J-Speaks: The Passing of an Iconic Business and Sports Team Owner in The "Big Easy"

The city of New Orleans, LA is known for many things. Parties, comradery, and enjoyment. They have also become known for football and now basketball, and at the center of the two sports franchises that call the “Big Easy” home was a self-made millionaire who took what he studied in college and became a very successful auto dealer and eventually a sports owner. This gentleman would also become legendary for his kindness and generosity to those in the city. Last week, the city, sports fans and all those associated with the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Football League (NFL) suddenly said goodbye to this great man. 

Last Thursday, New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans owner Tom Benson, who brought the Saints their only winning seasons and who was best known for a dance that would be dubbed the “Benson Boogie,” passed away. He was 90 years old and is survived by his wife of 14 years Gayle.  

Mr. Benson according to the Saints and Pelicans organizations had been hospitalized since Feb. 16 from flu symptoms. 

When the NBA took ownership of the then financially troubled New Orleans Hornets in late 2010, they spent over a year searching for a permanent owner, when Mr. Benson stepped in and purchased the ball club for $338 million. That investment wound up being a good one as the team as their value exceeding $1 billion, and right now is having its best season in a long time and is on the verge of making their first postseason appearance since 2015. 

Mr. Benson then oversaw the team’s name change to Pelicans in honor of the Louisiana state bird, that he once saw the resilience of one Pelican who fought through some oil that was spill on their person and it just refused to die. That moment is what gave him the precise new nickname for the basketball franchise he purchased six seasons back.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said before last weekend that he would remember Mr. Benson as big-hearted and gracious, and really had high praise for not only how he ran the now Pelicans organization, but for hosting two All-Star weekends in the “Big Easy,” with the second after it was moved from Charlotte, NC in the wake of state legislation the NBA deemed discriminatory. 

“The NBA family mourns the loss of New Orleans Pelicans owner Tom Benson,” Silver said in a statement. “Big-hearted and gracious, Tom topped off a distinguished business and sports career by acquiring the Pelicans in 2012. During his tenure, he hosted two highly-successful All-Star Games, rebranded the franchise and installed a first-class organization. He was a dear friend to me and so many others in the sports world, and the loss of his authentic and unique presence will leave an enormous void. We send our heartfelt condolences to Gayle, their family, the Pelicans and Saints, and his countless friends.” 

Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry before the team’s evening tilt at the San Antonio Spurs echoed those same sentiments about the passing of Mr. Benson to the media saying, “We lost a giant.” 

“I mean, the things that he’s done not just for the Pelicans and the Saints, but the state of Louisiana and just everything. The Hall of Fame. He’s a self-made man that had the biggest heart that you could ever imagine.”

In 1985, Mr. Benson purchased the Saints at a time where the football team was going to be sold to out-of-state interests and was on the verge of being moved to Jacksonville, FL. He purchased the team, paying $70 million for them, and Mr. Benson officially became owner on May 31, 1985. The franchise is now worth near $2 billion. 

Mr. Benson’s well-known business acumen was a big reason the Saints from a cellar dweller in the NFL, to a contender and in then champions on Feb. 7, 2009 when the team defeated the might Indianapolis Colts 31-17 to capture Super Bowl XLIV. 

Three years later, Mr. Benson’s ownership took a major hit from the 2012 bounty scandal, where Saints players earned improper, off-the-books cash bonuses for hits that hurt or sidelines. Head coach Sean Payton served an unprecedented one-year suspension, and the organization was fined $500,000-despite the fact that Mr. Benson gave the order to GM Mickey Loomis to put a conclusion to it when he got wind of it. 

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, reports surfaced that he did not want to bring the team back to New Orleans from San Antonio after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city 13 years ago. 

The Saints did stay, and with time and some winning, Mr. Benson recovered a great deal of his popularity with the fans of the city and the league. 

“Tom Benson’s contributions to New Orleans and the National Football League were legendary. He purchased a team that had never had a winning season; by the third year of his ownership, the Saints were in the playoffs,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “Tom kept the Saints together through the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, and his decision to bring the team back to New Orleans gave the entire region hope and confidence that they would recover.” 

“Benson also became a leading New Orleans philanthropist. He helped fund Tulane’s on-campus football stadium and the cancer treatment center at Ochsner Medical Center. The home of the NFL’s Hall of Fame game in Canton, OH, also was renamed For Benson after an $11 million gift, the largest in the hall’s history.”

While he possessed a passion for the game of football and its growth according to Pro Football Hall of Fame President David Baker, his business acumen was well respected by many in the NFL along with Commissioner Goodell. 

“A friend and ally,” is how Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones described Mr. Benson whose genius as a marketer and financial expertise played a huge role in the NFL’s Finance Committee. 

Jones also added about Mr. Benson, “He was astute, exceptionally smart and an accomplished sportsman, and business man.” 

“He pumped life and enthusiasm into a community and a franchise that had no winning seasons before he became involved.”

Mr. Benson, who was one of four kids born to Thomas Benson, Sr., and Carmen Benson in what was called the hardscrabble Seventh Ward of New Orleans. 

After serving in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS South Dakota, he studied business and accounting collegiately at Loyola University in New Orleans, earning his degree in 1948. 

To put into perspective how he beat the odds and earned that degree, Mr. Benson would walk to a street car and take it to go to class. 

His first job following college was at Cathey Chevrolet in New Orleans, where he was very successful salesman and bookkeeper, which led to him at age 29 being asked to come down to the “Alamo City” to take over a struggling car franchise in 1956 as a junior partner. 

Mr. Benson agreed, but on the condition that he could get an ownership steak if he turned the franchise around. 

He was granted a 25 percent interest in the dealership and six years later gained full ownership of what would be called Tom Benson Chevrolet. That led to Mr. Benson owning several automobile dealerships in the Greater New Orleans and San Antonio areas. Mr. Benson really became wealthy through investment profits from his automobile dealerships in local banks, which led him to purchasing several small Southern banks that led to the formation of Benson Financial, that was solid to Norwest Corporation in 1996. 

Mr. Benson’s passion later in his life was the Saints and eventually the Pelicans. He kept an office near the team’s training facility and frequently was seen at training camp in a gold cart watching the team practice. 

He became well known for a dance he would perform after Saints home victories at the now Mercedes-Benz Superdome the “Benson Boogie,” where he would second line dance down the football field of the arena in the closing moments of the contest with an umbrella decorated in the colors of black and gold. 

In 2001, Mr. Benson negotiated what was an unprecedented $187 million deal in concessions and state subsidies to keep his team playing in the Superdome through 2010. He called the deal a necessity so that the organization could succeed in the small-market of New Orleans. 

This was followed by the unusual arraignment where the state of Louisiana concluded paying direct subsidies to Mr. Benson but committed to relocate many state offices in a high-rise next to the Superdome that sustained damage during Katrina. Those offices were rented for above market value, but only if Benson rehabilitated the building, which is now called Benson Tower. 

Before these last few years, many Saints fans questioned Mr. Benson’s desire for profits outweighed his loyalty to the city he grew up in, especially in the aftermath of Katrina, which left the Superdome in a serious wreck. The Saints being relocated to San Antonio. 

When officials spoke to Benson about what it would take to keep the Saints permanently in the “Alamo City,” many natives of New Orleans reacted with great anger. 

They expressed that anger through graffiti signs on numerous disregarded refrigerators that lined the sidewalks around the city that said, “Warning, Tom Benson inside.” 

Whether it was the league not allowing the team to move or that they felt compelled to return, the Saints came back to the city in early 2006 and the fans responded by selling out the building for Saints games for a decade. 

The team which became a source of inspiration in the rough early days of the post-Katrina rebuilding went from a record of 3-13 in 2005 to a 10-6 record in 2006 led by Coach Payton and future Hall of Famer Drew Brees, who signed with the team that off-season, and has been a fixture both on and off the gridiron ever since. They advanced to the NFC Championship Game for the first time ever, losing at the Chicago Bears. 

One year later, they as mentioned earlier advanced to the Super Bowl, capturing their first Vince Lombardi Trophy in franchise history in what would be known as “The Miracle in Miami.” 

Before Mrs. Gayle Benson, Mr. Benson’s first wife was the late former Shirley Landry, who he had three children that they adopted, Robert Carter, Renee, and Jeanne Marie. Renee had two adult children, Rita LeBlanc, who was Saints owner and executive vice president until Mr. Benson fired her, her brother Ryan, and her mother Renee, as well as wrote them out of his will. She and her mother and brother sued their uncle claiming that he was incompetent and for control of his companies.

Mr. Benson’s second wife, the former Grace Marie Trudeau passed away from Parkinson’s disease. In addition of his wife Gayle, who was approved by the NFL to be the new owner of the Saints, his previously mentioned estranged daughter and her two children, he is survived by the daughter of his late son Robert, Dawn Jones. 

Besides being a successful in the business world, and sports owner, Mr. Benson was just as well known for his generosity, kindness to not just other companies but people.

When he took over ownership of the Pelicans, he had his pick of who he could have wanted from the national sage to be the sideline reporter for the team, that has its games broadcasted locally on FOX Sports New Orleans, and he chose a lady from the West Bank of Louisiana in Jennifer Hale, who said during Pelicans Pregame Live, presented by Toyota that Thursday, “I owe a huge part of my career to him. I’m forever grateful for that.” 

Pregame studio host Erin Hartigan seconded that by saying about Mr. Benson, “He made a lot of great decisions in his life, you were most definitely one of those.” 

Two other great choices he made for the team is the broadcast duo that commentates the games in play-by-play man Joel Meyers and former Hornet when the team was in New Orleans in color analyst David Wesley. 

Meyers during the pregame show said that he and the entire Pelicans organization was fortunate in how they all were “spoiled” to see the owner every day. 

“We were on campus all the time. So, we would see Mr. B. See him in the cafeteria,” he said. “A lot of people don’t understand how healthy the environment is on Airline Drive with the Pels, the Saints, fields, gyms and a middle school cafeteria basically. Almost a high school cafeteria where we all congregate midday.”  

As often as he was at the Superdome for Saints home games, he was also present at the Smoothie King Center for Pelicans home games, passionately rooting on his team. 

“We really are developing a fine, fine club,” he said about the Pelicans back in 2013, “and I promise you this. Your going to be very proud. Our city can be very proud. Our fans can be very proud” 

Perhaps Mr. Benson’s biggest assists came last season when Pelicans All-Star guard Jrue Holiday took an indefinite leave of absence from the team in Sept. 2016 to care for his wife, United States women’s soccer national team midfielder Lauren after she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. 

The two-time Olympic gold medalist and FIFA Women’s World Cup champion had brain surgery just weeks after giving to their first child, their daughter Jrue Tyler Holiday. 

Mr. Benson sent the entire team on his plane to spend some time with them. He also sent edible arrangements, flowers, and cards. 

“I guess the least we could do when we heard about Mr. Benson was to do the same,” Holiday said before the team’s tilt at the Spurs to Hale. “Called Mrs. Benson, talked to her, sent a couple of text messages periodically. They’ve done so much for my family, I felt like they’re really a part of it.” 

On that support he received a year ago from the owner, Holiday said to Hale, “It meant a lot. Just to know the organization had our back. At the time I took my leave of absence. Just for Mr. Benson to have that support for me and my family, to protect my family was a world of difference. It’s a blessing.” 

Last week the NBA and NFL lost one of the best owners to date. Both the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans lost their leader who created a family atmosphere where everyone felt like family from the players, to the coaches to the front office, and teams that will be contenders to be in the postseason for their respective leagues over the next few years with as mentioned future Hall of Famer Drew Brees and former No. 1 overall pick in All-Star Anthony Davis leading the Saints and Pelicans respectably. 

The cities of New Orleans, LA and San Antonio, TX lost a man who built his fortune through hard work and commitment, but always remembered where he came from and left a deep whole that may never be filled. 

“You know we’re really sad today. I’m really saddened, and I know I speak for everyone within the organization and our community,” Pelicans General Manager Dell Demps said to Hale. 

“He was a great man. A New Orleans legend. I will always remember his smile. His positive energy, his demeanor. He left a great mark on us and I want to remember all the good times.” 

Information and quotations are courtesy of 3/15/18 8 p.m. edition of “Pelicans Live,” presented by Toyota with Erin Hartigan, Nancy Lieberman, Jennifer Hale, Joel Meyers and David Wesley; 3/15/18 www.nba.com article, “New Orleans Pelicans, Saints Owner Tom Benson Dies at Age 90,” by Brett Martell of “The Associated Press;” 3/16/18 6 a.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” presented by Kia with Rick Kamla, Caron Butler and Kevin McHale, with commentary done by Jared Greenberg; www.espn.com/nba/standings;   https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Benson;  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_XLIV;  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jrue_Holiday#Personal_life; and https://wn.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_Holiday.