During his tenure, many of the NFL's premier franchises were established, including the New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles, Detroit Lions and Washington Redskins.
Carr was born Joseph Francis Karr on October 23, 1879, at his parents' home in the Irish neighborhood on the East End of Columbus, Ohio.
[3] Carr had five older siblings, Bridget, James, John, Mary, and Michael,[3] and a younger brother, Edward.
[22] At the annual meeting of the APFA held in Akron, Ohio, on April 30, 1921, Carr was elected as the organization's president.
[25] Indeed, at the same meeting at which Carr was elected president, the APFA adopted a rule prohibiting teams from using players who had not completed their college course.
During the 1921 APFA season, two or three college players from Notre Dame played for the Green Bay Acme Packers under assumed names.
[27] A few months later, a group headed by future Hall of Famer Curly Lambeau applied for and was granted the Green Bay franchise.
[28] The issue arose again when Red Grange, star halfback of the University of Illinois football team, signed with the Chicago Bears.
In 1920, 11 of the league's 14 teams were located in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, including franchises in small cities such as Akron, Decatur, Rock Island, Canton, Hammond and Muncie.
During his tenure as league president, Carr sought to recruit financially capable owners to operate teams in the nation's largest cities.
By placing teams in big cities, Carr gave the NFL gained the foundation of stability it needed to survive during the Great Depression.
For this act, the Pottsville Maroons were fined $500 and had their franchise forfeited; as a result, the team was stripped of their NFL title, which was given to the Chicago Cardinals.
[11] Carr returned to professional baseball in 1926 as president of the Columbus Senators, a minor league club playing in the American Association.
[35][36] He remained president of the Senators until early 1931, when the club was sold to the St. Louis Cardinals, and Carr was replaced by future National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Larry MacPhail.
[38] He was also given a seat on the organization's executive committee and charged with developing "a program to rehabilitate minor league baseball.
Carr was buried at St. Joseph Cemetery, located approximately 10 miles south of Columbus in Lockbourne, Ohio.
[11]In June 1939, Halas proposed that the NFL's most valuable player award, which had been approved by the league's directors at their annual winter meeting, be named the Joe F. Carr Memorial Trophy.
The Touchdown Club of Columbus also presented a Joe F. Carr Trophy to the NFL Player of the Year annually from 1955 to 1978.
The sport editor of The Pittsburgh Press at the time predicted: "Its first choice could well be Joe Carr, the little man from Columbus, O., whose retiring nature was matched by his fiery belief in the future of professional football.
Mr. Carr was the NFL's first president, a position he held until his death, and much of the league's success can be traced back to the solid foundation he laid.
"[51] In January 1963, the inaugural group of inductees was announced with Carr being one of "the first 17 immortals" to be voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
He was one of six officials selected "for helping to guide the pro sport from its original role as a stepchild of the college game to its modern popularity".
[53] Other inaugural inductees included George Halas, Red Grange, Jim Thorpe, Bronko Nagurski, Curly Lambeau, and Bert Bell.
[54] In 1979, George Halas wrote that professional football in its infancy needed a man who could direct the development of our organization, help design rules and enforce them.