1. Leonard Hyman Tose was an owner of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1969 to 1985.
14 Facts About Leonard Tose
1. 2.
Leonard Tose made a fortune in the trucking industry and was known for his lavish lifestyle but he eventually lost it all due to a gambling addiction and alcoholism.
3.
Leonard Tose launched a trucking business, owning ten trucks, which represented the beginning of the Tose family business, Tose Inc The company ultimately owned more than 700 trucks and grossed $20 million a year.
4.
Leonard Tose was born in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania and graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1937.
5.
Leonard Tose invested $3,000 as one of the one hundred owners to purchase the team from Alexis Thompson on January 15,1949.
6.
Leonard Tose tried to buy the team with his own group of investors in 1956, but was unable to do so.
7.
Leonard Tose bought the team from Wolman in 1969 for $16,155,000, then a record for a professional sports franchise.
8.
Leonard Tose followed this by naming former Eagles receiving great Pete Retzlaff as general manager and Jerry Williams as coach.
9.
Leonard Tose countersued, contending that the casino got him too drunk to know what he was doing.
10.
In 1996, on his 81st birthday, Leonard Tose was evicted from his seven-bedroom Villanova mansion after losing the house in a US Marshal's sale.
11.
In 1999, Leonard Tose told a congressional hearing on compulsive gambling that his losses totaled between $40 and $50 million.
12.
Leonard Tose spent his last years alone in a downtown hotel room after his home in the upscale Philadelphia Main Line was confiscated for unpaid taxes.
13.
Leonard Tose flew to Eagles home games in a helicopter, was married aboard Queen Elizabeth 2, and fed reporters filet mignon and shrimp cocktail.
14.
Leonard Tose died in his sleep in the hospice wing of St Agnes Medical Center in Philadelphia on April 15,2003.