"On March 1, Bob Wallace celebrated his 55th birthday. On March 2, he logged his last day as a Rams employee. "Good birthday present," Wallace joked. Wallace always could find the humor in any situation, even if it meant poking fun at himself. Hired as vice president of administration in 1995 when the Rams moved to St. Louis, Wallace is officially gone after a 16-year run with the team. For years, Wallace ranked fourth on the Rams' organizational depth chart behind only team ownership, and club presidents John Shaw and Jay Zygmunt. Wallace basically was in charge of the "non-football" aspects of the team: business, marketing, sales, and all of the tasks associated with running the facility at Rams Park. As such, he was one of the highest-ranking African-American club executives in the National Football League. "It was up there," Wallace said. "I don't know if it was the highest, but I was up there." But two years ago as part of the massive organizational makeover following the death of owner Georgia Frontiere, Wallace was stripped of his vice president duties, most of which went to Kevin Demoff. Wallace remained as the team's general counsel for the final two years of his contract — a contract that expired last week. "When ownership changes happen, even when the ownership changed from Georgia to her children, people want to make changes," Wallace said. "I wasn't surprised that there were changes in the organization." Even if those changes included him. "And at some point I'm sure Stan (Kroenke) will want to put his imprint on the organization as well," Wallace said. Kroenke took over controlling interest in the team last August from Frontiere's children, Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez. Including stints with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Eagles, Wallace has worked for NFL teams for the past 31 seasons. His primary duty with the Big Red and the Eagles was negotiating player contracts. With the Rams, he did just about everything but contracts." Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_3fdf21d5-e6a1-579c-b4e8-d690ad459f73.html
