Red McCombs
Encyclopedia
Billy Joe "Red" McCombs is the founder of the Red McCombs Automotive Group, a co-founder of Clear Channel Communications
, a former owner of the San Antonio Spurs
, Denver Nuggets
, and the Minnesota Vikings
, and the namesake of the McCombs School of Business
at the University of Texas at Austin
. He was named one of Forbes
magazine's top 400 richest Americans in 2005.
, Texas
in 1927. He earned the nickname "Red" due to his hair color. He briefly attended Southwestern University
in Georgetown, Texas where he played football (lineman and receiver) before serving in the Army in 1946 and 1947. After completing his Army stint, McCombs enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin
, attending the business school and law school. While at the University of Texas, McCombs was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega
fraternity. He married his wife, Charline Hamblin in 1950. In the early fifties, McCombs sold cars at George Jones Ford in Corpus Christi
, dropping out of college to do so. In 1958, he and his fellow salesman, Austin Hemphill, moved to San Antonio to create Hemphill-McCombs Ford, which was the foundation for what ultimately became the Red McCombs Automotive Group.
McCombs entered the energy industry in the 1960s, resulting in the Houston-based McCombs Energy. He has also been involved in real-estate through the Koontz-McCombs development company. In 1972, McCombs partnered with Lowry Mays
to purchase WOAI
radio in San Antonio. The station was the launching point for Clear Channel Communications
.
He has previously served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Southwestern University and Chairman of the University of Texas's M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The business school at the University of Texas was renamed the Red McCombs School of Business in recognition of a fifty million dollar
donation to the university.
McCombs is the recipient of the Texas Legend Award from the Texas Automobile Dealers Association and the Living Legend award from the New Braunfels
Chamber of Commerce. He has also been honored by the American Academy of Achievement, San Antonio Business Hall of Fame, San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame, Texas Business Hall of Fame, and the College Football Hall of Fame
. He has received honorary degrees from Southwestern University, the University of Texas at San Antonio
, and Texas Lutheran University
.
and several other San Antonio businessmen in leasing the struggling Dallas Chaparrals
of the American Basketball Association
and moving them to San Antonio as the Spurs. The Spurs proved to be a runaway hit, leading Drossos and McCombs to tear up the lease agreement and buy the team outright after only one year.
Two years after taking the Spurs into the NBA, McCombs sold off his stake in the Spurs and bought another former ABA team, the Denver Nuggets
. He held onto the team until 1985. In 1988, he bought controlling interest in the Spurs from Drossos, selling them to current owner Peter Holt
in 1993.
In 1998, McCombs bought the Minnesota Vikings
for US$250 million. After an unsuccessful attempt to replace the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome
, McCombs sold the team to new (and current) owner Zygi Wilf before the 2005 football season
.
He was also actively involved in thoroughbred racing and breeding for many years as a major partner in Walmac Farm, a leading American breeding farm, in Lexington, Kentucky.
in Southern Colorado. The planned resort has drawn opposition due to the environmental impacts it will create. McCombs has been unsuccessful in his attempts to sway the forest service into allowing the development to get started. McCombs then attempted to build a 50000 acres (202.3 km²) casino resort at Navajo Canyon on Lake Powell
. The local Navajo Nation
chapters, local government officials, all unanimously rejected the casino proposal and any projects by Red McCombs.
to Austin, Texas
through his support of Tavo Hellmund
and Full Throttle Productions, LP. A new Formula 1 track will be built in southeastern Travis County
to host the event under a ten-year contract from 2012 to 2021.
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
, a former owner of the San Antonio Spurs
San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio, Texas. They are part of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association ....
, Denver Nuggets
Denver Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets are a professional basketball team based in Denver, Colorado. They play in the National Basketball Association . They were founded as the Denver Rockets in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association, and became one of that league's more successful teams...
, and the Minnesota Vikings
Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League as an expansion team in 1960...
, and the namesake of the McCombs School of Business
McCombs School of Business
The McCombs School of Business, also referred to as the McCombs School or simply McCombs, is a business school at The University of Texas at Austin. In addition to the main Austin campus, McCombs offers classes outside Central Texas in Dallas, Houston and internationally in Mexico City...
at the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
. He was named one of Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
magazine's top 400 richest Americans in 2005.
Biography
McCombs was born in SpurSpur, Texas
Spur is a city in Dickens County, Texas, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 1,088.On October 9, 2009, Spur celebrated its centennial with the dedication of a Giant Spur sculpture. The Giant Spur was built by local welder John Grusendorf. The event, sponsored...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
in 1927. He earned the nickname "Red" due to his hair color. He briefly attended Southwestern University
Southwestern University
Southwestern University is a private, four-year, undergraduate, liberal arts college located in Georgetown, Texas, USA. Founded in 1840, Southwestern is the oldest university in Texas. The school is affiliated with the United Methodist Church although the curriculum is nonsectarian...
in Georgetown, Texas where he played football (lineman and receiver) before serving in the Army in 1946 and 1947. After completing his Army stint, McCombs enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
, attending the business school and law school. While at the University of Texas, McCombs was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega
Alpha Tau Omega
Alpha Tau Omega is a secret American leadership and social fraternity.The Fraternity has more than 250 active and inactive chapters, more than 200,000 initiates, and over 7,000 active undergraduate members. The 200,000th member was initiated in early 2009...
fraternity. He married his wife, Charline Hamblin in 1950. In the early fifties, McCombs sold cars at George Jones Ford in Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...
, dropping out of college to do so. In 1958, he and his fellow salesman, Austin Hemphill, moved to San Antonio to create Hemphill-McCombs Ford, which was the foundation for what ultimately became the Red McCombs Automotive Group.
McCombs entered the energy industry in the 1960s, resulting in the Houston-based McCombs Energy. He has also been involved in real-estate through the Koontz-McCombs development company. In 1972, McCombs partnered with Lowry Mays
Lowry Mays
Lester Lowry Mays is the founder and current chairman of Clear Channel Communications.-Early years:Lester Lowry Mays was born on July 24, 1935 in Harris County, Texas, USA to Lester T. Mays and Mary Virginia Lowry. Mays attended the A&M College of Texas , where he received a B.S. in petroleum...
to purchase WOAI
WOAI (AM)
WOAI is a San Antonio, Texas, news/talk formatted radio station operating with 50,000 Watts non-directional day and night from a transmitter site near Marion, Texas. Current owner and operator San Antonio based Clear Channel Communications acquired the station in 1975 which founded the now...
radio in San Antonio. The station was the launching point for Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
.
He has previously served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Southwestern University and Chairman of the University of Texas's M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The business school at the University of Texas was renamed the Red McCombs School of Business in recognition of a fifty million dollar
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
donation to the university.
McCombs is the recipient of the Texas Legend Award from the Texas Automobile Dealers Association and the Living Legend award from the New Braunfels
New Braunfels, Texas
New Braunfels is a city in Comal and Guadalupe counties in the U.S. state of Texas that is a principal city of the metropolitan area. Braunfels means "brown rock" in German; the city is named for Braunfels, in Germany. The city's population was 57,740 as of the 2010 census, up 58% from the 2000...
Chamber of Commerce. He has also been honored by the American Academy of Achievement, San Antonio Business Hall of Fame, San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame, Texas Business Hall of Fame, and the College Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...
. He has received honorary degrees from Southwestern University, the University of Texas at San Antonio
University of Texas at San Antonio
The University of Texas at San Antonio, commonly referred to as UTSA, is a state university in San Antonio, Texas. With an enrollment of more than 30,000 students, it is the third-largest of nine universities and six health institutions in the University of Texas System and the eighth-largest in...
, and Texas Lutheran University
Texas Lutheran University
Texas Lutheran University is an undergraduate, private, coeducational university affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The University was founded in 1891, and currently serves approximately 1,400 students each semester....
.
Sports ownership
McCombs' first entry into sports came in 1972, when he joined Angelo DrossosAngelo Drossos
Angelo Drossos was the owner of the San Antonio Spurs basketball team from 1973 to 1988, from its time in the American Basketball Association through the ABA-NBA merger and into its years in the National Basketball Association...
and several other San Antonio businessmen in leasing the struggling Dallas Chaparrals
Dallas Chaparrals
The Dallas Chaparrals were a charter member of the American Basketball Association, later becoming the San Antonio Spurs and joining the NBA.The team suffered from poor attendance and general disinterest in Dallas...
of the American Basketball Association
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:...
and moving them to San Antonio as the Spurs. The Spurs proved to be a runaway hit, leading Drossos and McCombs to tear up the lease agreement and buy the team outright after only one year.
Two years after taking the Spurs into the NBA, McCombs sold off his stake in the Spurs and bought another former ABA team, the Denver Nuggets
Denver Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets are a professional basketball team based in Denver, Colorado. They play in the National Basketball Association . They were founded as the Denver Rockets in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association, and became one of that league's more successful teams...
. He held onto the team until 1985. In 1988, he bought controlling interest in the Spurs from Drossos, selling them to current owner Peter Holt
Peter Holt
Peter M. Holt is a businessman. He is the CEO of Holt Cat, the largest Caterpillar dealership in the United States and chairman, CEO, and owner of Spurs Sports & Entertainment, which owns the 4-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs, theWNBA's San Antonio Silver Stars, the AHL's San Antonio Rampage,...
in 1993.
In 1998, McCombs bought the Minnesota Vikings
Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League as an expansion team in 1960...
for US$250 million. After an unsuccessful attempt to replace the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome
Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome
The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, commonly called the Metrodome, is a domed sports stadium in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Opened in 1982, it replaced Metropolitan Stadium, which was on the current site of the Mall of America in Bloomington and Memorial Stadium on the University...
, McCombs sold the team to new (and current) owner Zygi Wilf before the 2005 football season
2005 NFL season
The 2005 NFL season was the 86th regular season of the National Football League.With the New England Patriots as the defending league champions, regular season play was held from September 8, 2005 to January 1, 2006...
.
He was also actively involved in thoroughbred racing and breeding for many years as a major partner in Walmac Farm, a leading American breeding farm, in Lexington, Kentucky.
Controversy
McCombs is also noted for his development plans at Wolf Creek ski areaWolf Creek ski area
Wolf Creek Ski Area is a ski area in southwest Colorado, located on the Wolf Creek Pass between Pagosa Springs and South Fork. It is best known for receiving more average annual snowfall than any other resort in Colorado, at about 465 inches per year....
in Southern Colorado. The planned resort has drawn opposition due to the environmental impacts it will create. McCombs has been unsuccessful in his attempts to sway the forest service into allowing the development to get started. McCombs then attempted to build a 50000 acres (202.3 km²) casino resort at Navajo Canyon on Lake Powell
Lake Powell
Lake Powell is a huge reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border between Utah and Arizona . It is the second largest man-made reservoir in the United States behind Lake Mead, storing of water when full...
. The local Navajo Nation
Navajo Nation
The Navajo Nation is a semi-autonomous Native American-governed territory covering , occupying all of northeastern Arizona, the southeastern portion of Utah, and northwestern New Mexico...
chapters, local government officials, all unanimously rejected the casino proposal and any projects by Red McCombs.
Formula One
On July 27, 2010 McCombs announced his financial backing for bringing Formula OneFormula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
to Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
through his support of Tavo Hellmund
Tavo Hellmund
Tavo Hellmund is an American former racing driver and promoter, who is promoting the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas with the first race in 2012....
and Full Throttle Productions, LP. A new Formula 1 track will be built in southeastern Travis County
Travis County, Texas
As of 2009, the U.S. census estimates there were 1,026,158 people, 320,766 households, and 183,798 families residing in the county. The population density was 821 people per square mile . There were 335,881 housing units at an average density of 340 per square mile...
to host the event under a ten-year contract from 2012 to 2021.