Wellington Timothy Mara (August 14, 1916 – October 25, 2005) was the co-owner of the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL) from 1959 until his death. He was the younger son of Tim Mara, who founded the Giants in 1925. Wellington was a ball boy that year. Life and career Mara was born in Rochester, New York, the son of Tim Mara and Elizabeth "Lizette" Mara (née Barclay). He was of Irish descent. Mara was an alumnus of Loyola School and Fordham University, both Catholic, Jesuit schools in New York City. In 1930, Tim Mara split his ownership interests between Wellington (then 14) and his older brother Jack. Soon after graduating from Fordham University, Wellington moved into the Giants' front office as team treasurer and assistant to his father, and became the team's secretary in 1940. After fighting in World War II in the U.S. Navy, he returned to the Giants as team vice president, a post he retained after his father died in 1958. When Jack, who had been president since 1941, died of cancer at age 57 prior to the 1965 season, Wellington became team president. For his first 37 years in the organization, he handled the franchise's football decisions. However, his growing involvement in league affairs led him to turn over most of his day-to-day responsibilities to operations director Andy Robustelli in 1974. Mara didn't relinquish full control over the football side of the operation until 1979, when George Young became the team's first general manager. The Giants were hamstrung for several years by a strained relationship between Wellington and his nephew Tim J. Mara, who inherited Jack's stake in the team. By the 1970s, they almost never spoke to each other, and a partition had to be built in the owners' box. The Maras continued to retain close control over the Giants' day-to-day operations long after most other owners had delegated such authority. Only the fallout from "The Fumble" in 1978, in which a certain Giant win turned into a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on a last-second fumble, convinced the Maras of the need to modernize—among other things, by hiring Young and giving him full control over football operations. Under Mara's direction, the Giants won six NFL titles (including two Super Bowl wins), nine conference championships (including six Eastern Conference championships in the days before the NFL-AFL merger and three NFC championships