Silence is golden as Giants downplay birth of franchise 100 years ago Friday

At a league meeting at Hotel Shorman in Chicago on the afternoon of Aug. 1, 1925, the sixth order of business was a motion from Edward Stornaman, a former collegiate star and half-owner of the Bears along with George Halas, to accept an application for a new team to be based in New York City. Warren Patterson, owner of the Buffalo Bisons, seconded. Tim Mara, a well-known 38-year old bookmaker who had never seen a football game of any kind and did not attend the meeting, had been convinced to pay $500 for the charter to that team after several other high-profile personalities including Tex Rickard, the eventual founder of the New York Rangers hockey team a year later, passed on the venture.

The motion was carried unanimously and the Giants were born — exactly 100 years ago Friday.

Only the Cardinals and Bears (established in 1920) and the Packers (1921) are older among current NFL teams.

But you won’t find any balloons or cakes around the Giants' facility in New Jersey to commemorate the centennial of the birth of the franchise. There will be no streamers or special songs as the team holds what figures to be a routine training camp practice in the middle of the long summer grind. And even though that initial investment now constitutes half ownership of a franchise valued at roughly $10 billion, the Mara family, stretched much further and wider with each passing generation than it was when it first dabbled in the barely feasible business of football, doesn’t plan on recognizing the day with any formal recognition or ceremony.

“To tell you the truth, I am hundredth-ed out after last season,” John Mara, the team’s current president and CEO and eldest grandson of its founder, told Newsday this week. “I’m trying to forget that one as quickly as possible.”

Last season, of course, was the Giants’ 100th on the field, and they pulled out all the stops to honor that milestone. Well, just about all of them. Amid the throwback uniforms and all-century teams and fan festivals with drones and fireworks — not to mention a social media and branding blitz that was impossible to ignore— the only things missing from the celebration were actual wins. The Giants had just three of them, none of them at home until the next-to-last week of the schedule, and what was supposed to be a triumphant tour turned instead into an awkward juxtaposition of the glorious past projected upon the miserable present. They were booed much more than cheered, and rightfully so.

Going to MetLife Stadium got to be like attending a party in a morgue.

No wonder this actual birthday, which should be the culmination of that yearlong fete, is being downplayed to the point where it is practically being ignored. Even some who have had ties to the organization for decades told Newsday this past week they were unaware of the significance Friday represents.

“I am conscious of the date,” Mara said. “It is momentous for sure. But I’m not sure we’re planning on doing anything special.”

So the Giants will officially begin their second century pretty much the way they did their first: in relative silence.

There wasn’t much hoopla at the time for one of the seminal moments in American sports history in 1925 either. The New York Times barely mentioned the new venture on Aug. 3 and did not have a bylined story on the team until Sept. 10 of that year, just before the first non-league game and after a news conference was held at the Hotel Alamac in Manhattan. At that point, the team was still formally called the New York All-Collegians, trying to capitalize on the much more popular college version of the sport, although they did go by their nickname of Giants by the time they took the field.

Tim Mara was not mentioned in any of the earliest articles.

“I’m not surprised,” John Mara said. “He was never one to hold press conferences or seek attention. But even if he tried to hold a press conference at that time, nobody would have shown up. Pro football was not a highly recognized sport back then.”

It certainly is now.

Looking ahead

Asked how he hopes people will reflect on the Giants if and when they turn 200 in 2125, Mara said: “I hope they can say we added a few more Super Bowl trophies to our lot. We’re proud of the fact we have a brand that I think people respect and a fan base that is extraordinary. Hopefully, we’ll be able to continue that growth and obviously have more success on the field . . . We still have a tremendous fan base that has stayed loyal for many, many years. You always have to be appreciative of that.”

Mara said he believes the documents from that Aug. 1 transaction — the actual charter that is the franchise’s birth certificate and a priceless artifact — are tucked away in a family safe. Maybe.

“I’ve got to look and see,” he said. “We probably do have something like that.”

He also said there wasn’t a whole lot of family lore passed down from that seminal date. Not even his father, Wellington Mara, who was 8 years old at the time and would become a ballboy for the inaugural teams before spending the rest of his Hall of Fame life at the helm of the organization, had much recollection about the day the Giants were formed.

“I was always aware of the conversations that took place prior to that, trying to get my grandfather to buy into what was then the National Football League,” Mara said. “Fortunately, he came up with the 500 bucks that were necessary and bought our franchise. His famous line was that an empty storefront and a couple of chairs in New York City was worth $500.”

It didn’t always feel like that, though. There were many lean years and plenty of times when Tim Mara, bleeding money, considered selling the team — or just closing the doors altogether. New York Governor and presidential candidate Al Smith would routinely advise Mara to sell the team as they left Mass on Sundays.

“Fortunately he persevered,” John Mara said. “I think the reason he didn’t [sell] was because my father and his brother loved it so much. That’s the only reason he held onto it for all those years. Thankfully he did, otherwise you’d be talking to somebody else.”

'Greatest Game' was last for Tim Mara

Tim Mara had never seen a football game at either the college or pro level when he bought the Giants. The last game he ever saw before he died in February 1959 was “The Greatest Game Ever Played” between the Giants and Colts in December 1958 at Yankee Stadium.

What would Tim Mara make of the team and the league it helped define now?

“I don’t think he ever in his wildest dreams could have imagined how big the league has become and how important it is to this country right now,” John Mara said. “They were just trying to survive in those days. I don’t even think my father [Wellington, who died in 2005] ever could have imagined it either, just the explosion of the league and the popularity of it.”

While the Giants have played a huge role in that, the last few seasons, capped by the flop of that 100th last year, have been largely disappointing. The Giants have had just one season in the last 13 in which they won a playoff game, have cycled through five different head coaches and three general managers since their last Super Bowl in the 2011 season, and have suffered through double-digit losses in seven of the last eight years.

This year comes with some hope, however. The Giants drafted linebacker Abdul Carter and quarterback Jaxson Dart and they seem to be potential seeds for future flowers. They remodeled their quarterback room and plan on having former Super Bowl champion Russell Wilson as their starter this year. They’ve spent a good deal of resources bolstering the defensive side of the roster, too. Many are predicting another depressing record for this second version of the ’25 Giants, but the future is at least palatable and offers something to cling to.

“Every year feels different,” Mara said, “but I’d like to think of this as a new start for us. We’ll see, but it feels like a new season and a new beginning.”

And maybe, just maybe, a 100th that is being virtually ignored now will one day be celebrated as a happy birthday after all.