Robert Orville Swados (February 27, 1919 – November 23, 2012) was an attorney and businessman from

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

, best known for his role as legal counsel for the US/Canadian

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

and as one of the founders of the

Buffalo Sabres The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Con ...

Personal life

Swados was married to poet and actress Sylvia Maisel, with whom he fathered two children, Lincoln and Elizabeth.

Career

Along with Seymour H. Knox III and Northrup R. Knox, he was a partner in Niagara Frontier Hockey, the original consortium that founded the

. The consortium (later joined by George Strawbridge) sold the team in 1996. Swados was an alumnus of the State University of New York at Buffalo and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

. He served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, fighting on the front lines in the European theatre. Swados was part of a group that attempted to form the Continental League, a baseball major league, in 1960, but failed before it started. In addition to his duties as the Sabres' vice chairman, he served as secretary to the NHL's Board of Governors and as the general counsel to the league. Outside hockey, he was a partner in the Cohen Swados law firm, which specialized in corporate, tax, and sports law before its disbanding in 2001. Swados served as the Chairman of the Sabres Hall of Fame. Swados' autobiography, ''Counsel in the Crease'', was published in 2005.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swados, Robert O. 1919 births 2012 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American Jews Buffalo Sabres owners Businesspeople from Buffalo, New York Baseball executives Harvard Law School alumni Jewish American military personnel Lawyers from Buffalo, New York United States Army personnel of World War II University at Buffalo alumni