John W. Mecom Jr. (born 1940) is the chairman of the John W. Mecom company and former owner of the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. Since 1975, the team ...

NFL football team.

Early life

Mecom is the son of

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

oilman John W. Mecom Sr. and his wife Mary Elizabeth. He was a student at the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...

. He is the owner and chairman of the John W. Mecom company, which was started by his father. The company is primarily involved in real estate and the oil and gas industry. John, Jr. followed with his own achievements in the oil and gas industry, and in various real estate ventures. He also branched out into professional sports with a special interest in motorsport and football. In the early 1960s he formed his own racing team, Mecom Racing that successfully competed throughout the U.S. and had such drivers as

Roger Penske Roger Searle Penske (born February 20, 1937), also known as "the Captain", is an American auto racing team owner, businessman, and former professional driver. Penske is the owner of Team Penske, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar, and ...

, Pedro Rodriguez, AJ Foyt and

Jackie Stewart Sir John Young "Jackie" Stewart (born 11 June 1939) is a British former racing driver, sports broadcasting, broadcaster and motorsport executive from Scotland, who competed in Formula One from to . Nicknamed "the Flying Scottish people, Scot" ...

. Graham Hill raced his car to victory at the

1966 Indianapolis 500 The 50th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Monday, May 30, 1966. The official program cover for the race celebrated both the 50th running of the race, and 150th anniversary of ...

Sports ownership

On November 1, 1966, the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

awarded a team to the city of

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, as spearheaded by businessmen such as David Dixon and politicians such as Congressmen Hale Boggs and Governor John McKeithen, which would play in the 1967 season. William G. Helis Jr., Herman Lay, Louis J. Roussel Jr., Jack Sanders, Edgar B. Stern Jr., and John W. Mecom Jr. were the six bidders for the franchise. On December 15, 1966, Mecom was the winning bid, purchasing the team for $8.5 million from the NFL and became the youngest owner of an NFL franchise. Soon christened as the

, Mecom spearheaded the black and gold color scheme that the Saints would wear (Dixon had pushed for Mardi Gras colors), which came after testing at Tulane Stadium, the first home of the Saints until the Superdome was built, which did not end up being completed until 1975. In eighteen seasons as owner, the Saints went 78–176–5, with only 1979 and 1983 seeing the team win more than seven games. Owing to his inexperience, Mecom attempted to remedy the team's perpetual troubles with the advice from anyone he could ask, such as the league or the media, which only made things worse. The 1980 team lost fourteen games to start the year, and fans started to wear paper bags over their heads with "Aints" on it before one idea to respond to the team "laying an egg" saw the team building and Mecom's apartment bombarded with eggs for a week. In late 1984, he announced that the team was up for sale. Mecom stated that talks about potentially leaving New Orleans only happened when state Governor Edwin Edwards did not want to negotiate a new lease with the team. Cities included in the rumor mill were

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

and

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

. Jacksonville made an offer to buy 49% for over $110 million, but Mecom did not wish to be the man known for moving the Saints out of New Orleans.

Abram Nicholas Pritzker Abram Nicholas Pritzker (January 6, 1896 – February 8, 1986) was an American businessman and attorney, and a member of the Pritzker family. Early life and education Abram was the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, Annie P. (née Cohn) and N ...

was considered as a potential buyer but attempts to bring in a partner in George Gillette Jr (who had tried to buy the team with Potter Palmer in 1973 with bitter results) led to the talks breaking off. On May 31, 1985, he sold the team for $64 million to New Orleans-native businessman Tom Benson (as encouraged by Edwards). Mecom dealt with a bout of cancer in 2007 that lasted a number of years while living in Houston. When interviewed for the Saints Super Bowl run over 20 years since his sale of the team (where Mecom attended the NFC Championship Game in the Superdome), Mecom expressed that ownership "wasn't a place for a romantic" while saying he had fun and learned life lessons as owner.https://www.chron.com/sports/texans/article/Houstonian-still-a-fan-years-after-selling-Saints-1708417.php

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mecom, John W. 1940 births 20th-century American businesspeople Living people American businesspeople in the oil industry Businesspeople from Houston University of Oklahoma alumni New Orleans Saints owners