post-merger), and 13 division championships. An eighth NFL title, third and fourth Super Bowl victories, fifth NFC championship (11th conference championship overall), and 15th division title have been captured since his passing under the leadership of his son, John, and co-owner Steve Tisch (who in turn is the son of Wellington's former co-owner from 1991–2005, Bob Tisch; Tisch also died in 2005, with his death coming three weeks after Mara's). The Giants have also accumulated the third highest number of victories in National Football League history. Mara was also well liked by the Giants' players, and was known to stick by them even when they struggled with off-the-field problems. When Lawrence Taylor was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1999 he credited Mara for supporting him even during the worst times of his drug addiction saying, "He probably cared more about me as a person than he really should have." Taylor has since lived a clean life style and credits Mara with having helped him to fight his addiction. Wellington had surgery in May 2005 to remove cancerous lymph nodes from his neck and under his armpit, but was initially given a good prognosis by his doctors who said the cancer had not metastasized, according to his son, John Mara, the Giants' co-chief executive officer. Personal life Mara was married to Ann Mara, and their granddaughters include actresses Kate Mara and Rooney Mara as well as NHL player Patrick_Brown_(ice_hockey) Honors Wellington Mara was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in . In 2007, the University at Albany, where the Giants held training camp for many years, named their practice field after Mara and Bob Tisch. Mara was elected into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2012. Not long after Mara came to work with the team, the players – many of whom were barely older than him – nicknamed him "Duke" because they knew he was named after the Duke of Wellington, whom his father called "the fightingest of all Irishmen," and the nickname stuck. The Wilson football used in NFL games prior to the AFL merger (–) was nicknamed "THE DUKE" after Mara; the ball was named as such by George Halas, the owner and head coach of the Chicago Bears, to reward Tim Mara for arranging the contract that made Wilson the official supplier of footballs to the NFL. Since the season,