SAD NEWS: Detroit Lion’s owner, Sheila Ford Hamp, is gone due to…
With good cause, the ownership of the Detroit Lions has been the subject of much dispute throughout the years.
The franchise was controlled by the well-known Ford family until 1963, when three new controlling owners assumed control.
The team enjoyed four NFL titles prior to the Ford family purchasing it, but ever since, it has been among the worst in all of professional sports in the US.
They are one of just four NFL teams who have never advanced to the Super Bowl, and they have only won three playoff games since 1957. They are also the only group that has participated in games nonstop.
But these days, things are getting better. The Lions, who had been without a playoff victory for an NFL-high 32 years, have moved to their second-ever NFC title game.
[Lions fans: Pick up a fresh book from the Free Press to reminisce about the amazing 2023 campaign!]
Below is further information about the sixty-year Ford family ownership of the Lions:
Who owns the Detroit Lions?
At Ford Motor Company, William Clay Ford held executive positions. He was the grandson of auto pioneer Henry Ford and was born to Eleanor Clay and Edsel Ford. Bill Ford invested in the 144-person syndicate that owned the team in 1956 and partied with the players after they won the 1957 NFL championship. He wasn’t officially employed by the Lions, though, until 1961, when he was named team president.
He paid $6 million for the club on November 22, 1963—one of the most infamous days in American history—the day President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Texas, according to the Free Press.
With over 23,000 shares cast in his favor, the 38-year-old Ford received over 94% of the total; at the time, his offer was the greatest made by a sports organization. The next day, this was covered by the Free Press.
The agreement ended a fifteen-year collective ownership period.
Two days later, the Lions lost 34-31 to the Minnesota Vikings after letting a 28-17 lead in the third quarter slip away.
Ford assumed control of the business on January 10, 1964. Since then, the team has only had 19 winning seasons—five since Ford passed away in March 2014 at the age of 88—as well as three playoff wins, two of which will take place in 2023. Although Ford was seen as a good man and a trustworthy leader, too often he trusted the wrong people to produce a long-term winner. From 1967 until 1989, he allowed general manager Russ Thomas to run the team with complete control, despite his mere three postseason appearances.
Bobby Ross, who led the Lions from 1997 to 2000, said of Ford, “He enabled you to perform your job, too, even if he was involved.”
Additionally, in 2001, after a brief run of success in the 1990s with running back Barry Sanders, Ford named TV analyst and former NFL player Matt Millen as club manager. Up until his firing three games into a 0-16 season in 2008, Millen led the Lions to an NFL-worst 31-84 season.
