Austin H. Gunsel (April 2, 1909 - June 17, 1974) was the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

's interim commissioner from 1959 to 1960, following the death of

Bert Bell De Benneville "Bert" Bell (February 25, 1895 – October 11, 1959) was the National Football League (NFL) commissioner from 1946 until his death in 1959. As commissioner, he introduced competitive parity into the NFL to improve the league's comme ...

on October 11, 1959.

Education

Gunsel was born in

Irvington, New Jersey Irvington is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 61,176. The township had the ninth-highest property tax rate in New Jersey, with an equalized rate of 4.890% in 2020, compared to 2.82 ...

and is a graduate of the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...

Career

Gunsel joined the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

in 1939. He served as both

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation � ...

's administrative assistant and as a special agent for the Bureau, and during his crime-fighting career, served in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

field offices. In 1952, Gunsel was hired by the NFL to head the league's investigative department, a move made in response to commissioner

's fear of a scandal damaging the league's image. Gunsel became league treasurer in 1956, holding the post until his retirement ten years later. He served as acting president of the NFL after Bell's death in October 1959. Gunsel and

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

attorney Marshall Leahy were seen as the front-runners commissioner. On January 20, 1960, Leahy received 7 votes to Gunsel's 5, which was short of the two-thirds needed to be elected commissioner. Gunsel was soon dropped from consideration and after an eight-day deadlock, the owners selected Los Angeles Rams general manager

Pete Rozelle Alvin Ray "Pete" Rozelle (; March 1, 1926 – December 6, 1996) was an American businessman and executive. Rozelle served as the commissioner of the National Football League (NFL) for nearly thirty years, from January 1960 until his retirement i ...

as a compromise candidate. Gunsel stayed on as NFL treasurer until his retirement on July 1, 1966.U.S. Congress House Committee on the Judiciary, Hearings 1966 Volume 3: Professional football league merger, on S. 3817, October 6–13, 1966, Serial No. 22.
Retrieved March 13, 2023.

Personal life

At the age of 65, Gunsel died at Lankenau Hospital in

Wynnewood, Pennsylvania Wynnewood is a suburban unincorporated community, located west of Philadelphia, straddling Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and Haverford Township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The community was named in 1691 for Dr. ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gunsel, Austin 1909 births 1974 deaths Federal Bureau of Investigation agents National Football League commissioners Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni People from Irvington, New Jersey