Jerry Colangelo

Jerry Colangelo

Jerry Colangelo is an American businessman and sports executive with the Philadelphia 76ers
Philadelphia 76ers
Position	Special Adviser
League	NBA
Personal information
Born	(1939-11-20) November 20, 1939 Chicago Heights, Illinois
Nationality	American
Career information
High school	Bloom Township (Chicago Heights, Illinois)
College	Illinois (1960–1962)
Position	Guard
Number	23
Career history
As coach:
1970, 1972–1974	Phoenix Suns
Career highlights and awards
As player: 2× Big Ten honorable mention (1961, 1962) Number 23 Honored at Illinois Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame As executive: Executive of the Year (1977, 1982, 1990, 1994) Phoenix Suns Ring of Honor (2008)
Basketball Hall of Fame
Medals Managing Director for United States men's national basketball team FIBA World Championship 2010 Turkey Team 2014 Spain Team 2006 Japan Team FIBA Americas Championship 2007 Las Vegas Team

Jerry Colangelo (born November 20, 1939) is an American businessman and sports executive who currently serves as a special adviser to the Philadelphia 76ers. He formerly owned the Phoenix Suns of the NBA, the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, the Arizona Sandsharks of the Continental Indoor Soccer League, the Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League and the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball. He was also instrumental in the relocation of the original Winnipeg Jets team in the NHL to Phoenix to become the Phoenix Coyotes (now the Arizona Coyotes). In 2014, Grand Canyon University renamed its Christian based school of business after Jerry Colangelo, replacing Ken Blanchard's name sake.

He became the youngest general manager in professional sports in 1968 after being hired as general manager for the Phoenix Suns. He has the second longest tenure running the same NBA franchise, exceeded only by Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics.

In the summer of 2005, Colangelo was named director of USA Basketball whose team represented the United States in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 FIBA World Championship. Since 2009, he has served as Chairman of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Colangelo also serves as Chairman of the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF), a nonprofit nonpartisan educational foundation that promotes Italian American culture and heritage.

Colangelo has been known for a no-nonsense ownership style. Players like the Suns' Dennis Johnson and Jason Kidd and the Diamondbacks' Bobby Chouinard have been traded or released after their personal problems became public.

Early life

Colangelo was born and raised in Chicago Heights, Illinois, to an Italian-American working class family. He played basketball and baseball for Bloom Township High School. Colangelo enrolled at the University of Kansas, but transferred to the University of Illinois after prospective teammate Wilt Chamberlain left. He played basketball for the Illinois Fighting Illini, earned All-Big Ten honors, and captained the Illini as a senior. He was later inducted into the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame. Colangelo also played two years of baseball at Illinois. In 1962, he graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in physical education.

In his autobiography, How You Play the Game, Colangelo tells of working after graduating college at the House of Charles, a tuxedo rental shop in Chicago Heights.

Additional sports activities

Colangelo has been involved in many professional sports teams in Arizona.

Baseball

While in Chicago for a Suns game, Colangelo attended a Chicago Cubs baseball game at Wrigley Field. Soon thereafter he decided to inquire to Major League Baseball about bringing an expansion team to Arizona. He assembled a group of investors in 1994 to buy a franchise, the year prior to MLB's proposed expansion selection meetings. In 1995, Colangelo's group was granted an expansion team, the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Diamondbacks began playing in 1998. For his new baseball club, Colangelo hired Joe Garagiola, Jr. as General Manager. He also brought in Buck Showalter coming off a successful stint as manager of the New York Yankees. Showalter and Yankees owner George Steinbrenner did not agree to a contract extension, so Colangelo quickly hired Showalter as future manager of the Diamondbacks. These hirings proved to be instrumental to the expansion franchise's quick success. Notable moves made by Garagiola included the signing of Randy Johnson in 1999 and a trade for Curt Schilling in 2000 from the Philadelphia Phillies. They were co-MVPs of the 2001 World Series when the Diamondbacks beat the Yankees in seven games. This was the first major professional sports championship for the Phoenix area. The Diamondbacks would fail to make the playoffs again 2007. Three years after Colangelo resigned.

Colangelo resigned as Managing General Partner in summer of 2004. Ken Kendrick took responsibility as the lead among the team's investors.

Women's basketball

In 1997, Colangelo's team in the Women's National Basketball Association, the Phoenix Mercury, began playing. The following year, the Mercury reached the WNBA Finals but lost to the Houston Comets.

Arena football

In 1992, Colangelo founded the Arena Football League's Arizona Rattlers and owned them until 2005. Under Colangelo's guidance, the Rattlers won Arena Bowl championships in 1994 and 1997. They were also one of the AFL's model franchises and were a perennial playoff team. According to published reports, the Rattlers struggled to stay afloat as a franchise after Colangelo sold the team.

Hockey

Colangelo was also involved in bringing the National Hockey League (NHL) to Arizona, transferring the Winnipeg Jets to the area as the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996. The move made Phoenix one of only a few metropolitan areas with franchises in all four major North American professional sports leagues). The team plays in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale. Moving Winnepeg Jets proved a failure for Colangelo as the team declared bankruptcy in 2009. The NHL took ownership to keep the failed franchise alive. The NHl later revived the Winnepeg Jets by relocating the struggling Atlanta Thrashers.

Exit from sports

In April 2004, Colangelo sold the Suns, Mercury and Rattlers to an investment group headed by San Diego, California businessman, Tucson, Arizona native Robert Sarver for $401 million.

Late in the 2004 baseball season, Colangelo sold his controlling interest in the Arizona Diamondbacks to a group of investors led by Jeff Moorad.

Other interests

Jerry Colangelo is part of an investment group planning development in Buckeye, Arizona. They have planned a 300,000+ residence development called Douglas Ranch and a smaller 7,000 acres (30 km²) development called Trillium.

Colangelo purchased the bankrupt Wigwam Resort in Litchfield Park, Arizona.

In 2011, Jerry Colangelo assisted in creating Grand Canyon University's Colangelo School of Sports Business and served as an advisor. On September 25, 2014 Grand Canyon University announced their college of business would be renamed Colangelo College of Business.

Awards

Colangelo has been named the NBA's Executive of the Year four times (1976, 1981, 1989, 1993). He is an honorary member of the Marchegiana Society of his hometown, Chicago Heights, Illinois. A street in that city bears his name.

On May 9, 2002, Colangelo was awarded an honorary degree from Arizona State University.

On April 4, 2004, Colangelo was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

On November 4, 2007, Colangelo was inducted into the Phoenix Suns Ring of Honor at the halftime of a Suns game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

He is the National Leadership Director of the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame and is also a Hall of Fame inductee. It is located in the Colangelo Building on Taylor Street in Little Italy, Chicago.

Personal life

Colangelo is a Christian. Colangelo has spoken about his faith saying, "The first priority in life is to have that relationship with Jesus Christ. So your faith is number one. ... God [has] a plan for my life. You know, the way I’ve tried to live my life is I have this platform, it was given to me by the Lord. And He’s blessed me with a lot of things. And someday I’m going to be held accountable with what I did with those things."

Colangelo is married to Joan, whom he met on a blind date while at college. They have four children: Kathy Holcombe, Kristen Young, Mandie Adams, and Bryan Colangelo. Bryan was also the President of the Toronto Raptors until 2013, before joining his father again with the Philadelphia 76ers in April 2016. Jerry Colangelo gained the job after Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, and the board of Governors forced the sixers ownership to fire their former gm and president of basketball operations, Sam Hinkie. Jerry Colangelo shortly after Hinkie's firing ceremonially step down from his advising role so his son, Bryan Colangelo would take Sam Hinkie's former position.

Works

• Colangelo, Jerry; Sherman, Len (1999). How You Play the Game: Lessons for Life from the Billion-Dollar Business of Sports. AMACOM. ISBN 978-0814404881.

External links

• Official website
• Jerry Colangelo at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame