The sports personality you choose must have made thier money in the sporting arena first. So for example, guys like Penski or Newman (Paul - for Newman & Haas Racing) are out. We are talking specifically about guys (or girls) who have made thier millions from sports (at least, thier first set of millions - what they did after that doesn’t really matter).
This could be like owning a racing team - it doesn’t have to be the racing driver himself. But thier interests should (at least towards the beginning of thier careers) lie purely in sports.
I would be particularly interested to know about sports personalities/athletes who weren’t really that good - but still made a hell of a lot of money anyway (in the time period they participated in the sport).
So in sum total, it could be the athletes, owners, managers, coaches etc.
I’d suggest Bernie Ecclestone, who was a run-of-the-mill racing driver, but through effectively taking control of Formula One has made an estimated £2bn.
I’d say Tiger Woods. He was smart enough to have his sponsers arranged (in violation of every NCAA rule) before he left college. Tiger commands more money in appearance fees (just to show up) than many pro golfers earn in their lifetime. Tiger has extraordinary talent, but IMG has done him well.
Connie Mack did well enough to buy a baseball team, though he was usually underfunded.
Ed Kranepool did well enough to nearly buy the Mets, though that was as part of a syndicate, so I don’t know how much he put in.
Roger Maris was a very successful beer distributor after his retirement. Of course, lots of players in his day and before used to run businesses in the off-season to make ends meet and more than a few probably were successes.
Yogi Berra. People have told jokes about his bad grammar, his allegedly low IQ, and his penchant for comically awkward phrases, but he always had a shrewd head for business, and unlike many of his contemporaries (in the Forties and Fifties, even superstars like Berra didn’t make that much money) , he parlayed his relatively meager salary into a fortune.
Footnote: his career didn’t amount to much, but Brian Bosworth was smart enough and lucky enough to collect every penny on his overly generous contract with the Seahawks. As a result, he’s financially set, while many players with MUCH longer, more distinguished careers are not.
If you had been looking for the sports figure with the least amount of financial acumen, it would definitely be a boxer. Probably Mike Tyson would win. Joe Louis would be up there, but at least he would get the sympathetic vote.
George Foreman is no financial genius, but his avuncluar personality and his grill deal and other advertising deals have made him a near gazillionaire, and far, far wealthier than any other boxer I can think of.
My wife and I were just talking about how Magic has done so much outside the confines of his NBA career.
I give another vote to John Madden. Despite his idiotic rants., he has his his name on one of the biggest video franchises of all time. Notice I didn’t say biggest sports game because last years John Madden sold better than any other console game last year.