Robert C McNair was an American businessman, philanthropist, and the owner of a National Football League team, the Houston Texans.
19 Facts About Bob McNair
2.
Bob McNair graduated from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, where he was initiated into the Sigma Chi Fraternity.
3.
Bob McNair graduated in 1958 with a Bachelor of Science degree.
4.
Bob McNair spent most of his 20s and 30s as a struggling salesman and unsuccessful entrepreneur whose businesses all failed.
5.
Bob McNair eventually broke through to success when he founded the cogeneration company Cogen Technologies in 1984, which he sold in 1999 to Enron.
6.
At the time of his death, Bob McNair retained ownership of power plants in New York and West Virginia.
7.
Bob McNair served as chairman and chief executive officer of The Bob McNair Group, a financial and real estate firm that is headquartered in Houston, Texas, and as the owner of Palmetto Partners, Ltd.
8.
In June 2000, Bob McNair formed a biotechnology investment firm, Cogene Biotech Ventures, where he served as company chairman.
9.
Bob McNair was rumored to be interested in buying a soccer club in the United Kingdom, and twice went to visit St Andrews, home of Championship team, Birmingham City FC, who were up for sale at the time.
10.
On January 3,2014, a consortium headed by Bob McNair made a bid to purchase Reading FC of the Championship, but were unsuccessful.
11.
On October 29,2017, in a game against the Seattle Seahawks, the majority of the Texans' players kneeled during the national anthem after Bob McNair had commented about having the "inmates running the prison" during a league owner meeting regarding the ongoing protests by NFL players during the anthem.
12.
Robert Bob McNair was a member of the Texas Business Hall of Fame and was a current or past member of the boards of trustees of a number of institutions including Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Grand Opera, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Center for the American Idea, and other Houston area organizations.
13.
On September 12,2007, Bob McNair gave $100 million to Baylor College of Medicine to recruit top scientists and physicians.
14.
Bob McNair was a recipient of the Anti-Defamation League's Torch of Liberty Award.
15.
Bob McNair is a primary backer of Sigma Chi's Horizons leadership institute.
16.
Bob McNair donated over $1 million towards the completion of Bob McNair Field, which hosts his hometown Forest City Owls, a collegiate summer wooden bat team in the Coastal Plain League.
17.
In 1999 Robert Bob McNair received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from the university.
18.
The Robert and Janice Bob McNair Foundation, established in 2015, provides gifts to create centers for entrepreneurship at universities throughout the United States.
19.
Bob McNair had been diagnosed with skin cancer in 1994 and had been in treatment for various cancers throughout that span, and had largely withdrawn from the team's operations in the last months of his life.