Gary Davidson, Millennium Hall of Fame

When Gary Davidson was named one of the top 40 most influential

sports figures of the modern era by Sports Illustrated, commemorating the

magazine’s 40-year anniversary in 1994, he felt slightly out of place

upon his arrival at a banquet in New York to honor the selections.

Alongside him were Julius Erving, Magic Johnson, Hank Aaron, Howard

Cosell, Pete Rozelle and John Wooden. Others included Muhammad Ali, Wayne

Gretzky, Joe Namath and Jack Nicklaus.

Mike McCormack, the first known sports agent who started International

Management Group to represent Arnold Palmer in 1960, and Davidson were

among the so-called lesser knowns at the ceremony on a worldwide scale.

“I was feeling kind of like, ‘What am I doing here?”’ Davidson said.

NBC sportscaster Bob Costas came up to Davidson and told him it was

the American Basketball Association that Davidson launched in 1967 that

gave the talented broadcaster his first job in St. Louis. A current ESPN

sportscaster approached Davidson and said something similar, that it was

the World Hockey Association, started in 1972, that gave him his first

break in the business with the Hartford Whalers.

“Then I began to realize how many people were effected by the leagues

we started,” said Davidson, co-founder and the first president of the ABA

and WHA, before founding the World Football League in 1974 and serving as

its first commissioner and president.

An attorney, Davidson created options for athletes in the established

leagues (i.e. NFL and NBA) that otherwise would not have existed in the

days before free agency. Davidson and a team of lawyers challenged in

court the reserve clauses in pro football and hockey and his “rebel

leagues,” as they came to be known, ignited bitter salary wars with the

NFL, NBA and NHL.

Some of the greatest resistance from the sports world “establishment”

involved Davidson’s push into smaller markets such as Winnipeg,

Louisville, Charlotte, Portland and San Antonio.

(Funny how things change: Take a look at Los Angeles and its current

NFL situation.)

“They called me the $500 million man, because at that time there were

so many stadiums and arenas built because of the new leagues,” said

Davidson, an entrepreneur whose leagues provided smaller cities with

major league franchises.

“The San Antonio Spurs came from the Dallas Chaparrals, and that was

my team in the ABA, and (the Spurs) won the NBA championship this year

and they’re worth about $160 million right now. In 1967, the budget for

the entire team was $360,000, and that was for the whole shooting match.

You can’t get a slow guard for that now.”

The sports magnate created thousands of jobs at every new stop.

Lawyers, accountants, janitors, ticket brokers and vendors were suddenly

needed in places like Quebec, Calgary and Indianapolis.

“It became a pretty massive impact on sports,” Davidson said. “On game

night in the World Football League, there were 5,000 people working (at

the venues) -- that’s more jobs than the Federal Government created.”

Unfortunately, the WFL, which had a franchise based at Anaheim

Stadium, the Southern California Sun (starring former USC tailback

Anthony Davis), lasted only one full season in 1974, largely because of

economic turmoil in America, President Nixon’s resignation and a Middle

Eastern oil embargo, among other problems.

“A lot of coaches and administrators, who never got a chance (in the

NFL), got an opportunity, and that’s what makes our country great -- new

businesses,” said Davidson, who resigned as WFL and WHA commissioner in

1974 and never actively returned to sports.

Earlier this year, the USA Today ran a story and picture of Davidson

and partner Don Regan holding a football in a tribute to the WFL -- 25

years later.

Davidson’s ABA, best symbolized by the red, white and blue Neapolitan

basketballs, pioneered the three-point shot. During the league’s short,

furious life, the average salary of an NBA player quadrupled to $109,000.

His WHA also experimented with a blue hockey puck.

Davidson’s WFL toyed with different shapes and sizes of footballs and

put the goal posts in the back of the end zone -- the NFL later followed

suit. “We had long, skinny footballs, then we tried short, fat ones, and

then we had footballs with laces on all four sides,” he said.

Tim Grandi, former WFL associate general counsel, said in Sports

Illustrated five years ago: “Whether Gary intended it or not, players

acquired new freedoms and prosperity that didn’t previously exist. He

wasn’t Moses, but he did take control of professional sports away from a

clique of owners and opened it up to more people and cities.”

Financially and personally, however, Davidson suffered in 1974. “I

turned 40,” he told Sports Illustrated. “I ended up upside-down about $4

million. And that did not make for a good year.”

Married for a second time and happy to be out of the cutthroat noise

of pro sports, Davidson, the newest member of the Daily Pilot Sports Hall

of Fame, celebrating the millennium, has dedicated most of his business

energy to building and managing senior housing.

In 1995, his firm, ARV Assisted Living, went public and two years

later he resigned. Davidson has started two other companies since then.

A Garden Grove High and UCLA graduate, Davidson played basketball at

the Balboa Bay Club in the 1960s and opened his first office in Newport

Beach in 1972.

As a prep, Davidson competed in football, basketball, baseball and

track, then turned to volleyball at UCLA, where he graduated from law

school in 1961.

Davidson, who also co-founded World TeamTennis in 1973-74, lives in

Newport Beach with his wife, Kate. He has four grown children and six

grandchildren.