29 Facts About Red McCombs

Billy Joe "Red" McCombs was an American businessman.

Red McCombs was the founder of the Red McCombs Automotive Group in San Antonio, Texas, a co-founder of Clear Channel Communications, a past chairman of Constellis Group, a onetime owner of the San Antonio Spurs, San Antonio Force, Denver Nuggets, the Minnesota Vikings, and the namesake of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.

Red McCombs was on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans.

Red McCombs was ranked the 913th richest man in the world.

Red McCombs was born in rural Spur in Dickens County in West Texas, United States.

Red McCombs's father was a mechanic who earned $25 per week but tithed through the First Baptist Church of Spur each week.

Red McCombs expressed how he was overcome by the kindness of every employee he met at the hospital.

Red McCombs joined the Anderson board and in 2005 donated $30 million to the hospital.

In 2017, Red McCombs filed a $1 million civil suit against seven of his former executives who he alleged took "trade secrets" from Red McCombs' company to begin a competing firm in Houston, F4 Resources.

Red McCombs had established Red McCombs Energy in Houston in 1998 by merging his 50 percent interest in his partnership with William Forney with other assets purchased from Forney.

Red McCombs attributed the construction of the HemisFair Arena as the essential development to the success of the San Antonio Spurs.

Red McCombs contacted Lee Iacocca, then president of the Ford Motor Company, to seek funding for the arena to correspond with the 1968 World's Fair.

Red McCombs located other investors, and the Dallas Chaparrals came to San Antonio five years later in 1973.

Red McCombs realized the importance of television to sports events and saw the opportunity to bring San Antonio to a national stage.

Two years after taking the Spurs into the NBA, Red McCombs sold off his stake in the Spurs and bought another former ABA team, the Denver Nuggets.

Red McCombs held onto the team from 1978 until 1985, when he sold it to Sidney Shlenker.

Red McCombs then bought the Spurs in 1989 and ran them until he sold them in 1993.

In 1998, Red McCombs bought the Minnesota Vikings for US$250 million.

Red McCombs was one of the first investors of the Circuit of the Americas.

Red McCombs owned a piece of property surrounded by National Forest near Wolf Creek ski area, a resort in southern Colorado owned by the Pitcher family.

Red McCombs had long wanted to develop a resort community on his property, a plan that has drawn opposition and lawsuits from environmentalists and surrounding communities.

Red McCombs had been unsuccessful in his attempts to convince the court to remove a key roadblock preventing his proposed development.

Red McCombs then attempted to build a 50,000-acre casino resort at Navajo Canyon on Lake Powell.

In 2013, Red McCombs was found by the United States Supreme Court to have engaged in a sham tax avoidance transaction and was therefore liable for a valuation misstatement penalty.

Red McCombs severely criticized the 2014 University of Texas hire of Charlie Strong as football coach.

Red McCombs was a reformed alcoholic, who could "handle his social drinking" until the age of 48, when overcome with convulsions he went into a five-day coma at a medical facility in Houston.

The Red McCombs Foundation has donated more than $118 million to charity.

Red McCombs was married to Charline Hamblin from 1950 until her death on December 12,2019.

Red McCombs died at his home in San Antonio on February 19,2023, at the age of 95.