FILE--Atlanta Falcons' owner Rankin Smith walks the sidelines before the Falcons play the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, December 15, 1991. Smith, 72, died on Sunday, Oct. 26, 1997 of heart failure at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. Smith was admitted to the hospital on Friday night. AP Photo/Charles Kelly

Web posted October 27, 1997

 Rankin Smith File
 Panthers claw past Falcons
 Mike Berardino

Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) - Rankin Smith, praised when he brought NFL football to Atlanta three decades ago but derided when the Falcons failed to become a winner, died Sunday. He was 72.

Smith, owner and chairman of the board of the Falcons, died of heart failure at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, where he had been admitted Friday night, the team announced.

The team announced his death in a news release from Charlotte, N.C., where the Falcons had a Sunday night game with the Carolina Panthers.

Smith's family, including team president and son Taylor Smith, were at the hospital when he died.

The Falcons began play in 1966, but it wasn't until 1978 that they made the playoffs for the first time. The team's success is limited to five playoff appearances and the NFC West championship in 1980.

Rankin Smith and his family received much of the blame for failing to put a winner on the field. The Falcons hold the dubious distinction of failing to put together consecutive winning seasons at any time during the team's 31-year history.

Smith was viewed much more favorably when he landed an NFL team for Atlanta.

The Georgia capital was considered a prime football market in the 1960s. After the American Football League announced in 1965 that it would put a team in the city, the NFL moved quickly to land the first pro team in the South.

The league took bids and narrowed its search to three prospective owners. Rankin Smith, a prominent insurance executive, was chosen when he bid $8.5 million - then the highest price ever paid for a sports franchise.

``Doesn't every adult male in America want to own his own football team?'' he said at the time.

The Falcons played 26 seasons at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium before moving to the Georgia Dome in 1992. Smith was the prime force in getting the stadium built, hinting that he would take his team to another city if forced to continue playing at his outdated home.

The 72,000-seat Dome was the site of the 1994 Super Bowl and, largely through Smith's influence, was chosen as host of the 2000 game as well.

Smith also served on the NFL expansion committee that brought two more Southern teams, Carolina and Jacksonville, into the league in 1995.

But the quick success of the Panthers and Jaguars - both reached conference championship games in only their second season - only served to underscore the shortcomings of the Smith regime in Atlanta.

Crowds have dwindled since the Falcons averaged 63,282 in the Dome's first season, so much so that the team no longer releases actual attendance, only tickets sold. Most observers believe the Falcons have failed to draw 45,000 at any of the four home games this season.

Ted Turner, who owns the city's other three major league teams, even cracked jokes about the Falcons at the opening of the Braves' new stadium this year.

Through all the criticism, however, Smith steadfastly rebuffed suggestions that he should sell his team. He planned to pass it on to his five children, for whom the Falcons are officially named Five Smiths Inc.

Taylor Smith took over day-to-day control of the team in 1990, but gave up those duties when Dan Reeves was named coach and executive vice president of football operations in January.

Despite the hiring of the NFL's winningest active coach, the Falcons were 1-6 heading into Sunday night's game.

Smith was born on Oct. 29, 1924, in a hospital that stood on the site where Atlanta Stadium would be built in 1965.

He became president and chief executive officer of Life of Georgia in 1970, retiring from those duties in 1977.

Survivors include his wife, Charlotte Lilliard; sons Taylor and Rankin Smith Jr.; and daughters Carroll Smith Walraven, Dorothy Smith Knox and Karen Smith Owen.

Funeral arrangements were expected to be announced Monday.

Rankin Smith File

A look at Atlanta Falcons owner Rankin Smith, who died Sunday of heart failure at age 72: