Gerald Hatten Buss was an American businessman, investor, chemist, and philanthropist.
32 Facts About Jerry Buss
2.
Jerry Buss was the majority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association, winning 10 league championships that were highlighted by the team's Showtime era during the 1980s.
3.
Jerry Buss was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor.
4.
Jerry Buss's father, Lydus, was an accountant who went on to teach statistics at Berkeley.
5.
Jerry Buss earned a scholarship to the University of Wyoming, graduating with a BS degree in two and a half years in 1953.
6.
Jerry Buss then returned to Los Angeles and attended the University of Southern California, where he earned an MS and PhD in physical chemistry in 1957 at the age of 24.
7.
Jerry Buss started as a chemist for the Bureau of Mines ; he then briefly worked in the aerospace industry and was on the faculty of USC's chemistry department.
8.
Jerry Buss originally went to invest in real estate in order to provide an income so he could continue teaching.
9.
In 1979, Jerry Buss purchased Pickfair, the Beverly Hills estate once owned by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks; he sold it in 1987.
10.
In 1974, Jerry Buss produced a movie named Black Eye starring former gridiron star Fred "the Hammer" Williamson.
11.
Jerry Buss was an owner of the Phoenix location of the Playboy Club.
12.
Jerry Buss became an owner of the Los Angeles Strings in World Team Tennis.
13.
Jerry Buss purchased the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA along with the Los Angeles Kings hockey team of the NHL, The Forum, and a large ranch from Jack Kent Cooke in 1979, in a deal that transferred ownership of the Chrysler Building.
14.
Jerry Buss later sold his controlling interest in the Kings to Bruce McNall in 1988, retaining ownership of the Lakers and The Forum.
15.
Jerry Buss then reached a major advertising agreement with Great Western Bank for the naming rights to The Forum, resulting in the official name of the building being changed to the Great Western Forum.
16.
Later, when the WNBA was formed in 1996, Jerry Buss took charge of operating that league's Los Angeles franchise, the Los Angeles Sparks.
17.
The Lakers were very successful under Jerry Buss' ownership, winning 10 NBA championships with such players as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, and Pau Gasol, and with coaches Pat Riley and Phil Jackson.
18.
Jerry Buss inspired the Lakers' Showtime era with his vision that basketball games must be entertaining.
19.
In 2002, when the WNBA was restructured to give its teams individual owners, Jerry Buss took ownership of the Sparks.
20.
Jerry Buss owned the Los Angeles Lazers of the Major Indoor Soccer League.
21.
Jerry Buss received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1983.
22.
Jerry Buss was a high-stakes cash game poker player for many years, but later in life was more active in tournament games.
23.
Jerry Buss appeared in the GSN series High Stakes Poker and the NBC late-night series Poker After Dark.
24.
The Dwarfs were regular fixtures in and among the Showtime Lakers throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and until Jerry Buss's passing in 2013.
25.
In January 2008, Jerry Buss donated $7.5 million to USC's Department of Chemistry to fund two endowed chairs and an endowed scholarship fund for chemistry graduate students; the two chairs were to be named after his mentors at USC, Professors Sidney Benson and David Dows.
26.
Jerry Buss was an inaugural member of the USC College Board of Councilors.
27.
Jerry Buss's philanthropy extended to people associated with the Lakers.
28.
When former Lakers player Walt Hazzard, then an adviser to the team, suffered a catastrophic stroke in 1996, Jerry Buss kept Hazzard on the payroll and told Hazzard's son that his father would remain a Lakers employee for as long as Jerry Buss owned the team.
29.
On May 29,2007, Jerry Buss was issued a citation for driving under the influence after two California Highway Patrol officers saw him driving his gold Mercedes-Benz on the wrong side of the road in the coastal community of Carlsbad in northern San Diego County, with a 23-year-old woman passenger.
30.
In 2012, Jerry Buss was in a hospital for months with an undisclosed intestinal problem.
31.
On February 14,2013, four days before his death, it was revealed that Jerry Buss had been battling cancer since 2012.
32.
Jerry Buss's daughter took over the Lakers on March 27,2017.