along with stadiums, Marshall decided to change head coaches again, this time choosing Bill McPeak. Though McPeak's coaching record was nothing to be proud of (21–46–3 over five seasons), he is better known for helping the Redskins draft future stars such as wide receiver Charley Taylor, tight end Jerry Smith, safety Paul Krause, center Len Hauss, and linebacker Chris Hanburger. He also helped pull off two of the best trades of the 1960s, gaining quarterback Sonny Jurgensen from the Philadelphia Eagles and linebacker Sam Huff from the New York Giants. However, even with these additions, the Redskins were still not performing up to expectations. While the Redskins became more popular than ever, they struggled through the 1960s.
caption: Tom Osborne, wide receiver for the Redskins between 1960 and 1961,[40] was elected to serve in the US House of Representatives from 2001 to 2007.[41]
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