Leonard Tose
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| Leonard Tose | |
|---|---|
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| Date of birth | March 6, 1915 |
| Place of birth |  Bridgeport, PA |
| Date of death | April 15, 2003 (age 88) |
| Position(s) | Owner |
| College | None |
| Championships Won |
1980 NFC Championship |
| Team(s) as a coach/administrator | |
| 1969-1985 | Philadelphia Eagles |
Leonard Hyman Tose (March 6, 1915 - April 15, 2003) Born in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, made a fortune in the trucking industry and was owner of the Philadelphia Eagles. He was known for his lavish lifestyle and eventually lost his fortune because of a gambling addiction and alcoholism.
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[edit] Early Years
His father, who came to the United States from Russia, settled outside Philadelphia and was a peddler with a pack on his back. He eventually owned 10 trucks, the beginning of the family business. Eventually, Tose Inc. owned more than 700 trucks and grossed $20 million a year.
[edit] Philadelphia Eagles Owner
In 1969 Tose bought the Philadelphia Eagles from Jerry Wolman for $16,155,000[1], then a record for a professional sports franchise. Tose's first official act was to fire Coach Joe Kuharich. He followed this by naming former Eagles receiving great Pete Retzlaff as General Manager and Jerry Williams as coach.
In 1976 he, along with General Manager Jimmy Murray, lured Dick Vermeil from UCLA to coach the hapless Eagles, who had one winning season from 1962-75. Vermeil's 1980 team lost to Oakland in the Super Bowl. In January 1983, Tose announced that his daughter, Susan Fletcher, the Eagles' vice president and legal counsel, would eventually succeed him as primary owner of the Eagles.
In 1985 Tose was forced to sell the Eagles to Norman Braman and Ed Leibowitz, highly successful automobile dealers from Florida, for a reported $65 million to pay off his more than $25 million in gambling debts at Atlantic City casinos.
[edit] Lifestyle
A slim, suave man who was always well dressed, Mr. Tose was, by his admission, a compulsive gambler and an alcoholic with a lifestyle others called flamboyant and he called comfortable. He and the fourth of his five wives had matching Rolls-Royces. Mr. Tose flew to Eagles home games in a helicopter, was married aboard the liner Queen Elizabeth 2 and fed reporters filet mignon and shrimp cocktail.
[edit] After the Eagles
In 1991, the Sands sued him for $1.23 million in gambling debts. He countersued, contending that the casino got him too drunk to know what he was doing. Eventually, the casino won. There was testimony from a cocktail waitress swearing that her job description was "to keep Mr. Tose's glass filled." A monogrammed glass, courtesy of the casino, which she kept filled with top-shelf scotch.
In the end, he lost it all, by his estimate more than $20 million at Resorts International and $14 million at the Sands. In 1996, on his 81st birthday, Tose was evicted from his seven-bedroom Villanova mansion after losing the house in a U.S. Marshal's sale.
In 1999, he told a congressional hearing on compulsive gambling that his losses totaled between $40 million and $50 million. He spent his last years alone in a downtown hotel room. Mr. Tose died in his sleep in the hospice wing of St. Agnes Medical Center in Philadelphia. He was 88. An obituary by Dan Dunkin captured his life: "To put Leonard Tose's life in football terms, he threw on every down."*
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Pokerjokers.co.uk
- Saint Petersburg Times
- Year by Year History of the Eagles
- Jewish Bulletin
- philyBurbs.com
| Preceded by Jerry Wolman |
Philadelphia Eagles Owners 1969–1985 |
Succeeded by Norman Braman Ed Leibowitz |
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