There have been just four major professional sports franchises in Baltimore history, with the Colts and Bullets pre-dating the current Orioles and Ravens.
The newest member in the fraternity of Baltimore sports owners is featured on the cover of this issue, as David Rubenstein became the fifth majority owner in Orioles history last year. We look back on the history of Baltimore sports leadership with “The 15 Baltimore Sports Owners.”
(List is chronological starting from when the person became a Baltimore sports owner.)
1. Jake Embry And Tom Tinsley
In 1944, these colleagues at WITH-AM purchased the ABL version of the Baltimore Bullets, which would eventually move to the BAA and ultimately merge into the NBA during a 10-year run as a franchise. According to The Baltimore Sun, they sold the team in 1949 because they couldn’t find a more appropriate building for the city’s first major professional team than the old Baltimore Coliseum. Their run included the 1948 BAA championship, the first major sports title in the city.
2. Robert Rodenburg And Abraham Watner
The ownership picture of the 1940s version of the Baltimore Colts that began in the AAFC is complicated. The Washington Post described Rodenburg as having “headed a syndicate” that purchased the defunct Miami Seahawks to begin play in 1947. (Embry was actually part of the syndicate!) Rodenburg acted as the team’s president for the first season before the team was taken over by the league because the investors had lost $250,000. Watner chose to sell the team and their player contracts to the league for $50,000 after they went 1-11 in 1950, their only season after merging into the NFL.
3. Carroll Rosenbloom
Rubenstein is not the first Baltimore sports owner to have graduated from City College. Rosenbloom was a Baltimore native who played football at Penn, where he was coached by future NFL commissioner Bert Bell. When the league was looking for a new home for the Dallas Texans in 1953, Rosenbloom was the choice to guide the franchise given his relationship with Bell and his success running his father’s Blue Ridge Overalls Company. The Colts won the 1958 and 1959 NFL championships and Super Bowl V during his ownership.
4. Clair Bee
Globe Brewing Company owned the original Bullets in 1953 but had no interest in continuing. The coach at the time was Bee, a future Naismith Hall of Famer because of his legendary career at LIU before he had to step away due to his players being involved in a point shaving scandal. When the brewery backed out, Bee gathered up enough money to purchase 50 percent of the club. But things were going so poorly that in the fall of 1954, Bee reportedly abandoned the team and went home to his farm. The franchise folded shortly thereafter.
5. Jerold Hoffberger
As president of National Brewing Company, Hoffberger wasn’t just the original owner of the Orioles — he was a vital part of their arrival. The Washington Senators protested a team being moved into nearby Baltimore, but Hoffberger eased those concerns by making Natty Boh a sponsor of the Senators. Hoffberger and Clarence Miles put together the initial group of investors to buy the St. Louis Browns for $2.5 million. After starting as part owner in 1954, he eventually became majority owner in 1965 and was at the helm for the team’s first two World Series titles in 1966 and 1970.
6. Dave Trager
Trager was the president of Associated Life Insurance and, starting in 1961, the owner of the NBA’s expansion Chicago Packers. But despite the large market, things didn’t work for the Packers (renamed the Zephyrs after one season) on or off the floor. In March 1963, Trager agreed to a five-year lease with the then-Baltimore Civic Center to move the young franchise to Baltimore and reignited the Bullets brand. His tenure as owner was short-lived.
7. Arnie Heft And Earl Foreman
The third member of the next ownership group of the Bullets is the most well-known. But a little more than a year after Trager moved the team, Heft and Foreman joined Abe Pollin in purchasing the Bullets in the fall of 1964. Heft was born in Baltimore and pitched in the minors (including a stint with the minor league version of the Orioles). Foreman was also a Baltimore native and after selling his share of the Bullets owned the ABA franchise that became the Virginia Squires.
8. Abe Pollin
Not only was the Washington sports icon part of the trio that bought the Bullets in 1964, he became the sole owner in 1969 and guided them to their first NBA Finals in 1971. But after just two more seasons, the Bullets left town. They moved to Landover as the Capital Bullets before ultimately adopting the Washington moniker. They returned to Baltimore for occasional home games into the 1990s. Pollin won his only championship as owner in 1978.
9. Robert Irsay
According to Sports Illustrated, Irsay was once described as “a devil on earth.” That quote was given to author E.M. Swift by … his own mother. The most despised figure in Baltimore sports history, Irsay began his tumultuous tenure as Colts owner in 1972 when he purchased the Los Angeles Rams and then historically swapped that franchise with Rosenbloom on the same day. He of course moved the team to Indianapolis in the middle of the night in 1984 after repeated denials that he would leave.
10. Edward Bennett Williams
The former owner of the Washington Redskins, Williams purchased the Orioles from Hoffberger for $12 million in 1979. The team won their third World Series in 1983, but his ownership was marred by fears he could look to move the franchise to D.C. after the Bullets and Colts had moved. Instead, Williams agreed to a long-term lease in Baltimore that paved the way for a new stadium to be built. He owned the team until his death in 1988.
11. Eli Jacobs
An attorney and businessman, Jacobs led the group (which included former president Larry Lucchino) that bought the Orioles from Williams’ estate for $70 million in 1988. He was owner as the team built and moved into Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 1992 but had to sell the team in 1993 due to bankruptcy.
12. Peter Angelos
A graduate of then-Patterson Park High School and the University of Baltimore, the successful attorney was considered a conquering local hero when he led the group that purchased the Orioles in 1993. He quickly became managing partner and principal owner and was very aggressive in his early years of ownership. But he never recovered in the public eye from a series of missteps that included firing manager Davey Johnson and popular broadcaster Jon Miller and then slashing payroll as the team’s success plummeted. The Orioles returned to relevance late in his tenure but public perception never changed. He died in 2024 just days before the sale of the team was finalized.
13. Art Modell
A pariah in Cleveland, Modell became a hero to our city when he brought the NFL back starting in the 1996 season. Frustrated with his stadium situation in Cleveland, Modell took advantage of Maryland’s attempts to land an expansion NFL team and agreed to move the Browns to Baltimore. In what proved to be great fortune for Baltimore, Modell negotiated a settlement that kept the Browns’ name, uniforms and history in Cleveland and the Ravens became a “new” franchise. They won Super Bowl XXXV, the first of Modell’s career as an owner.
14. Steve Bisciotti
The Severna Park High School and Salisbury University alum found business success after starting Aerotek when he was just 23 years old. In 2000, he purchased 49 percent of the Ravens from Modell with an option to purchase the rest in 2004, which he executed. As majority owner, Bisciotti led the Ravens to their second title in Super Bowl XLVII. His stewardship has led the franchise to the reputation as one of the more stable in pro sports.
15. David Rubenstein
As he said again in this issue, Rubenstein’s goal is to lead the Orioles to their next World Series title. Time will tell.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox
Issue 291: February / March 2025
Originally published Feb. 19, 2025