Jerry Wolman
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Jerry Wolman (b. Shenandoah, Pennsylvania) is a former Washington, D.C. developer and the former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles football team of the National Football League. Wolman bought the Eagles franchise in 1963 for a sale price of $5,505,000, to become the youngest owner in the league. He was also the owner of Connie Mack Stadium.
He was also one of the founding owners, briefly in 1967, of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League. Over the next two years, his $100-million financial empire crumbled into bankruptcy, and he was forced to give up his interests in both teams. In 1967, he sold his Flyers interest to his co-owners, with Ed Snider assuming control, along with his partners, Bill Putnam and Joe Scott. In 1969, he sold the Eagles to Leonard Tose for a reported $16.1 million, then a record price for a professional sports team.
Wolman is a member of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame; one of its chapters is named after him. Wolman was a philantropic individual who never forgot his coal mining town roots. He kept in contact with his hometown of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania through good and bad times.
Wolman had also initiated the development of the John Hancock Center, a 100-story skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois, but withdrew from the project because of financial difficulties.
Wolman now lives happily in Potomac, Maryland, with his wife Bobbie and he is a father of 2 and a grandfather of 8.
[edit] External links
- Biographical note at Famous Coal Crackers
Preceded by 65 stockholders |
Philadelphia Eagles Owners 1963–1969 |
Succeeded by Leonard Tose |