Peter Ueberroth | |
|---|---|
 Ueberroth in 1985 | |
| President of theUnited States Olympic Committee | |
| In office 2004–2008 | |
| Preceded by | Marty Mankamyer William C. Martin (Interim) |
| Succeeded by | Larry Probst |
| 6th Commissioner of Baseball | |
| In office October 1, 1984 – April 1, 1989 | |
| Preceded by | Bowie Kuhn |
| Succeeded by | Bart Giamatti |
| President of the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games | |
| 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 – September 27, 1984 | |
| Preceded by | Committee established |
| Succeeded by | Position dissolved |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Peter Victor Ueberroth (1937-09-02)September 2, 1937 (age 88) Evanston, Illinois, U.S. |
| Alma mater | San Jose State University |
Peter Victor Ueberroth (/ˈjuːbərɒθ/; born September 2, 1937) is an American sports andbusiness executive known for his involvement in theOlympics and inMajor League Baseball. A Los Angeles–based businessman, he was the chairman of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee which brought the games to Los Angeles in 1984. Ueberroth was named 1984'sTime Man of the Year for his success in organizing the Olympic Games, and was also namedThe Sporting News Sportsman of the Year.[1]
After the conclusion of the games, he was named as the sixthcommissioner of baseball, a role he held from 1984 to 1989. He later served as the chairman of theUnited States Olympic & Paralympic Committee from 2004 to 2008.[2]
Ueberroth was born inEvanston, Illinois, the son of Laura (Larson) and Victor Ueberroth.[3] His father was of German and Austrian descent, and his mother was of Swedish and Irish ancestry. He caddied atSunset Ridge Country Club, in Northfield, Illinois. He grew up inNorthern California. While attendingFremont High School, Ueberroth excelled infootball, baseball, and swimming. After graduating from high school, Ueberroth attendedSan Jose State University on anathletic scholarship.[4][5] While attending San Jose State he joinedDelta Upsilon. He competed in the 1956 United StatesOlympic water polo trials but failed to make the team. Ueberroth ultimately graduated from San Jose State in 1959 with a degree in business.
After college, Ueberroth became a vice president and shareholder inTrans International Airlines (he was 22 years old at the time), then owned by future billionaireKirk Kerkorian. 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.
After Los Angeles was awarded the1984 Summer Olympics in 1978, management consulting firmKorn Ferry was tasked with finding a president for the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee. Ueberroth was one of over 200 people approached for the role; other prominent candidates includedCurt Gowdy,Alexander Haig,Lee Iacocca, andPete Rozelle. Ueberroth later wrote that he was initially reluctant to apply for the job, but eventually agreed to meet with LAOOC board members one-on-one. In the first of these meetings, he wrote,Justin Dart declared that he did not want to meet any other candidates. Ueberroth's primary competitor for the position was Edwin Steidle, the chairman ofMay Company California. When the LAOOC board put the matter to a final vote on March 26, 1979, a two-week delay was requested to allow Steidle to negotiate the terms of his exit from May. With 17 of the 22 members present, the board voted 9–8 to deny the request, effectively making Ueberroth the only candidate.Rafer Johnson, who later lit the cauldron at the opening ceremony, was reportedly the deciding vote. Ueberroth was then chosen unanimously.[6]: 25–35 [7][8]
Ueberroth remained in the role for the next five years, serving until after the Olympics were over.[6]: 372 At the LAOOC's peak, Ueberroth and his second-in-commandHarry Usher were responsible for managing 70,000 employees and volunteers.[7] Ueberroth received theOlympic Order in gold from theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC). Due to the success of the games, he was namedTime magazine'sMan of the Year in 1984. Organizing the first privately financed Olympic Games in history, Ueberroth and Usher were credited with successfully keeping operational costs low while attracting over $600 million in sponsorship and broadcasting revenues.[9] This resulted in a surplus of nearly $250 million, which was subsequently used to support youth and sports activities throughout the United States.[10] The privately run Olympics became the model for future Games, and Ueberroth's 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 theUnited 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. Coincidentally, he was born on the day on which the founder of the modernOlympic Games, BaronPierre de Coubertin, died.
Ueberroth was elected to succeedBowie 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.[11] 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 tostrike the postseason. Ueberroth managed to arbitrate the disagreement and had the umpires back to work before theLeague 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 thePlayers Association.
During the course of his stint as commissioner, Ueberroth reinstated twoHall of Famers,Willie Mays andMickey Mantle, who had been banned from working for Major League Baseball by Kuhn because of their associations with gambling casinos. Also, Ueberrothsuspended numerous players because ofcocaine use, negotiated a $1.8 billiontelevision contract withCBS,[12][13] and initiated the investigation againstPete Rose'sbetting habits. In 1985, Ueberroth's first full year in office, theLeague Championship Series expanded from a best-of-five series to a best-of-seven series. At his urging, theChicago Cubs chose to install lights atWrigley Field rather than reimburse the leagues for lost night-game revenue. Ueberroth then found a new source of income in the form of persuading large corporations to pay for the privilege of having their products endorsed by MLB.
However, Ueberroth, with the assistance of the owners, also facilitatedcollusion between the owners in violation of the league's collective bargaining agreement with the players. Players entering free agency in the 1985, 1986 and 1987 offseasons were, with few exceptions, prevented from both signing equitable contracts and joining the teams of their choice during this period. The roots of the collusion lay in Ueberroth's first owners' meeting as commissioner, when he called the owners "damned dumb" for being willing to lose money in order to win a World Series. Later, he told the general managers that it was "not smart" to sign long-term contracts.[14] FormerMajor League Baseball Players Association presidentMarvin Miller later described this as "tantamount to fixing, not just games, but entire pennant races, including all post-season series."[15] The MLBPA, under Miller's successor,Donald Fehr, filedcollusion charges and won each case, resulting in "second look" free agents, and over $280 million in fines.[16]Fay Vincent, who followed A. Bartlett Giamatti as the 8th commissioner, laid the crippling labor problems of the early 1990s (including the1994–95 strike) directly at the feet of Ueberroth and the owners' collusion, holding that the collusion years constituted theft from the players.[17]
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. In1987, for example, baseball as an industry showed a net profit of $21.3 million, its first profitable year since1973."[18]
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 the1989 regular season; his contract was to have run through the end of the season. He was succeeded byNational League presidentBart Giamatti.[18]
Ueberroth was a corporate director ofThe Coca-Cola Company from 1986 until his retirement in 2015.[19] Ueberroth is an investor and chairman of the Contrarian Group, Inc., a business management company, and has held this position since 1989. He is also co-chairman ofPebble Beach Company. He is a director ofHilton Hotels Corp. and previously served as director ofAdecco S.A. from 2004 to 2008. He has served as Chairman of the Board ofAircastle since 2012 and been on the board since 2006.[20]
In 1989, Ueberroth considered purchasingEastern Air Lines, then crippled by a strike andbankruptcy fromTexas Air. However, a management dispute with Texas Air CEOFrank Lorenzo led to the deal falling through.[21]
In 1990, Ueberroth bought controlling interest ofHawaiian Airlines with his brother John and business partner J. Thomas Talbot.[22]
Three years after leaving office, he led theRebuild Los Angeles project after the1992 Los Angeles riots.[23]
During the1992 United States presidential election, independent candidateRoss Perot "liked him the best" out of a list of potential running mates. However, while Ueberroth was interested, the campaign staff felt he was too unknown in politics to be the vice-presidential nominee.[24]
In 1999, Ueberroth, along withArnold Palmer andClint Eastwood, bought thePebble Beachgolf course.
Ueberroth ran forGovernor of California in the2003 California recall election as an independent, though he was a registeredRepublican. His campaign focused on California's economic and budget crisis, avoiding social issues. With polls indicating only a low level of support, he pulled out of the race on September 9, 2003, though his name still appeared on the ballot and received a small but significant number of votes. He placedsixth in a field of 135 candidates.
Ueberroth was chairman ofAmbassadors International but was replaced by his son, Joseph Ueberroth in April 2006. Ueberroth resigned from the board in November 2008.
Ueberroth was also the chairman of theUnited States Olympic Committee Board of Directors from 2004 to 2008.
Ueberroth was inducted into theUSA Water Polo Hall of Fame in 2010.[25][26]
Ueberroth is a LifeTrustee of theUniversity of Southern California.[27]
Ueberroth and his wife, Ginny, were two of the founders ofSage Hill School. He additionally served briefly on the school's Athletic Advisory Council.[28]
Ueberroth is a board member for theLott IMPACT Trophy, named afterPro Football Hall of FamerRonnie Lott, and is awarded annually to college football's Defensive IMPACT Player of the Year.[29]
Ueberroth married Virginia "Ginny" Nicolaus in 1959, and they have four children.[30]
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | President of Organizing Committee for Summer Olympic Games 1984 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Other | |
