Tim Mara
Mara c. 1930
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| Date of birth | July 29, 1887 |
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| Place of birth | New York, New York, United States |
| Date of death | February 16, 1959 (aged 71) |
| Place of death | New York, New York, United States |
| Career history | |
| As owner | |
| 1925–1959 | New York Giants |
| Career highlights and awards | |
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Timothy James "Tim" Mara (July 29, 1887 – February 16, 1959) was the founder and administrator of the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). The Giants, under Mara, won NFL championships in 1927, 1934, 1938, and 1956 and divisional titles in 1933, 1935, 1939, 1941, 1944, 1946, and 1958.
Mara, the son of Elizabeth (née Harris) and John Mara, a policeman, of Irish descent, was born into poverty on New York's Lower East Side. At the age of 13, he quit school in order to find work to support his mother. His first job was as an usher in a theater. He then worked as a newsboy selling newspapers on the streets. This job brought him into contact with many of New York’s bookmakers (or bookies), which was a legal business at the time. He soon became a runner for the bookies, earning five percent of the bets he collected and receiving tips from winners when he delivered their cash. By age 18, he was an established bookmaker himself.
In 1925, the NFL was in need of a franchise in a large city market that could be used to showcase the league. The NFL's President, Joseph Carr, traveled to New York to offer boxing promoter Billy Gibson a franchise. Gibson, the former owner of the NFL's last New York franchise, the New York Brickley Giants, refused the offer. However he referred Carr to his friend Tim Mara. While Mara did not know much about football, Mara's friend, Dr. Harry March, did. March, a former physician for the Canton Bulldogs of the pre-NFL "Ohio League" and the future author of the first professional football history book Pro Football: Its Ups and Downs, soon became the club's first secretary.
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