The late Georgia Frontiere, still loved in Southern California

by Ryan Van Bibber on Jul 6, 2011 10:02 PM CDT in St. Louis Rams history

Georgia Frontiere hasn't owned the St. Louis Rams since 2008, when she passed away. More than three and a half years away from this world and the professional football team she uprooted from Los Angeles and moved to St. Louis in 1996, has not kept her off a recent list of the most despised owners in professional sports.

Frontiere comes in seventh, wedged right between Peter Pocklington, the man who sent Wayne Gretzky to LA, and the Tribune Company, which owned the Chicago Cubs for almost thirty years of futility. Say what you will about Frontiere, they did win a Super Bowl during her time.

Our little community of Rams fans includes a fair share of SoCal based fans, jilted in 1996, when Frontiere moved the team back to her hometown. Some lucky fans got stiffed twice with the move from LA to Anaheim. St. Louis fans can kind of understand your pain, but we're glad to have the Rams.

Front office dysfunction was more the rule than the exception with Frontiere at the helm, starting with the rift between her and Carol Rosenbloom's son, Steve. She gave John Shaw the keys to the front office, which worked only for a brief period when Dick Vermeil was the head coach. Then it all went to hell again.

Frontiere's children, Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez, made it right upon inheriting the team. They played a role in bringing in Billy Devaney in 2008 to be the team's personnel man and to run that year's draft. After that season, they purged the front office, ridding it of turf-warring bean counters like Jay Zygmunt, made Devaney the GM, hired a smart businessman in Kevin Demoff and no nonsense coaching staff led by Steve Spagnuolo.

Now Stan Kroenke owns the team and a better product on the field is helping fans forget. Maybe, just maybe, they can be the salve for the still-festering sores left in Southern California. Or, hell, maybe the team will just move back there eventually.

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Sorry

But not everyone in So Cal loves the black widow. And if ya don’t know, then you don’t know.

The only thing comparable to a Rams win is a 49er loss!

by DevsLaRams on Jul 6, 2011 10:29 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

+1

You can pick your friends and
you can pick your butt.
But you can't pick your friends butt.
JohnnieWarthawgism

by johnniewarthawg on Jul 7, 2011 7:58 AM CDT up reply actions

+ Infinity

complicit to manslaughter or murder too!

by jlcdb70 on Jul 7, 2011 12:26 PM CDT up reply actions

I make it a practice of wishing no ill will on anyone...

but I have made an exception in one case…

by BaldBilly on Jul 6, 2011 11:09 PM CDT reply actions

never even been able to the Rams play outside of a preseason gay in SD

BECAUSE SHE MOVED THE DAMN TEAM! Ill always have my suspicions about that “mysterious drowning” just like i dont believe Kurt Cobain killed himself. WE NEED JUSTICE PEOPLE!

by mhorn760 on Jul 7, 2011 10:33 AM CDT reply actions

+1 million for Seattle rock scene icon

A former fellow high school musician played with Nirvana on a video set – same lead singer for Faith No More…..Mike Patton= Mr. Bungle (another band he sang in)….Yes, I play guitar and am well connected socially.

by jlcdb70 on Jul 7, 2011 12:29 PM CDT up reply actions

St Louis still despises Bidwell

Not sure if this will follow him to the grave but I wouldn’t be surprised.

I know when the Cards first moved to AZ they tried to continue to broadcast the games but this died a quick death as the majority of the fans took the move personal and couldn’t continue to support the team.

Curious as to how SOCAL took the loss of the Rams. Seems a lot stayed with the team despite despising Georgia. Not sure if this has to do with the success of the team while in LA or just a difference in attitudes on the West Coast but it’s certainly interesting how in St. Louis the sentiment was F you and the horse you rode out on while in LA it was just F you.

by Sggladden on Jul 7, 2011 11:22 AM CDT reply actions

the shaw/zygmunt era was the darkests days of my football life! i never EVER! want to go there again!

by Mark Jaramillo on Jul 7, 2011 11:44 AM CDT reply actions

I can't agree more

So dark, it was worse than a black hole in a binary star system!

by jlcdb70 on Jul 7, 2011 12:30 PM CDT up reply actions

it was so depressing...

i was an empty shell of my former self… as were the rams… :\

by mhorn760 on Jul 7, 2011 12:50 PM CDT up reply actions

The ten worst list is a crock...

Georgia was at least well liked in St. Louis. Bill Bidwell was despised in St. Louis AND Arizona. A cheap owner who’s only ambition was to get the biggest stadium and jack up ticket prices to gouge the team’s fans. If he didn’t get what he wanted, well the moving trucks are pulled up to the stadium and it’s ‘see ya later’. He was toying with moving the team out of Tempe to LA before getting his super stadium in Glendale, AZ. Head coaches working for him would find out they were fired when they’d head to work and find out their keys no longer worked on the doors at team headquarters. He fired one of the only coaches to win during their tenure in St. Louis, Don Coryell, over a personnel dispute and the team stunk the rest of their tenure in our city. And the only reason the team turned the corner and made their only appearance in the Superbowl a few years ago was because he retired and his son took over full responsibility of the the team. Theres some sorry owners on that list, but he definitely worked hard to join his peers and deserves his spot in that article. Georgia should be replaced with him on this list.

by Da Rams! on Jul 7, 2011 12:10 PM CDT reply actions