“John was a pioneer with the Bengals,” said Mike Brown, the Bengals’ current team president. “The team wouldn't have come into existence were it not for his efforts."
John Sawyer, one of the founders of the Cincinnati Bengals, passed away Thursday morning. He was 90-years-old.
When Cincinnati was awarded a professional football team as part of the agreement merging the AFL and NFL, five different ownership groups emerged. One group included John Sawyer, who joined Paul Brown, Mike Brown, Wayne Brown, a grocery store magnate and William C. Nackett, a former Ohio State football player. The only other group with serious consideration included John Wiether, who was a former guard for the Detroit Lions and former coach for the University of Cincinnati basketball team.