Red McCombs, the former owner of the Spurs, Nuggets and Vikings, died at the age of 95 on Sunday, his family announced.
“Red was a visionary entrepreneur who touched many lives and impacted our community in immeasurable ways,” the family’s statement read. “But to us he was always, first and foremost, ‘Dad’ or ‘Poppop.’ We mourn the loss of a Texas icon.”
The Texas native hopped into the sports scene in the 1970s when he purchased the Dallas Chaparrals basketball team and renamed them to the Spurs. He then relocated them to San Antonio that same year, for the 1973–74 season. McCombs later helped the Spurs jump from the ABA to the NBA in the 1976 merger.
The Spurs posted a tribute to McCombs on Monday, explaining how “without him, there would be no Spurs.” The team’s name came from McComb’s hometown of Spur, Texas.
The Spurs weren’t the only NBA team that McCombs owned. He sold the Spurs in ’82 in order to purchase the Nuggets. He only owned the Denver franchise for a few seasons before selling his stake in the Nuggets in ’85 to buy back into the Spurs in ’86, buying the team outright in 1988.
McCombs owned the franchise until 1993.
A few years later, McCombs decided to purchase an NFL team in 1998, the Vikings, for $246 million. He owned Minnesota until the 2005 season when he sold the team to the Wilf family for $600 million.
"The Minnesota Vikings are saddened by the passing of former team owner Red McCombs,” the Vikings’ statement read. “Red embodied his famous ‘Purple Pride’ phrase and remained a staunch Vikings fan after passing the torch to the Wilf family in 2005. While Red had a clear passion for sports, it was evident what he loved the most were his children and grandchildren. Our thoughts and prayers are with the McCombs family during this difficult time.”
On top of all of this, McCombs also helped bring back Formula One to the United States as he invested in the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, which is where the annual U.S. Grand Prix has been held since 2012.
His business endeavors throughout his life allowed the University of Texas to rename their business school after him. It’s donned the Red McCombs School of Business.
