Lamar Hunt

He built a US sports empire from his oil inheritance but still flew economy class
Lamar Hunt, who has died aged 72 following complications relating to prostate cancer, was one of the key figures behind the development of 20th-century American sport. Born in El Dorado, Arkansas, he was the son of tycoon Harold Lafayette Hunt Jr: the family business was oil, but Lamar's passion was sport. Growing up in Dallas, Texas, he captained the football team in his senior year at prep school, earning the nickname "Games" because of his obsession with sport. As a geology major at Southern Methodist University, Texas, Hunt would continue with football and also play third base in the freshman baseball team.

While his ability was such that he could never make it in professional sport, his love of competition and a shrewd business brain made him the ideal sports entrepreneur. "I always thought that if I had any skills in business," he told the Dallas Morning News in 1992 "it was understanding how to sell tickets."

When, in 1959, he was rejected in his bid to establish his own National Football League (NFL) franchise in Dallas, he persuaded several other like-minded men to help launch the rival American Football League (AFL) the following year, with his own Dallas Texans in the eight team line-up. Despite Hunt's franchise moving to Kansas - to become the Kansas City Chiefs - the AFL prospered, not least because it offered a more modern, more attractive alternative to the staid NFL. Within six years, the new league was so popular that an agreement to merge the two operations was reached and gave birth to the championship game, the Super Bowl, a name Hunt coined after watching his daughter play with a red, white and blue "Super Ball".

By the mid-1960s, Hunt's attentions had also turned to what the rest of the world called football but America insisted on calling soccer. As a leading investor in the United Soccer Association, Hunt had sensed a latent interest for a game that the rest of the world had taken to its heart.

Along with key figures such as the North American Soccer League's Welsh-born commissioner and their English administrator Clive Toye, Hunt helped the NASL through its teething problems and, as owner of the Dallas Tornado franchise, played a prominent part in the league's expansion from five clubs in 1969 to 24 a decade later. He was also instrumental in Major League Soccer, the national competition that began in 1996 - some 11 years after the demise of the NASL - owning two franchises, the Kansas City Wizards and Columbus Crew. He also presided over the construction of the Columbus Crew Stadium, the first US stadium built specifically for soccer.

Hunt also moved into basketball, as a founding investor in the now legendary Chicago Bulls; in tennis, where he co-founded the World Championship Tennis circuit in 1967; and, more recently, in ice hockey where he helped obtain a franchise for Columbus, Ohio in the NHL. "These are not mere playthings with me," he once said of his sports clubs. "I like sports. I am the first to admit I have been bitten by the sports and showbusiness bug. I recognize their great value and appeal. But make no mistake about it. I enter these ventures to make a profit. I am a fan. I also am a businessman."

While Hunt never needed to make money of his own, he was nevertheless unassuming and unpretentious, traits he inherited from his father. His offices were small and functional and he could often be found flying economy class on internal flights in the US, as well as carrying his own luggage and arranging his own rental cars and travel arrangements.

Not all of his business ventures bore dividends. In 1969 his plan to purchase Alcatraz island and transform it into a tourist park with replicas of San Francisco's shops of the 1930s was scuppered by local opposition. And in late 1979 and early 1980, he invested in futures contracts for the delivery of 9m ounces of silver but, when news broke that his brothers Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt had accumulated 60m ounces themselves, the price of silver collapsed amid allegations that the Hunts had tried to corner the silver market.

For his part in establishing US soccer, he was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1982 and, in 1999, awarded its medal of honour. He would also feature in many other halls of fame, including those for tennis and pro football.

As Hunt lay dying in hospital, one of his grandchildren came to visit and asked whether they have a football team in heaven. " I know if there isn't," he added "Pappy will start one." Hunt is survived by his wife Norma, his children Lamar Jr, Sharron Munson, Clark and Daniel, and 13 grandchildren.

Richard Evans writes: Historically, amateur and professionals tennis players had been separated until the advent of Open Tennis in 1968, but the transition was fraught with jealousy and suspicion. When Lemar Hunt bought out a pro promoter called Dave Dixon in 1967 and established World Championship Tennis (WCT) he found himself in the thick of it.

Signing up stars such as John Newcombe, Tony Roche, Pierre Barthes and Roger Taylor, Hunt placed the running of a worldwide circuit in the hands of former British No 1 Mike Davies. The tour ended with a grand finale in Dallas where usherettes were dressed as cowgirls; the players wore coloured shirts (revolutionary at the time) and the winner received the staggering sum of $50,000. The first two finals produced two classics, with Ken Rosewall beating Rod Laver.

With some of Hunt's men bypassing traditional events such as the French Open, Wimbledon officials became alarmed. Inviting Hunt to the All England Club, the committee were surprised to find themselves confronted by the antithesis of what a Texas oil millionaire was supposed to look like. Short, bespectacled, dressed in blue suit and tie, with a soft smile and quiet voice - one searched in vain to find a trace of ostentation about Lamar. That did not prevent him receiving a hostile, impolite reception from officials who could not countenance someone challenging the supremacy of Wimbledon.

Their suspicions were ill-founded. Hunt loved the game far too much to want to destroy its traditions. What he wanted to do was modernise it; dress it up and present it to a new public. Far away from Wimbledon he succeeded in doing just that and game has been eternally grateful. WCT ran for 23 years, enriching players and spectators alike, but cost Hunt about $14m of his fortune. He became disillusioned with the politics of tennis in the end - but never with the game.

· Lamar Hunt, sports entrepreneur, born August 2 1934; died December 13 2006

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