Sonny Werblin
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David A. "Sonny" Werblin (March 17, 1907 - November 21, 1991) was an owner of the New York Jets.
As Vice President of the Music Corporation of America, Werblin had been a major power broker in Hollywood for years. In 1963, he and his partners purchased the American Football League (AFL) Titans of New York from original owner Harry Wismer. Bringing his showbiz savvy to bear, Werblin changed the team's name to the Jets, and drafted Matt Snell in the first round, signing him away from the NFL's Giants. His biggest coup came in 1965, when for $400,000 he signed University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath, who had been drafted by the NFL St. Louis Cardinals. Werblin's success was a contributing factor to the NFL's merger with the AFL. However he and the Oakland Raiders' Al Davis strongly resisted the indemnity the NFL demanded, of $100,000 per year for twenty years. The less warlike AFL owners agreed to the terms, along with stripping the name and logo from the AFL, to which many important aspects of pro football are now credited.
Werblin was fired by Jets management prior to the 1968 season, which concluded with the team winning Super Bowl III over the Baltimore Colts in one of the greatest upsets in sports history. Newark Star-Ledger sports columnist Jerry Izenberg would later speculate that, because the Jets fired Werblin, there was a "Curse of Sonny Werblin" on the team.
However, since the firing took place before the great victory, this seems to be an insufficient explanation for the Jets' inability to reach the Super Bowl since that game on January 12, 1969. By an unusual coincidence, Werblin and Izenberg were elected to the Sports Hall of Fame of New Jersey in the same year, 1997. Werblin became the president of Madison Square Garden in the late 1970's and was influential in helping Phil Esposito reach his decision to retire from the New York Rangers.
Werblin was a graduate of Rutgers University. The school built the Sonny Werblin Recreation Center on its Busch Campus, near Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey, across the Raritan River from its main campus in New Brunswick. The Center is home to weight-training facilities and the University's main venues for water-sports competition and volleyball.
