Peter Ueberroth
Peter Ueberroth A. Bartlett Giamatti | |
---|---|
President of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee | |
In office August 3, 1980 – August 12, 1984 | |
IOC President | Juan Antonio Samaranch |
Preceded by | Ignati Novikov (Official Representative) |
Succeeded by | Roh Tae-woo |
Chair of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee | |
In office March 26, 1979 – August 12, 1984 | |
Preceded by | Committee established |
Succeeded by | Position dissolved |
Personal details | |
Born | Peter Victor Ueberroth September 2, 1937 Evanston, Illinois, U.S. |
Alma mater | San Jose State University |
Peter Victor Ueberroth (
After the conclusion of the games, he was named as the sixth Commissioner of Baseball, a role he held from 1984 to 1989. He later served as the chairman of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee from 2004 to 2008.[1]
Early life
Ueberroth was born in Evanston, Illinois, the son of Laura (Larson) and Victor Ueberroth.[2] His father was of German and Austrian descent, and his mother was of Swedish and Irish ancestry. He caddied at Sunset Ridge Country Club, in Northfield, Illinois. He grew up in Northern California. While attending Fremont High School, Ueberroth excelled in football, baseball, and swimming. After graduating from high school, Ueberroth attended San Jose State University on an athletic scholarship. While attending San Jose State he joined Delta Upsilon. He competed in the 1956 United States Olympic water polo trials but failed to make the team. Ueberroth ultimately graduated from San Jose State in 1959 with a degree in business.
Trans International Airlines
After college, Ueberroth became a vice president and shareholder in Trans International Airlines (he was 22 years old at the time). Ueberroth worked at Trans International until 1963, when he founded his own travel company, which would become First Travel Corporation. By the time he sold First Travel in 1980, it was the second largest travel business in North America.
Sports career
1984 Olympics
For five years Ueberroth served as the organizer of the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. He was a prominent figure in the games, receiving the Olympic Order in gold at its conclusion from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Due to the success of the games, he was named Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1984. Under Ueberroth's leadership and management, the first privately financed Olympic Games in history resulted in a surplus of nearly US$250 million, and became a model for all of the future games to follow. This was subsequently used to support youth and sports activities throughout the United States.[3] Coincidentally, he was born on the day on which the founder of the modern Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, died.
Ueberroth created a committee of over 150 members (mostly business people and entrepreneurs) to generate ideas, opportunities and solve problems.[citation needed] His aggressive recruiting of sponsors for the 1984 Olympics is credited as the genesis for the current Olympic sponsorship program. Due to recruiting competitors between the Los Angeles Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), after 1984 all Olympics in the US had their local organizing committees enter into recruitment agreements with the USOC to jointly recruit sponsors and share revenue.
Baseball commissioner
Ueberroth was elected to succeed Bowie Kuhn on March 3, 1984, and took office on October 1 of that year. As a condition of his hiring, Ueberroth increased the commissioner's fining ability from US$5,000 to $250,000.[citation needed] His salary was raised to a reported $450,000, nearly twice what Kuhn was paid.
Just as Ueberroth was taking office, the Major League Umpires Union was threatening to strike the postseason. Ueberroth managed to arbitrate the disagreement and had the umpires back to work before the League Championship Series were over. The next summer, Ueberroth worked behind the scenes to limit a players' strike to one day before a new labor agreement was worked out with the Players Association.
During the course of his stint as commissioner, Ueberroth reinstated two
However, Ueberroth, with the assistance of the owners, also facilitated
Under Ueberroth, Major League Baseball enjoyed "increased attendance (record attendance four straight seasons), greater awareness of crowd control and alcohol management within ballparks, a successful and vigilant anti-drug campaign, significant industry-wide improvement in the area of fair employment, and a significantly improved financial picture for the industry. When Ueberroth took office, 21 of the 26 clubs were losing money; in Ueberroth's last full season – 1988 – all clubs either broke even or finished in the black. In 1987, for example, baseball as an industry showed a net profit of $21.3 million, its first profitable year since 1973."[10]
Nonetheless, following the announcement of the first of three large awards to the players following the collusion findings, Ueberroth stepped down as commissioner before the start of the
Post-baseball activities
Ueberroth has been a director of
In 1989, Ueberroth considered purchasing
In 1990, Ueberroth bought controlling interest of Hawaiian Airlines with his brother John and business partner J. Thomas Talbot.[13]
Three years after leaving office, he led the Rebuild Los Angeles project after the 1992 Los Angeles riots.[14]
In 1999, Ueberroth, along with Arnold Palmer and Clint Eastwood, bought the Pebble Beach golf course.
Ueberroth ran for
Ueberroth was chairman of
Ueberroth was also the chairman of the United States Olympic Committee Board of Directors from 2004 to 2008.
Ueberroth was inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame in 2010.[15][16]
Ueberroth is a Life Trustee of the University of Southern California.[17]
Ueberroth and his wife, Ginny, were two of the founders of Sage Hill School. He additionally served briefly on the school's Athletic Advisory Council.[18]
Ueberroth is a board member for the Lott IMPACT Trophy, which is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back Ronnie Lott, and is awarded annually to college football's Defensive IMPACT Player of the Year.[19]
References
- ^ Macur, Juliet (October 2, 2008). "U.S.O.C. Picks Video-Game Executive to Replace Ueberroth". The New York Times. Retrieved October 3, 2008.
- ^ "Burlingame High School Class of 1955 Constituents". Retrieved April 20, 2018.
- ^ Olympic Games Los Angeles 1984
- ^ Joseph Durso, A Billion-Dollar Bid By CBS Wins Rights To Baseball Games The New York Times. December 15, 1988. Retrieved March 13, 2008.
- ^ Mushnick, Phil (January 1, 2000). "Crime of the Century: How Peter Ueberroth and Baseball's Money-Hungry Owners Robbed our Children of the National Pastime". New York Post. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
- ISBN 0-345-46524-5.
- ^ Anderson, Dave (June 23, 1991). "SPORTS OF THE TIMES; Baseball's Realistic Adversary". The New York Times.
- ISBN 978-0743284912. Archived from the original(PDF) on November 2, 2011. Retrieved November 9, 2011. Peter Ueberroth and Collusion
- ^ "Interview – Fay Vincent – Former Commissioner". Biz of Baseball. November 9, 2005. Archived from the original on July 13, 2007. Retrieved October 17, 2009.
- ^ a b "Commissioners". Major League Baseball. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
- ^ Aircastle Ltd (AYR) Reuters.
- ISBN 978-0-88730-556-6.
- ^ Granelli, James S. (August 22, 1989). "Ueberroth Team Agrees to Buy Hawaiian Air". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 23, 2021.
- ^ Alonso, Alex A. (1998). Rebuilding Los Angeles: A Lesson of Community Reconstruction (PDF). Los Angeles: University of Southern California.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Peter Ueberroth (2010)". usawaterpolo.org. USA Water Polo. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
- ^ "Hall of Fame Inductees". usawaterpolo.org. USA Water Polo. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
- ^ Board of Trustees Archived July 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, University of Southern California, Retrieved April 13, 2008.
- ^ "Sage Hill hosts private dedication for gym". Daily Pilot. April 29, 2008. Retrieved May 5, 2008.
- ^ Lott Impact Trophy Retrieved December 15, 2011.
Further reading
- "Hardball: Nancy Collins Quizzes Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth". New York: 52–57, 61. June 9, 1986.
External links
- Peter Ueberroth at the Team USA Hall of Fame
- Peter Ueberroth at the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame
- Peter Ueberroth at Olympedia
- Peter Ueberroth at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee Hall of Fame
- Time Magazine Person of the Year, 1984
- PETER V. UEBERROTH by A. D. Suehsdorf at the Wayback Machine (archived May 20, 2001)
- Peter Ueberroth's campaign contributions
- "Peter Ueberroth for Governor".
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Peter Ueberroth at the SABR Baseball Biography Project