PHOENIX — This is a love story that began in church, which seems only right given how many Sundays Ann Mara would devote to her secular religion, the New York Giants. It was a 7:30 Mass at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Manhattan, and a fellow worshipper, a frail old woman, fainted in her pew.
Two people — Ann Mumm and Wellington Mara — rushed to revive her.
"I'd noticed him before," Ann said with a smile back in 2012, in the days before the Giants and the Patriots met in the Super Bowl. "Well's idea of a date was either Yankee Stadium or Madison Square Garden. Sometimes we'd go catch a Fordham basketball game up at Rose Hill."
She laughed.
"It was a different courtship than a lot of my girlfriends had," she said. "But it was a lot of fun."
From that moment at 7:30 Mass, the Giants would be an integral part of the big Mara family that would ultimately include four sons (three of whom work for the team), seven daughters and 43 grandchildren (including the well-known actresses Kate and Rooney Mara). The team would remain close to her heart right up to Sunday morning, when Ann Mumm Mara died at 85, two weeks after sustaining a fall at her Westchester County home.
"She has been the leader of our family in every way, and we will miss her dearly," said her eldest son, John, with whom Ann controlled their family's half of the team since Wellington died in 2005.
John Mara would frequently joke about what a tough boss his mother was, suffering along with the rest of the Maras (and the Tisches) in times of toil, celebrating as raucously as her grandchildren in times of triumph.
Just 12 days before her fall, John was asked about how his mother had reacted to the Giants' disappointing season. Mara had just announced, despite the 6-10 record, both coach Tom Coughlin and general manager Jerry Reese would be returning.
Ann Mara, her son John and Tom Coughlin celebrate after their Super Bowl win in 2008.Photo: Getty Images
"She is not very happy with me right now, believe me," Mara said, to a roomful of laughter, though those who had met his mother knew there also was a percentage of seriousness to his voice. "She suffers through this probably even more so than I do. I am on notice as well."
Ann herself joked in 2011: "Every now and again, I like to call John up," she said, "and I tell him, 'Remember, son, you're an employee.' "
Ann Mara was always content to be at her husband's side during their shared time together starting with their marriage in 1954, and for the next 51 years. But it was three years ago, during the Giants' improbable journey from 7-7 to a fourth Super Bowl title that the nation got a good look at Ann — and delighted in what it saw.
After the Giants won a thrilling NFC Championship in overtime in the rain at Candlestick Park, Ann made a rare pilgrimage to the Giants locker room, where they were being presented the George Halas trophy. There, she saw Fox analyst Terry
Bradshaw who — like many — had been picking against the Giants for months.
Maybe it was because Bradshaw was a familiar face who had played for a familiar team — Pittsburgh's Steelers, owned by the Rooney family, with whom the Maras were at first connected thanks to the long friendship of Wellington Mara and Art Rooney, and later through marriage — or maybe she was just a little ticked.
In any event, Ann tapped Bradshaw on the shoulder and said, pointedly, "You never pick the Giants!"
Bradshaw turned to the camera.
"I know! I know! I'm sorry," he said. "I'm getting hammered for not picking the Giants."
The next day, Ann Mara was receiving Communion at Mass, slipped, fell, hurt her shoulder, and was forced to wear a sling when the Giants finished off their remarkable journey by beating the Patriots.
"You have to laugh," Eli Manning said at the time. "Mrs. Mara, you see her and you think, 'Sweet Mrs. Mara.' But she is obviously very passionate about Giants football and passionate about this team and involved and knows the players."
They were such a part of their lives, and she was such a part of theirs. The love story that started in church brought them so many other joyful Sundays, too.
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