When Redskins would ‘Fight for old Dixie’

On this day in 1951: WBTV in Charlotte and WFMY-TV in Greensboro carry the state’s first Washington Redskins telecast. The image is grainy black and white and the Redskins lose to the Browns 45-0, but North Carolinians like what they see.

The Redskins network was created by team owner George Preston Marshall and sponsored by Amoco gasoline – the NFL’s lucrative TV packages are years away.

Marshall plays to white Southern fans, maintaining an all-white roster until 1962. He signs such regional favorites as Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice, plays exhibitions in Winston-Salem and even includes in the team fight song “Hail to the Redskins” the line “Fight for old Dixie” (later changed to “Fight for old D.C.”).