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Jack Kent Cooke | |
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.jpg) Cooke in 1955 | |
| Born | (1912-10-25)October 25, 1912 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | April 6, 1997(1997-04-06) (aged 84) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards | |
Baseball player Baseball career | |
| Member of the Canadian | |
 Baseball Hall of Fame | |
| Induction | 1985 |
Jack Kent Cooke (October 25, 1912 – April 6, 1997) was aCanadian American businessman in broadcasting and professional sports. Starting in sales, Cooke was very successful, eventually becoming a partner in a network of radio stations and newspapers in Canada. After failing at starting a major league baseball team inToronto and being turned down to own a television station in Toronto, Cooke moved to the United States and built a business empire in broadcasting and professional sports franchises.
Cooke was the owner of theWashington Redskins (NFL), theLos Angeles Lakers (NBA), theLos Angeles Kings (NHL), theLos Angeles Wolves (United Soccer), and theToronto Maple Leafs(IL). He also developedThe Forum inInglewood, California, and Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, nowNorthwest Stadium, inLandover, Maryland. Under his ownership, the Lakers won the1972 NBA Finals while the Redskins wonSuper Bowls in1982,1987, and1991.
Born inHamilton, Ontario, Cooke moved with his family toThe Beaches area of Toronto in 1921, where he attendedMalvern Collegiate Institute.[1]
At age 14, Cooke got a job selling encyclopedias. At the end of his first day, he took home over $20 to his mother, and later claimed, "I think that was the proudest moment of my life." He later became a runner on the floor of theToronto Stock Exchange. He was selling soap in Northern Ontario forColgate-Palmolive in 1936 when he metRoy Thomson, who hired Cooke to run radio stationCJCS inStratford, Ontario. The two became partners in 1941, buying radio stations and newspapers inOntario andQuebec.
With the financial backing ofJ. P. Bickell, Cooke purchasedCKCL (under Toronto Broadcasting Co.) in 1945, changing the call letters to CKEY. He also continued to work with Thomson, and the two acquired the Canadian edition ofLiberty magazine in 1948, naming itNew Liberty. The following year, Thomson sold his half of the magazine to Cooke.
In 1951, Cooke ventured into sports, acquiring theminor leagueToronto Maple Leafs baseball club. Upon purchasing the team, Cooke informed the media that the Maple Leafs would be integrated immediately, signing second basemanCharlie White and pitcher-outfielderLeon Day within two weeks of the acquisition.[2] Day, a future Hall of Famer, pitched in 14 games that season and then moved on to other teams. White and Day paved the way for future black Maple Leafs likeSam Jethroe,Elston Howard,Earl Battey,Dave Pope,Humberto Robinson,Connie Johnson,Lou Johnson,Mack Jones,Marshall Bridges, andReggie Smith – not to mention later generations of black players who starred with Toronto's eventualMajor League Baseball franchise, theBlue Jays.
Cooke transformed the games from straight athletic contests into complete entertainment packages, with a long list of special promotions and celebrity appearances. With his focus on entertainment, Cooke was compared toSt. Louis Browns ownerBill Veeck. Five months after becoming owner, Cooke presented a 48-page booklet to all the teams in the league, outlining his promotional strategies. He was named minor league executive of the year byThe Sporting News in 1952.[3] That same year, Cooke purchased Consolidated Press, publisher ofSaturday Night magazine. He made an unsuccessful bid forThe Globe and Mail newspaper in 1955.
While owning the Maple Leafs baseball team, Cooke set his sights on bringing a major league club to Toronto. He tried to purchase theSt. Louis Browns,Philadelphia Athletics andDetroit Tigers when they came up for sale, and in 1959 he became one of the founding team owners in theContinental League, a proposed third major league for professional baseball. The league disbanded a year later without ever playing a game. Cooke still hoped to get anAmerican League expansion team in Toronto, but the city's lack of a major league venue became an impasse.
On the field, Cooke's Maple Leafs were an International League powerhouse, finishing in first place during the regular season four times, capturing the 1960Governors' Cup as playoff champions, and leading the circuit in attendance every year between 1952 and 1956. Between 1953 and 1959, Cooke operated the Leafs without a major-league affiliation, buying or trading for the contracts of most of the players on his roster from MLB clubs. Veteran minor-league sluggerRocky Nelson, who won the IL's"Triple Crown" in 1958, rode his two-year Toronto stay to one final big-league opportunity with thePittsburgh Pirates in 1959, where he became one of the stars of their1960world champions. Organizations also loaned players like Howard and Battey to Cooke's Maple Leafs to advance their development.
Cooke sold the Maple Leafs in 1964. Before that, he had watched several team practices and observedSparky Anderson, noting the player's leadership qualities and ability to teach younger players from all backgrounds. Cooke encouraged Anderson to pursue a career in managing, offering him the post for the Leafs. In 1964, Anderson accepted the offer. Cooke was inducted into theCanadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985.
In 1960, Cooke lost a bid to obtain a licence for the first privately owned TV station in Toronto. There had been nine bids in a highly competitive process, and the licence was awarded to a consortium ofAldred-Rogers Broadcasting and theTelegram Corporation, which launchedCFTO-TV.
Within weeks of being turned down for the Toronto TV license, Cooke applied for U.S. citizenship. With the support of U.S. RepresentativeFrancis E. Walter (D-Pa.), Cooke quickly became a citizen when both houses of Congress and PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower approved a waiver of the usual five-year waiting period.
Originally established about 1899, incorporated in 1929, asConsolidated Press Limited, the company changed hands on October 23, 1952,[4] when Consolidated Press Limited', publishers of Saturday Night and Canadian Home Journal magazines, was bought by Jack Kent Cooke, and in 1958, changed its name toConsolidated Frybrook Industries Limited, and, launched in spring 1959, in New York City, a subsidiary,Strand Records,[5] an American budget label.[6][7][8] Cooke sold CKEY at the end of 1960 and Consolidated Press in 1961.[citation needed]
At the time, Canada and the U.S. both had laws prohibiting foreign control of radio and TV stations. Cooke had entered the U.S. broadcasting industry in August 1959 by acquiringPasadena, California radio stationKRLA 1110 (now KWVE) through his brother, Donald Cooke, a U.S. citizen.
Cooke formed American Cablevision in the 1960s and acquired several cable television companies. He acquired majority ownership of TelePrompTer cable TV, and sold it in the late 1970s for $646 million.[9] In 1979, he acquired theChrysler Building in New York City, one of the world's most renowned skyscrapers. In 1985, Cooke bought theLos Angeles Daily News for $176 million.[10] A year later, he acquired another cable TV company.[11] He sold the cable systems in 1989.[12]
I was never into Cooke-watching as much as I was into watching his teams, and the people he hired to run them. You didn't have to be close to Cooke to make this case: He was the best owner in the history of sports. Not pro football, all of sports.
In 1960, Cooke purchased 25% interest in theWashington Redskins of theNational Football League (NFL) for $300,000.[14] He purchased majority interest in the team from team presidentEdward Bennett Williams in 1974, replaced him as controlling owner in 1979, and became sole owner in 1985.[14][15] As owner of the Redskins, the team won threeSuper Bowls under head coachJoe Gibbs (in1982,1987, and1991), the franchise's first championships since the 1940s. Cooke oversaw the construction of Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, now known asNorthwest Stadium, which opened inLandover, Maryland, following his death in 1997. In his will, he left the team and stadium to his foundation with instructions to sell. Cooke's son and team president John Kent Cooke managed the team before selling it toDaniel Snyder in 1999 for $800 million.[16]
In September 1965, Cooke purchased theLos Angeles Lakers fromBob Short for $5 million. Under Cooke's ownership the Lakers moved from theLos Angeles Memorial Sports Arena toThe Forum and changed their colors from Royal and Light Blue to the current Purple (which he referred to as "Forum Blue") and Gold. Under Cooke's ownership, the Lakers reached seven NBA Finals and won the1972 NBA championship.
As a Canadian, Cooke particularly enjoyedice hockey, and he was determined to bring theNational Hockey League (NHL) to Los Angeles. In 1966, the NHL announced it intended to sell six new franchises, and Cooke prepared a bid. TheLos Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission, which operated the Sports Arena, supported a competing bid headed byLos Angeles Rams ownerDan Reeves and advised Cooke that if he won the franchise he would not be allowed to use that facility. In response, Cooke threatened to build a new arena in the Los Angeles suburb ofInglewood. Nearly 30 years later Cooke told theLos Angeles Times sportswriter Steve Springer that he recalled "one official representing the commission laughing at him" (Springer's words) when Cooke warned he would build in Inglewood. Cooke won the franchise, and paid $2 million for the new Los Angeles NHL club, which he called the "Kings." Springer: "Cooke went to Inglewood and built theForum. Good-bye, Lakers. Good-bye, Kings."[17] The Kings played their first game on October 14, 1967—at the Long Beach Arena while construction was being completed at Cooke's new arena.
Cooke claimed The Forum would be "the most beautiful arena in the world." It opened December 30, 1967, to rave reviews. Cooke was soon calling it "The Fabulous Forum." However, the Kings struggled both on the ice and at the gate. Cooke had been told that there were more than 300,000 former Canadians living within a three-hour drive of Los Angeles and remarked, "Now I know why they left Canada: They hate hockey!"
In May 1979, Cooke sold the Forum, the Kings, and the Lakers toJerry Buss for a then-record $67.5 million (equivalent to $292 million in 2024); half of the payment was in cash and half was in real estate, with part of Buss's payment including theChrysler Building.[18][19]
In 1967, Cooke was a founder of theUnited Soccer Association and owned theLos Angeles Wolves team, which became a charterNASL team the following year.
In 1971, Cooke was a financial backer of the firstMuhammad Ali vsJoe Frazier boxing match, held atMadison Square Garden and won by Frazier.[20]
A lover of horses and a fan ofThoroughbredhorse racing, Cooke owned Kent Farms, a 640-acre (2.6 km2) estate inMiddleburg, Virginia, not far from Washington, D.C. In December 1984 he purchased the historicElmendorf Farm inLexington, Kentucky from the estate of Maxwell Gluck. He bred and raced a number of successful horses, notably Flying Continental, sired byFlying Paster, whose wins included the 1990Jockey Club Gold Cup.
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Cooke was married five times, however his last two marriages were to the same woman, Marlene Ramallo Chalmers. He was married to Chalmers at the time of his death.
Cooke's first marriage, his longest, lasted 45 years. He and 17-year-old[21] Barbara Jean Carnegie,[22] married in 1934, divorcing in 1979. In the legal action, Carnegie was awarded what was then the largest divorce settlement in history—$42 million (equivalent to $182 million in 2024). The "record divorce settlement precipitated his sale of the Lakers, the Kings and the Forum to Jerry Buss".[23] The presiding judge during thebench trial wasJoseph Wapner, who later became famous as the judge on television'sThe People's Court.[24] Cooke and Carnegie had two sons: John Kent Cooke and Ralph Kent Cooke. Ralph Kent Cooke's son, Jack Kent Cooke II, "died of alcoholic liver disease and a related heart condition", at 26, in January 1989.[25]
On October 31, 1980, Cooke married Jeanne Maxwell Williams, a sculptor from Las Vegas.[26][27][24] The marriage lasted 10 months.[1] It ended with a $1 million (equivalent to $3 million in 2024) divorce settlement.[26]
Cooke's third marriage on July 24, 1987, to Suzanne Elizabeth Martin, a college dropout aged 31 at the time and 43 years his junior, was even shorter at 73 days.[28] Cooke agreed to marry Martin if she signed aprenuptial agreement and aborted the first-trimester fetus she was carrying (as a result of having skipped taking one or two birth control pills). It would have been her third abortion in two years.[29] After their wedding, Martin told Cooke she had changed her mind, deciding to keep the baby, and she and Cooke separated four weeks later.[29] After they divorced, Martin gave birth to a girl who was named Jacqueline Kent Cooke. In her divorce action, where her lawyers used the child as a "wedge", Martin sought $15 million (equivalent to $42 million in 2024) from Cooke, plus $18,000 ($50,000 in current dollar terms) a month in alimony and child support.[29][30] InFauquier County Circuit Court, a judge rejected Martin's request that he ignore the prenuptial agreement, and improve her financial settlement in which she received a $75,000 ($208,000 in current dollar terms) annual stipend, aJaguar, and the use for five years of an apartment in the Watergate complex.[29] Cooke's lawyerMilton Gould said: "This is a conspiracy to try to use a little kid as a means of getting money. Well, we're not going to abandon this child. She will get money but the woman doesn't deserve any...there have been few courtesans in the history of the world who have been as well rewarded as this one."[29]
Cooke married his fourth wife, Marlene Ramallo Chalmers on May 5, 1990. They were divorced in late 1993 after she made headlines in September by driving drunk in theGeorgetown section of Washington, D.C., with a man holding onto the hood and pounding on the windshield of her car.[31] They remarried in 1995 and remained together until his death.
Cooke died ofcongestive heart failure on April 6, 1997, atGeorge Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C.[32] A memorial service was held at Trinity Episcopal Church inUpperville, Virginia, on April 10 and was attended by more than 400 Washington and sports dignitaries.[33]
His will received considerable public attention.[34] His will gave his daughter Jacqueline atrust fund of $5 million (equivalent to $10 million in 2024) but nothing to her mother, Suzanne Elizabeth Martin, "because of her misconduct and behavior which were calculated to harm me".[28] His final wife, Marlene Ramallo Chalmers, was also cut out of his will;[35] she filed a lawsuit against Cooke's estate and reportedly received $20 million in a settlement about a year after Cooke's death.[36]
"The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is dedicated to advancing the education of exceptionally promising students who have financial need."
The bulk of Cooke's $825 million estate went into establishing theJack Kent Cooke Foundation, whose stated mission was to "help young people of exceptional promise reach their full potential through education."[38][26] The scholarship program available to high-achieving high school seniors with financial need who seek to attend and graduate from the nation's best four-year colleges and universities.[39] Cooke, anautodidact who didn't have the opportunity to get a college education due to theGreat Depression, was a longtime supporter of theUNCF.[40] He was described as a lover of the written word, and his commitment explicitly sought to "support the dreams of the next generation of big thinkers that came from challenging backgrounds, regardless of race, creed, color, gender, or national origin."[41]
In February 2007, his daughter Jacqueline filed a $275 million lawsuit against the estate, seeking more money than her $5 million trust fund.[42][43] Jacqueline Kent Cooke died on October 18, 2024, at the age of 36.[44]
... Consolidated Frybrook Industries, Ltd. Jack Kent Cooke, head of consolidated, is understood to be throwing the weight of the parent company behind Strand in ...
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