- Red McCombs
Billy Joe "Red" McCombs (born 1927) is the founder of the
Red McCombs Automotive Group , a co-founder ofClear Channel Communications , a former owner of theSan Antonio Spurs ,Denver Nuggets , and theMinnesota Vikings , and the namesake of theMcCombs School of Business at theUniversity of Texas at Austin (an honor given in recognition of a fifty million U.S. dollar donation to the University). He was named one of "Forbes " magazine's top 400 richest Americans in 2005. While at The University of Texas, McCombs was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega, Gamma Eta chapter.McCombs was born in
Spur, Texas , and started out selling cars, dropping out of college to do so. At the age of twenty-five, he owned his first dealership, selling Fords. He eventually owned fifty car dealerships throughout the United States, most of them in Texas.Fact|date=December 2007McCombs was roundly criticized by fans of the
Minnesota Vikings for the Vikings' decline from being a team with a historical record of achievement to one struggling to make it to the post-season. The team was running annually twenty to thirty million dollars below the salary cap (very near the league-mandatedsalary floor ), and McCombs showed little inclination to purchase the players he would need to make the team a legitimateSuper Bowl contender. He sold the Vikings to new (and current) ownerZygi Wilf before the 2005 football season.ee also
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Red McCombs Media External links
* [http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/news/mccombs/about/bio.asp Biography at McCombs School of Business] - UT Austin
* [http://txtell.lib.utexas.edu/stories/m0001-full.html Biography from UT Austin Alumni stories]
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* [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/54/biz_06rich400_Billy-Joe-Red-McCombs_FEZ2.html Forbes 2006 profile on Billy Joe McCombs]
* [http://www.redmccombs.com/ Red McCombs Automotive Group]
* [http://www.faithvine.com Faithvine.com] - One of Red's latest ventures, a Christian social networking and content website
* [http://www.drugfree.org/Intervention/Stories/McCombs Red's battle against alcoholism]
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