ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 29, 1996 TAG: 9608290068
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: OWINGS MILLS, MD.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
ART MODELL has been renewed with a move to Baltimore and a new professional football team in the Ravens.
Art Modell likes to move fast.
When he was offered the chance to buy the Cleveland Browns in 1961, he hopped a plane to Cleveland the next day, put down a quarter of a million dollars and made Ohio his new home, abandoning New York, where he had spent most of his life.
Thirty-five years later, he was on the move again.
Days after reports leaked out last November that Modell was moving his Browns to Baltimore, Modell was gone. And he's not going back.
``It's past. It's history,'' the 71-year-old Modell said on a recent afternoon as he watched his NFL team scrimmage at its Owings Mills training facility. ``I'm in Baltimore now ... I know it's hard for me to say this at my age, but I feel really invigorated by being here.''
Invigorated, maybe, but not without a few headaches along the way.
Modell had to cope with a threatened legal challenge to the move, and extricate himself from a city that quickly learned to hate the name Art Modell.
He even hired a couple of off-duty police officers for security until he could get out of Cleveland.
But any anger from Cleveland fans - Modell says he was hurt by their wrath - was balanced by the adoration of football-hungry Baltimore fans, who have already bought 55,000 season tickets.
``Frankly, I think he's a different man,'' said John Moag, chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority, who negotiated with Modell to bring the team to Baltimore. ``There's a bounce in his step. His humor and health have both improved. He went through hell and back over the past year, and he has been welcomed here with open arms.''
Modell's future lies in Baltimore with a newly named team, the Ravens, new purple and black colors and a new coach, former Indianapolis Colts head coach Ted Marchibroda.
Art and Pat Modell sold their 40-acre estate outside Cleveland that was adjacent to property where son (and Ravens vice president) David Modell and his family lived. They also abandoned longtime friends and charitable causes, such as the Cleveland Clinic, the Cerebral Palsy Association and the Cleveland Musical Arts Foundation.
In Baltimore, Modell has purchased a six-bedroom, 7 1/2-bathroom mansion set on five wooded acres in northern Baltimore County. David and his wife Olwen expect to move into a house no more than 10 minutes away so that their three (soon to be four) children can be close to their grandparents.
``I love my grandchildren. I see them as often as I can,'' Modell said. ``I suppose they will choose their own career, [but] this is a family business and I want it to continue as a family business.''
For the next two generations, at least. David is being groomed to eventually take over as team owner and president and Modell hopes one of his grandchildren, who are all under the age of 6, eventually takes an interest in working for the team.
David Modell embraced the family business at age 14. He started working on the ground crews, cleaning out the seats and helping the groundskeepers, and moved his way up to a front office aide. After college, he worked in the ticket office, left for two years and then returned. As vice president of marketing, David played a key role in choosing the team's new colors, uniforms and name.
Modell's older son, John, followed the show business footsteps of his mother Pat, a former television actress best known for a role on the soap opera ``General Hospital.'' John Modell works as a musical engineer and composer in Los Angeles, where he lives with his artist wife and 4-year-old son. John, however, plans to contribute his share to the Ravens by helping design the sound system at the team's $200 million stadium under construction at Camden Yards.
But younger Modells may have to wait awhile before Art Modell hands over the reins. He said he will run the team as long as he can walk into an elevator to get to his office.
``I have seen too many people in the business retire at 60 or 65 and then wither on the vine right before your eyes,'' Modell said. ``They have nothing to do, nothing to look forward to in the morning. I don't want that to happen to me.''
The hard-charging Modell has cut back his work hours to about 12 hours a day under doctor's orders. He had a triple bypass and a hip replacement in the past six years.
Health problems also forced him to cut back other activities. At one time an avid golfer, Modell gave up the sport after his hip replacement.
Three years ago, he stepped down from chairing the NFL's television committee, which was crucial in negotiating multimillion dollar television contracts with the networks.
Since the beginning of the preseason, Modell has spent most of his time watching practices at the Westminster summer camp and the Owings Mills training facility. You can find him on the practice field, talking to Marchibroda or standing behind the huddle, occasionally offering suggestions.
``He's going from one one-liner a minute to about five,'' Moag said. ``Art is a naturally very, very funny and quick individual, but there have been a number of months when he was very subdued and you had to pull the jokes out of him. Now they're flowing out just like they always did.''
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Art Modell (right), the 71-year-old owner of theby CNBRavens, hopes head coach Ted Marchibroda (left) helps make his first
year in Baltimore a success. color KEYWORDS: PROFILE