# Pro-Athletes who came from rich/well off backgrounds **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 29, 2015, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469 "2015-07-29T13:34:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![moldmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@moldmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moldmonkey)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/21 "2015-07-29T17:47:57Z")
Peyton and Eli Mannings father, Archie, was an NFL quarterback. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/22 "2015-07-29T17:53:48Z")
> [@moldmonkey](#): > > Peyton and Eli Mannings father, Archie, was an NFL quarterback. Excluded in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/23 "2015-07-29T18:38:53Z")
Not a great athlete, but a good one: Rohan Marley, one of many sons of the king of reggae, played linebacker for the U. of Miami and the Ottawa Roughriders. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/24 "2015-07-29T19:25:44Z")
Mike Comrie was a pro hockey player. His family owns a chain of furniture stores that do pretty well. He then married Hillary Duff. ---
**Author:** ![moldmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@moldmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moldmonkey)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/25 "2015-07-29T19:39:03Z")
Doh! My bad! ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/26 "2015-07-29T19:50:25Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Brazilian footballer Kaka;s father was a civil engineer and therefore fairly well off. Don’t know many civil engineers, huh? ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/27 "2015-07-29T20:45:15Z")
Former MLB pitcher Barry Zito’s father, Joe, was an established composer, working with Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington and several others. Zito’s mother, Roberta, was a professional singer. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/28 "2015-07-29T20:48:53Z")
He’s an early 20th century figure, but **George S. Patton** , an Olympic Pentathlete who would go on to some modicum of military fame, grew up on a 2,000 acre plantation in Virginia. ---
**Author:** ![brickbacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@brickbacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickbacon)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/29 "2015-07-30T00:29:28Z")
Contrary to popular belief, most professional athletes didn’t grow up poor. In fact, some [studies](http://www.blackenterprise.com/lifestyle/nba-players-less-likely-come-poor-backgrounds-study/) say being poor is a hindrance to becoming a pro. More germane to the OP, lots of athletes grew up rich. Aside from those mentioned, you have people like Oscar Pistorius, Ernests Gulbis, and many others often in sports like golf, tennis, and swimming that require some resources. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/30 "2015-07-30T01:25:21Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > Contrary to popular belief, most professional athletes didn’t grow up poor. In fact, some [studies](http://www.blackenterprise.com/lifestyle/nba-players-less-likely-come-poor-backgrounds-study/) say being poor is a hindrance to becoming a pro. More germane to the OP, lots of athletes grew up rich. Aside from those mentioned, you have people like Oscar Pistorius, Ernests Gulbis, and many others often in sports like golf, tennis, and swimming that require some resources. I’m not questioning that this is true now, but it was not nearly as true in the past, even allowing for different definitions of poor now vice then. And I would bet it’s still less the case in sports like boxing and football that take more of a toll than swimming, golf and tennis. Pro golfer [Johnny\_Miller](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki) answered an interview question about how he handled sudden money by saying that he’d always been “pretty well taken care of”. Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Palmer was adopted by a NYC executive. Mark MacGwire’s father was a dentist. ---
**Author:** ![brickbacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@brickbacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickbacon)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/31 "2015-07-30T12:16:27Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > I’m not questioning that this is true now, but it was not nearly as true in the past, even allowing for different definitions of poor now vice then. And I would bet it’s still less the case in sports like boxing and football that take more of a toll than swimming, golf and tennis. > > Pro golfer [Johnny\_Miller](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki) answered an interview question about how he handled sudden money by saying that he’d always been “pretty well taken care of”. > > Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Palmer was adopted by a NYC executive. Mark MacGwire’s father was a dentist. I would imagine you are correct about the past, but I would bet the population of most mature sports where there is lucrative compensation will be skew towards those with money and stability growing up. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/32 "2015-07-30T12:56:31Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > In Formula 1 in the past there were some drivers from wealthy families such as Nikki Lauda (Austrian banking), Peter Revson (Revlon cosmetics) and B Bira (royal family of Thailand, his paternal grandfather was King Mongkut of Anna and the King of Siam/The King and I fame). It is a question on how much family connections helped them at the top level. Niki is somewhat unique in his back story in that he was disowned by his father when he refused to give up his racing career (in its early days) and go into the family business. Lauda self-funded his early F1 career by taking out life insurance policies on himself. He was able to prove his talent before the money ran out and started to get paid to drive instead of paying to drive. No doubt he probably would not been able to get his racing career going in the same way if he was just Niki Schmidt from a regular middle-class Viennese family, even with his obvious natural talent. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/33 "2015-07-30T12:58:32Z")
Charlotte Hornets Basketball Player Tyler Hansbrough’s father is an Orthopedic Surgeon. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/34 "2015-07-30T13:09:00Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > Lauda self-funded his early F1 career by taking out life insurance policies on himself. How does that work? You buy a policy, crash and die, and cash in to fund your next race? ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/35 "2015-07-30T18:17:19Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > How does that work? You buy a policy, crash and die, and cash in to fund your next race? More accurately, he took out a bank loan (probably not from the family Lauda Bank) and the collateral was a life insurance policy. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/36 "2015-07-31T00:02:17Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > Paul Menard’s entire racing career, from Trans Am and through the various levels of NASCAR, have all been financed through his father, John Menard. Menard owned cars in the CART and IRL series for years before directing his efforts towards his son’s racing career. Menard owns a successful home improvement chain of stores in the midwest. > > On a lesser note, there have been other race car drivers whose success was because of their name and the doors that it opened. Al Unser Jr., Kyle Petty, Dale Jarret, and probably the most famous of these, Dale Earnhardt Jr. There are many others. If it wasn’t for their fathers, some of these may never have had a chance to succeed in motor sports. Tim Richmond’s parents were very wealthy as well, his father providing him his first few rides. His mother noted that on his 16th birthday they bought him a Trans Am, a speedboat, and an airplane. ---
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/37 "2015-07-31T08:18:10Z")
Formula One racing in the 50s and 60s was more often than not, back in the day, populated by not only rich people, but even Barons and Counts, and considered a deadly hobby of the rich (though, of course, not the case with a lot of less well-off drivers). Today in 2015, like the Paul Menard case, there are a lot of “ride buyers” who either have the money or with rich backers who can pay for the cars and the training to get on the road. This is why sponsorships are so important in motorsports. Its not like basketball where you can buy a ball for a few bucks and walk onto a court in the inner city and skill up. Race cars costs hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars. Pro wrestler Ric Flair’s adopted father was a pretty well off doctor when he was growing up, and he was decent at real sports before becoming a wrestler. He even did promos when feuding with “son of a plumber” Dusty Rhodes in the 80s where be bragged, partial shoot, that he was “Born with a silver spoon” in his mouth. Not a pro but if you want someone to root for to become one, Snoop-Dog’s son Cordell Broadus signed as a football player with UCLA. ---
**Author:** ![piepiepie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@piepiepie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/piepiepie)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/38 "2015-07-31T11:02:59Z")
I’m sure a good bit of tennis players could apply. Roger Federer’s parents worked for a pharmaceutical company where they met. Ernests Gulbis is pretty much only known for his family’s immense wealth these days. Eugenie Bouchard’s dad is an investment banker who made a questionable business deal based on her future earnings (the court said no to that as Genie was a child when the deal was made and couldn’t consent to giving up 10% of her future earnings). ---
**Author:** ![jsquire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@jsquire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsquire)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/39 "2015-08-02T15:35:15Z")
My particular area of expertise is international track and field. The amateur code was in force until about 1982, and T&F was a pretty popular sport through the early 60s, so a lot of athletes did get surreptitiously paid. If you ticked off the wrong people in sports administration you could get outed and have your career ended since they often organized the track meets that paid the stars–but of course, only the athletes who accepted payment were held responsible for breaking the rules, not the officials who paid them. Jesse Owens was the most famous to get screwed over this way. Anyway, the highest-acheiving international athlete from a truly wealthy background was David Burghley, the 1928 Olympic 400 meter hurdle champion. He was the 6th Marquess of Exeter and descended from William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, who was the chief advisor to Elizabeth I for most of her reign. He went on to be the chairman of the organizing committee for the 1948 Olympics, the president of the IAAF (the international governing body for track & field) and an IOC VP. He was portrayed as “Lord Lindsay” in _Chariots of Fire_. Burghley House still stands and is now open to the public and it makes Downton Abbey look tiny in comparison. Whether or not his family was still flush when he was growing up, it’s doubtless than Burghley was raised in the kind of lifestyle that few of us can comprehend. Among current athletes, the one that springs to mind is Mary Cain. She set world age-group records in the middle distances two years ago and skipped collegiate competition to sign a contract with Nike. Her father is a anesthesiologist and they are generally paid quite well. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469/40 "2015-08-02T16:02:32Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Thanks for the heads up on Pique, Guy was born into money, made even more and married much more and she incidentally was Shakira. Oh and he has won a WC, a Euro, a fuckton of titles at Barca and Manchester United. Fuck him.😃 > > (His moms last name is “Bernabeu” right? Wonder how that goes down duing El Clasico). 😉 Shakira and Piqué are still unpapered, actually. The Bernabéu comes from the grandfather who used to be a directive of Barça (and who was still working for the club at least four years ago), all the jokes already got written way back then. For some reason there are a lot of Barça fans who hate Piqué’s guts; watching them try to rationalize it can be a very twisted kind of funny. I still haven’t heard a single reason that made sense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-athletes-who-came-from-rich-well-off-backgrounds/726469.md?page=3)