Robert (Bob) Lurie
Robert (Bob) Lurie was a real estate magnate and philanthropist, but he is best known in Northern California as the man who saved the Giants baseball team for San Francisco. A long time sportsman who graduated from Northwestern University, he competed in 40 straight AT&T Pebble Beach/Bing Crosby Pro-Am Golf Tournaments. Lurie, along with help […]
Carmen Policy
When Carmen Policy said, “Winning with class,” it was not a slogan. It was a moral imperative. Under his guidance, along with Edward DeBartolo Jr. and Bill Walsh, the San Francisco 49ers became the model of an enlightened, winning sports franchise. Carmen was a sports phenomenon, a lawyer, a brilliant negotiator, a skilled reader of […]
John McVay
One of John McVay’s first assignments upon joining the San Francisco 49ers in 1979 was finding Bill Walsh, a quarterback. The search ended in the draft’s third round with a skinny Notre Dame passer named Joe Montana. “We couldn’t understand why he was still there in the third round,” McVay said. “At the time, he […]
Al Davis
As a coach first and then as the managing general partner, Al Davis turned the Oakland Raiders into one of the most successful franchises in professional football. Building on an unwavering philosophy that stressed a strong-armed quarterback, a powerful offensive line and a man-to-man defense, Davis’s teams played in five Super Bowls and, in an […]
Walter A. Haas Jr.
Walter A. Haas Jr. was a noted philanthropist and chairman of Levi Strauss when he bought the Oakland A’s in 1981. Under Haas’s ownership, the A’s won three straight American League pennants (1988–90) and one World Series. In 1989, they set what was then a Bay Area attendance record, drawing more than 2.9 million fans. […]
Edward (Eddie) DeBartolo, Jr.
Edward DeBartolo, Jr. came to the Bay Area when he purchased the San Francisco 49ers from the Morabito family in 1977. Everything took off in 1979, when Eddie hired Bill Walsh as his coach and brought in great players such as Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott, and Roger Craig. With Walsh establishing the “West […]
Lou Spadia
Lou Spadia, a San Francisco native, devoted his life to athletics. He played baseball at Jackson playground in the Potrero District and Mission High. Following Navy duty in WWII, he went to the original Forty-Niners in 1946 as an office boy and rose to its president by 1967. After the sale of the 49ers in […]
Peter Magowan
No one person has had a greater impact on the San Francisco Giants baseball franchise than Peter Magowan. Peter, a lifelong baseball fan who grew up in New York City, missed his first day of school ever when his father took him to game one of the 1951 world series between the Giants and the […]
Anne Warner Cribbs
The bay area has produced many great Olympic athletes, but if they could all appoint an official ambassador to represent them, Anne warner Cribbs would be the runaway choice. She won a gold medal in the 1960 Rome games as a 15-year-old swimmer, sparking a relationship with the Olympic movement that spanned six decades. Along […]
Franklin Mieuli
Renowned for his deerstalker cap and robust beard, Franklin Mieuli owned the Warriors for more than two decades and in 1975 delivered an NBA Championship to the Bay Area. The colorful Mieuli was already established in the Bay Area sports scene with ownership stakes in the 49ers and Giants when he joined a group that […]