Chuck Barnes
(1930–1979)

The son of then Dayton Tire & Rubber Company president C.M. "Pat" Barnes and a former P.R. manager for Firestone, Barnes spearheaded the field of sports management when he founded Sports Headliners, Inc. in 1965. Initially representing racing greats Mario Andretti

Mario Andretti

Mario Gabriele Andretti is a retired Italian American world champion racing driver, one of the most successful Americans in the history of the sport. He is one of only two drivers to win races in Formula One, IndyCar, World Sportscar Championship and NASCAR...

, Jimmy Clark, A.J. Foyt and Rodger Ward

Rodger Ward

Rodger M. Ward was an American racecar driver who won the 1959 and 1962 Indianapolis 500. He also was the 1959 and 1962 USAC Championship Car champion.-Early history:...

, Barnes expanded into professional football and basketball, signing Johnny Unitas

Johnny Unitas

John Constantine Unitas , known as Johnny Unitas or "Johnny U", and nicknamed "The Golden Arm", was a professional American football player in the 1950s through the 1970s, spending the majority of his career with the Baltimore Colts. He was a record-setting quarterback, and the National Football...

, O.J. Simpson, Calvin Hill

Calvin Hill

Calvin G. Hill is a retired American football running back who had a 12-year NFL career from 1969 to 1981. He played for the Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins and Cleveland Browns...

 and Pat Hayden, among others. The lucrative contract that Barnes negotiated for Simpson when he joined the Buffalo Bills set a new benchmark for NFL salaries.

Barnes was one of the original investors who, in 1967, purchased the (then ABA

American Basketball Association

The American Basketball Association was a professional basketball league founded in 1967. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA–NBA merger in 1976.-League history:...

) franchise that became the Indiana Pacers

Indiana Pacers

The Indiana Pacers are a professional basketball team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. They are members of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association...

. In addition, Barnes briefly served as President, then Commissioner of the World Football League

World Football League

The World Football League was a short-lived gridiron football league that played in 1974 and part of 1975. Although the league's proclaimed ambition was to bring American football onto a worldwide stage, the farthest the WFL reached was placing a team – the Hawaiians – in Honolulu, Hawaii. The...

 and was on the board of directors of the (former) Ontario Motor Speedway

Ontario Motor Speedway

The Ontario Motor Speedway, located in Ontario, California, east of Los Angeles, was the first and only automobile racing facility built to accommodate major races sanctioned by all of the four dominant racing sanctioning bodies: IndyCar Series and USAC for open-wheel oval car races; NASCAR for a ...

.