Biography

 

 

 

 

 

Billy Joe "Red" McCombs was born in 1927 in the small West Texas town of Spur, about 75 miles east of Lubbock. McCombs' father was an auto mechanic, but the younger McCombs expressed little interest in automobiles, though that market would eventually become his entrance to the world of big business, fame and fortune.

The oldest of four children, his family moved in 1943 to Corpus Christi, Texas. He briefly attended Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas where he played football (lineman and receiver) before serving in the Army in 1946 and 1947. After completing his Army stint, McCombs enrolled at The University of Texas, attending the business school and law school.

While visiting a friend in Corpus Christi, he was convinced to try selling cars. He was immediately successful and had his first dealership at age 25. Four years later, McCombs became the youngest Edsel dealer in the United States and his franchise was one of the few nationally to show a profit from the ill-fated Ford product. At one time he owned the sixth-largest auto conglomerate in the U.S., comprising more than 50 dealerships.

In 1958, he and wife Charline moved to San Antonio where he partnered with Austin Hemphill in a Ford dealership from which McCombs would begin an automobile empire built on McCombs' strong business acumen as well as his honesty, integrity and charm as a salesman. A self-described "Bubba," McCombs took sole ownership of the dealership and went on to start more than 50 nationwide.

Red McCombs Automotive Group now consists of five dealerships in San Antonio. McCombs was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame with its Distinguished Service Citation, the most prestigious award given in the automobile industry.

McCombs and an associate, Lowry Mays, formed Clear Channel Communications in 1972. Clear Channel Communications, Inc., is a global leader in the out-of-home advertising industry with radio and television stations and outdoor displays in 65 countries around the world. The company began its operations in 1972, and became a publicly traded company in 1984. Including announced transactions, Clear Channel operates more than 1,200 radio and 41 television stations in the United States and has equity interests in more than 240 radio stations internationally. Clear Channel also operates more than 8 81,000 outdoor advertising displays in more than 60 countries across 6 continents.

Koontz McCombs is a San Antonio-based land and real estate development company. The company is a respected leader in commercial real estate and has developed a portfolio of top quality projects in selected markets through acquisitions and development. The company has been involved in the development and/or acquisition of more than 1,600,000 square feet of commercial property.

McCombs has been active in the exploration of oil and gas for more than 30 years. His current venture, McCombs Energy, presently pursues both onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration and production from New Mexico to Florida. The company actively reviews many exploration ideas and prospects generated by independent geologists and other companies, and also invests directly as a working interest owner with other companies that operate.

McCombs has also had a longtime interest in the sports industry. At age 25, he purchased his first professional sports team, the Corpus Christi Texas Clippers in the Big State Baseball League. McCombs then purchased two NBA teams, the San Antonio Spurs in 1972 and the Denver Nuggets in 1985. in 1998, McCombs purchased his first NFL team, the Minnesota Vikings. During the 1999 to 2000 season, the first year under Red's management, the Vikings went on to a 15-1 season, going to the NFC Championship for the first time in 11 years. McCombs received the Owner of the Year Award from FOX's Terry Bradshaw and the Executive of the Year Award from Pro Football Weekly. He sold the team in 2005. P

In addition, McCombs has been involved in various insurance companies as well as ranching ventures. He even made a new breed of cattle, the Gelorn, a cross between Longhorns and German Gelbreith.

 

 

Philanthropy

 

 

Some highlights among Red & Charline McCombs' numerous philanthropic endeavors:

· McCombs has been an active booster of The University of Texas for many years.

· McCombs has served as President of the Texas Longhorn Club.

· In 2005, Red and his wife, Charline, gave The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center $30 million, the largest gift ever made to support cancer research at the institution.

· In 1997, he and Charline, donated $3 million to The University of Texas’ Women’s Athletic Department.

· In 1996, they gave $6 million to his alma mater, Southwestern University, the largest gift ever given by an alumnus.

· Red and Charline made numerous visits to local charities and schools in the St. Paul/Minneapolis with players, including Cris Carter, Korey Stringer, Andrew Glover and Dwayne Rudd.

· Red and Charline donated $100,000 to the University of Minnesota Women’s Athletics Department.

 

Red and Charline also co-hosted the “Texas Tuxedo” fundraising event (for the U of M Women’s Athletics) which raised more than $300,000.

 

Awards and Honors

 

 

· UT Distinguished Alumnus Award, 1998

· Automotive Hall of Fame's Distinguished Service Citation, the most prestigious award given in the automotive industry

· Texas Business Hall of Fame, November 1998

· Texas Sports Hall of Fame, Lamar Hunt Lifetime Achievement Award, 2006

· San Antonio Business Hall of Fame, 1992

· Minnesota Business and Opportunities Magazine "Man of the Year"

· NFL Owner of the Year from FOX's Terry Bradshaw

· Philanthropy in Texas' Philanthropy Hall of Fame, 1997

· Col. W.T. Bondurant Sr. Distinguished Humanitarian Award, San Antonio Academy, 2002

· Longhorn of the Year

· Southwestern University Distinguished Alumnus Award, 1990

· San Antonio Citizenship Award

· San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame, 1998

· Sportsman of the Year by the San Antonio Express-News Sportsman Award for Outstanding Leadership

 

American Visionary: The Life of George Kozmetsky
Red McCombs Commissions Symphony to Honor Mentor

 

Red McCombs, the benefactor and namesake of the McCombs School of Business, took to the stage in November to honor one of his greatest inspirations, the late George Kozmetsky, former dean of the business school. The musical tribute, held at Bates Recital Hall, featured the UT Wind Ensemble.

The one-night-only performance, entitled “American Visionary,” featured a short symphony composed by Dan Welcher, the Lee Hage Jamail Regents Professor in Fine Arts. McCombs provided the voice for three narrations on the extraordinary life of Kozmetsky, written by international investment expert and Kozmetsky protégé, Robert Kuhn.

“He was absolutely and hopelessly in love with The University of Texas,” said McCombs, who was mentored and advised by Kozmetsky. “I was fascinated when the university stepped out and took a man of his stature from a successful background in business and academia to lead the UT business school. I thought it was giant leap.”

The idea for the musical tribute came about two years ago during a regional arts meeting between Dean Robert Freeman of the College of Fine Arts and McCombs. Dean Freeman gave the red-haired businessman a previously commissioned orchestral homage to Martin Luther King, entitled “New Morning for the World.” After listening to the CD, McCombs called Freeman and proposed a similar tribute to Kozmetsky. McCombs also volunteered to narrate the piece and contributed to the composer’s commissioning fee.

“I would like for the audience to leave knowing that he was a great man that truly made a difference,” McCombs said in the days before his stage debut. “His stamp is on most of the successes that we have in the state of Texas, not just the university.”

In preparation for his performance, McCombs received acting lessons from Lucien Douglas, an associate professor in UT Austin’s Department of Theatre and Dance. Douglas visited McCombs in his San Antonio office to practice the script and work on the components of narration, including inflection, tempo and maintaining eye contact with the audience.

After their first session, Douglas noted that his student had a natural flair for performance.

“A performer has to have confidence,” Douglas said. “I don’t think there’s anyone in Texas who has more confidence than Red McCombs.”

Douglas said that McCombs’ personal connection to the piece and love and respect for Kozmetsky made his coaching task very simple.

“He has a wonderful presence, and he has charm and warmth,” Douglas said.

Kozmetsky’s 16-year deanship at the business school brought significant improvements to almost every facet of the school, transforming it from a regional institution to a nationally recognized powerhouse for research and business education. During this time, he also founded the IC2 Institute, a think tank charged with researching the intersection of business, government and education.

Prior to becoming dean, Kozmetsky co-founded Teledyne Technologies in 1960 and built it from the ground up. Within just six years, it was listed among the Fortune 500.

Feb. 6, 2006
McCombs Recalls the History of His Success for Option II Alumni
By Sandie Taylor

 

Red McCombs has been interested in business for as long as he can remember. Speaking to a roomfull of graduates from the Texas Executive MBA Program at the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center Jan. 27, the benefactor of the McCombs School of Business recalled, “I was an entrepreneur before I knew what the word meant—and certainly before I could spell it.”

In particular, McCombs has cultivated a lifelong curiosity about business processes and people’s roles in them. “I wanted to know how you got to be a banker or a pharmacist, and why you wanted to be one,” he said.

Though McCombs can’t recall a specific moment that piqued his early business acumen, he began running his own businesses event before he was a teenager. One of the young businessman’s first profitable ventures was a two-year stint as a paperboy for the Lubbock-Avalanche Journal.

At 12 years old, McCombs decided to move on and sell his paper route to a father of a less ambitious boy. He made an agreement with the man to pass on his paper route for $50, but the distributor told him the newspaper didn’t sell routes.

“Well, that’s okay,” McCombs replied decades ago. “I’ll just keep the route.”

“I thought that was the logical thing to do,” he explained—after all, the route earned him $1 to $1.25 each week, and he could always pass it on to his younger brother.

At that point, the distributor pulled young Red aside and suggested that he could give his route to the other boy and charge a $50 “consulting fee.” While McCombs wasn’t quite sure what that meant, he agreed. “That was one of my earliest negotiations,” he told the audience.

Since the beginning of his career, McCombs says he has spent most of his time buying underperforming assets. “I’ve never been interested in start-ups,” he said. “I try to improve on businesses that already have a customer base.” From car dealerships to radio stations and sports teams, McCombs has found new ways to revive a variety of dying ventures.

And while some of his businesses have failed or been sold to others who could make them work, McCombs said he doesn’t carry much baggage. “I quickly jettison,” he explained. “It’s almost as if it didn’t happen.”