Billionaire Texas Mogul Red McCombs—Onetime Spurs, Nuggets, Vikings Owner—Dies At 95

Topline

Billionaire Red McCombs, the businessman best known for his Texas-centric philanthropic efforts and various sports investments, died Sunday at the age of 95, his family announced in a statement Monday.

Key Facts

McCombs died peacefully at his house with relatives at his side, his family said in a statement to San Antonio ABC affiliate KSAT NBC affiliate WOAI.

A cause of death for McCombs was not disclosed.

Long one of the wealthiest men in Texas, McCombs was worth $1.7 billion at the time of his death, according to Forbes’ calculations, thanks to a variety of investments, owning dozens of car dealerships in Texas, cofounding the radio empire that later became iHeartMedia and owning the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings and the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets at various points in his life.

Key Background

A lifelong entrepreneur, McCombs’ first venture was peddling peanuts for five cents a bag at the ripe age of 10. McCombs is perhaps best remembered for the numerous multimillion-dollar donations he made to various institutions throughout Texas, including a $30 million gift to Houston’s MD Anderson to establish an early cancer detection institute named after him. A University of Texas, Austin dropout, McCombs gave $50 million to the school in 1999, the largest gift in the university’s history at the time and establishing the McCombs School of Business. “I do it because it makes me feel so good about doing it,” McCombs told the San Antonio Express-News in 2015 about his dedication to charity. McCombs owned the Spurs for two stretches between 1973 and 1993, the Nuggets for a three-year period in the 1980s and the Vikings from 1998 to 2005. Later in life, McCombs threw his financial weight behind an effort to bring Formula One racing to Texas.

Tributes

San Antonio mayor Ron Nirenberg called McCombs a “a pillar of San Antonio’s modern history and a titan of our local economy” whose “influence was instrumental in creating the city we know today.” tweeted Monday. Basketball Hall of Famer David Robinson, who led the Spurs to two NBA titles after McCombs sold the team, said McCombs was “a legendary figure in San Antonio…[who] had a huge impact in my life.” Mccombs “lived large, was remarkably generous, and had an infectious gusto for life,” wrote James Milliken, chancellor of the University of Texas system, adding McCombs “loved his Longhorns.”

Further Reading

Business: Red McCombs (Texas Monthly)

Wild Ride: The Sordid Saga Of How Formula One Racing Came To Texas (Forbes)