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Before the SAINTS Came
David Dixon in Tulane Stadium by James V. Elmore, ca. 1967 (2009.0157.38), gift of David and Mary Dixon family
The public announcement of a National Football League franchise in New Orleans fell on All Saints’ Day in 1966, and local legend holds that the November 1 holy day lent its name to the team. In fact, the establishment of the Saints was years in the making, and, inspired by the popular jazz song “When the Saints Go Marching In,” the team’s tireless promoter, David F. Dixon (1923—2010), had come up with the name as early as 1962. Dixon, a local businessman, made New Orleans’s entry into the world of professional football his full-time job; in the early 1960s he established the New Orleans Pro Football Club Inc. to pursue that goal. He acted as a salesman, explaining the civic benefits of major league sports; he gathered a group of investors to be team owners; he recruited the support of local government officials; he sought the attention of the two rival professional leagues; and he made his mark on New Orleans history. The David F. Dixon Papers (MSS 597), donated to The Collection in 2009, reveal the story of professional football in New Orleans before the Saints came marching in.
Dixon’s efforts began on August 5, 1959, when he wrote to Joseph Merrick Jones, president of the board of administrators of Tulane University, about the possibility of leasing Tulane Stadium for professional football. In the letter he acknowledged possible objections to Sunday activities on the campus and to racially integrated seating in the stadium, but he assured Jones that he was prepared to handle these issues. The fact that Jones did not reject the query outright gave Dixon enough encouragement to keep working. In November 1961 he wrote a letter introducing himself to National Football League commissioner Pete Rozelle and indicating his interest in obtaining a franchise for New Orleans. Negotiations with the NFL began soon thereafter.
Because the NFL negotiations were moving so slowly, Dixon and the small group of supporters he had assembled decided they needed a backup plan. In January 1962 they began communicating with American Football League commissioner Joe Foss and president “Bud” Adams to test their interest in a New Orleans team. In March Dixon presented the AFL with a detailed proposal for a team playing both a traditional fall season and a new winter season running from January to April. In June the AFL owners announced that they were not considering expanding the league for the 1963 season, but Dixon persevered, and in July he secretly announced to his group that the Dallas Texans were likely relocating to New Orleans. Dixon developed a careful strategy for announcing the move and the plan to rename the team the New Orleans Saints. On August 18, 1962, Dixon and his group sponsored an AFL
10 Volume XXVIII, Number 1 — Winter 2011