Leon Hess; Oil Firm’s Former Chairman, N.Y. Jets Owner

Amerada Hess Corp.’s retired Chairman Leon Hess, the owner of the National Football League’s New York Jets, died Friday of complications from a blood disease, the team said. He was 85.

Hess died at New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital, where he had been admitted last month after breaking his hip, Jets spokesman Frank Ramos said.

“This is a terrible loss,” said Dave Jennings, a former punter for the team who is now one of its broadcasters. “He was such a private man, but he was so enthusiastic about his team.”

Hess, the largest individual shareholder of Amerada Hess with a stake of about 12%, got his start in the oil industry during the Great Depression by working for his father’s heating-oil business in Asbury Park, N.J. Hess delivered oil to customers in a Chevrolet truck that cost $24.60 and carried 615 gallons.

Shortly thereafter, he took over daily operations of Hess Oil from his father, a Lithuanian former butcher, and began building the company.

By 1938, Hess had 12 trucks and was able to build his first oil terminal at Perth Amboy, N.J. He eventually expanded into drilling, refining and exploration.

He went on to build one of the country’s largest integrated oil corporations. New York-based Amerada Hess is the 12th-largest U.S. oil company, with sales last year of $6.6 billion. The company has more than 630 Hess brand service stations, mainly in Florida, New Jersey and New York. It also explores for and produces oil and natural gas in the United States, Britain and the African nation of Gabon. Hess stepped down as chairman in 1995 and handed over the reins to his son, John.

Hess, a tall, lean, nattily dressed man, hated publicity and worked hard to stay out of the spotlight. It is believed that he gave just one extensive interview over the last four decades, to BusinessWeek magazine in 1987. Forbes magazine listed Hess’ net worth last year at $720 million.

But he gave away millions over the years to philanthropic endeavors.

“He always says, ‘You can have my money but not my time,’ Betty Iselin, a close friend of the Hess family, once told Newsday.

Preferring to stay at home with his family, Hess continually turned down invitations to social functions. “He doesn’t like idle chitchat,” Iselin said.

Hess’ career as a football owner began in 1963, when he was part of a five-man group that purchased an American Football League team called the New York Titans from Harry Wismer. The price was $1 million.

The team, whose name the owners changed that year, is easily worth 400 to 500 times that now.

Two years later the owners signed University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath. He led the Jets to victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III in 1969 in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the championship. Namath, in what was considered an astonishingly brash boast, had guaranteed a victory before the game.

Since 1984, the year Hess became the sole owner of the Jets and moved them out of New York City, the team has floundered. After winning the Super Bowl, the team went 11 seasons without a winning record. The Jets had a losing record in 29 of their 39 seasons.

A fastidious, sensitive man, Hess moved the Jets to the Meadowlands in New Jersey because he couldn’t get New York to clean up run-down Shea Stadium.

After a string of unsuccessful teams and inept coaches, Hess hired two-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Parcells away from the New England Patriots, saying he was tired of rebuilding and wanted to win another championship.

Parcells once said of Hess: “[He] is one of those guys where you don’t have to have it written down. He never said anything to me about job description.

“It’s just, ‘Tell me what you think we need to do, and let’s talk about how we are going to do it.’ He’s very thoughtful and supportive.”

Parcells’ team was 9-7 in 1997, an eight-game improvement over its 1-15 disaster in 1996. Last season, New York was 12-4, winning the American Football Conference East title. The Jets then won their first playoff game since 1986, beating the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC divisional playoffs, and advanced to their first AFC championship game since 1982.

They lost that game 23-10 to the Denver Broncos, who went on to win the Super Bowl.

“There’s a real parallel to the way Leon Hess runs the Amerada Hess company and how he manages the Jets,” Bernard Picchi, an oil industry analyst, once told Newsday. “He’s very paternalistic with his employees, much more so than other major oil companies. And he’s been a little slow to react to changes in the marketplace.

“But once he makes up his mind to do something, by God, he does it,” Picchi added.

Former Jets agreed.

“I always thought of him as a friend, not an owner,” said Marty Lyons. “Every time he saw me he greeted me with a hug, not a handshake.”

Hess helped lineman Dennis Byrd, who suffered a paralyzing neck injury, with both money and inspirational bedside talks.

“He talked to me much the way a grandfather would,” Byrd said.

There was no immediate word from the Jets on who would assume control of the team.

Hess is survived by Norma, his wife of 51 years, three children and seven grandchildren.

Services are scheduled for Monday in New York.