Where I Stand: Jack Kent Cooke a rarity in the business, sports worlds

Friday, April 11, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

THE BIGGEST NEWS of the week in Washington, D.C., was not the Mideast peace process.

It wasn't even the latest non-news about campaign fund-raising in the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" mentality of the Beltway media. And it wasn't the latest iteration of the balanced budget efforts or even the nuke waste dump, even though anything on that matter is big news in Nevada.

No, the headline grabber this week in the nation's capital was the death of Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke. And that was as it should have been.

Whether we like to admit it or not, in today's fast-paced information age where news travels almost as fast as the actual events and in which decisions in London or Tokyo affect our daily lives to a greater extent than a corner newsstand decision, it is still sports that seems to dominate much of our waking moments. Perhaps that's because sporting events and the competition they engender are still areas over which we believe we still have some control, or maybe it is because the teams on the field represent a last bastion of the American spirit that we can share with our friends and co-workers.

Whatever the reason, there is no disputing the fact that athletic competition is a vital component of the American lifestyle. A lifestyle that puts a premium on loyalty, dedication to purpose and demand for quality.

And no man in sports better exemplified those qualities than Jack Kent Cooke, the 84-year-old owner of the Redskins who died suddenly in his home over the past weekend.

To be sure, Mr. Cooke also exemplified a few other traits common to people of stature and success. He was tough-minded when making the deal and seemingly arrogant when the deal could not be made. But once he was done and the hand was shaken, the deal would be kept no matter the cost. And the people most affected by the buy and sell decisions of the business world -- those who work for a living on a daily basis -- were under his protection.

As much as he bargained hard with the people who had, he maintained a soft spot for those who had not.

I know a little about Jack's business life because he and my family were partners in the very early days of cable television in Clark County. It was through his dedication to the details of the cable franchising process that our company was successful in winning the Public Service Commission's approval to be Clark County's cable television provider. We were up against some serious competitors, including the Review-Journal owner and other national cable companies, but Jack Kent Cooke's experience and persuasiveness helped win the day.

I also remember when Mr. Cooke became a resident of Las Vegas. It was, unfortunately, during a time of significant marital dispute and resulted in his leaving Los Angeles and his beloved Lakers and Kings for Washington and his last love, the Redskins. During those days in our community, Jack did his best to involve himself in Las Vegas activities even though he knew his residency here would not last.

When our partnership ended in 1981, our friendship did not. Until his death, Jack Kent Cooke made a point of sharing the goodwill of the Christmas season with us and, I am sure, with his multitude of friends who were made and kept over a lifetime.

So it was no surprise when, at the surprise announcement of his sudden death being scrawled across every Washington television screen, the real people who live and work in Washington took the news hard. While he knew and entertained lavishly the movers and shakers of this town full of the world's biggest movers and shakers, it was the fans, the ordinary folks whose lives rose and fell on the fortunes of their Redskins, with whom he had the greatest bond.

He didn't know them all, of course, but they all knew him. For Mr. Cooke was the man who, in a sports world that rewarded a quick move out of town and penalized those loyal enough to the fans to stick it out, Jack Kent Cooke was a rarity. In a sports world where quality was not job one and commitment to being the best was often the stepchild of budgets and egos, Mr. Cooke was truly different.

He was a showman, to be sure. Flamboyant, frustrating and not unmindful of his own considerable ego. But when it came to his Redskins, and theirs, there was no stop in him. And that's the story that screamed from the headlines and shouted from the television sets. His death, and his considerably long and newsy life he led up to the end, was the stuff from which front page headlines are made.

We live in a world today in which our news seems preoccupied with the nonhuman things about which most of us have little say or ability to affect. But we do understand life and the kind and quality of lives that those who affect us lead.

Jack Kent Cooke affected many lives. He effected them, too. As one of the few American billionaires -- or, at least, close enough to one to earn the economic respect that comes with that rarified financial air -- Jack made his mark in our capitalist society.

Having grown up in Canada with nothing in his pockets but determination and an uncanny ability to sell anything, Jack came to America to expand his economic fortunes and grow his personal interest in sports ownership. He was most proud, I remember, of becoming a U.S. citizen. As usual, he did not come by that citizenship in the ordinary course. Nothing about him was ordinary. And I am not certain about which he was more proud: his becoming a citizen or the way in which it happened.

You see, Jack Kent Cooke became a citizen of these United States by a special act of Congress. And that gave a him yet another story to tell about the life and exciting times of a man named Cooke.

As I write this, the details of his funeral and his last wishes for his family and his team are not yet known. I suspect, though, that this man, who lived a very public life in some things, has chosen to be buried consistent with the more private parts of his life. His family and close friends will be invited. The hundreds of thousands of fans who have held him in awe for the way he owned and managed "their" team will have to mourn him from farther away.

In life, he fondly yet instructively referred to many of us as "dear boy." He believed he was the teacher. He believed he was the boss. In death, those of us who knew him or even just knew of him, will continue to refer to him as Mr. Cooke. That's because we, too, believed he was the boss.

More than anything else, though, Jack Kent Cooke was the Redskins. And for that reason, he was a man who deserved the headlines in Washington, D.C.