// November 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // General, Jaguar History
It was 16 years ago today that Jacksonville was awarded an NFL Franchise. Here is an excerpt of the article by Jacksonville radio personality Pete Prisco published in 1993. You can catch he article in it;s entirety here… http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1208/is_n24_v216/ai_14705191/
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After pulling off the |upset of the century,’ shoe magnate J. Wayne Weaver is sizing up the options to lead his organization
J. Wayne Weaver, the owner of the NFL’s new Jacksonville franchise, knows shoes, that’s for sure. After all, he went from an Al Bundy-like shoe salesman to the builder of Shoe Carnival, Inc., one of the leading retailers of women’s shoes in the country. He became a multimillionaire in the process.
Football, though, is another story.
Although Weaver is a lifelong fan of the NFL — he once was a season-ticket holder of the old St. Louis Cardinals when he resided in that city — he makes it known that by no means does he profess to be what he calls “a football mind.”
It’s no wonder, then, that his first priority in building the NFL’s 30th franchise will be to find a general manager with a strong football background.
“Nobody in our organization has football expertise,” Weaver says. “We need a person who can come in here and know the league right away. A person who will build this team from a football standpoint. We know it’s a tough job, but we also know there are plenty of capable candidates out there to do it. We want to get that person in here as soon as possible.”
Since the NFL awarded Weaver a franchise last week, in what he calls the “upset of the century,” the phones haven’t stopped ringing at the laguars’ temporary offices. Not only are tickets being sold by the bushel — a sellout of season tickets almost is certain — but also job seekers have been filling the phone lines.
“It’s been crazy,” Jaguars President David Seldin says. “We’ve been getting hundreds of calls a day from people inquiring about jobs. I never thought it would be this wild.”
Weaver, who intends to move his home from Connecticut to Jacksonville sometime soon, has said he wants his general manager in place by early 1994. That person will be responsible for putting together the organization and will have major input on the hiring of a coach. Weaver makes it clear that coach and general manager will not be a combined job.
“We feel a coach has enough to handle in the NFL these days without having to worry about being a general manager, too,” Weaver says. “That’s why we feel it so important to get the G.M. in here as soon as possible.
Rashean Mathis will be at Daily’s on Roosevelt Blvd and St. Johns Avenue tonight from 5:30-6:30pm signing autographs and meeting fans.