From what I've gathered, Jr. is more interested in politics.
Different sport, sure, but...
were long-time friends and got the first two boxes put up at the olympia back in the 50's. that was a big deal back then. i knew him only as a very nice man. when they built ford field my dad asked him about getting season tix and of course he obliged and had his secretary call my dad and ask him where he wanted to sit. our lions season ticket number is 00001. we've kept the seats.
when my own father passed a few years ago the fords attended the ceremony and were very gracious. we are losing that era of gentlemen (and gentleladies) and it is sad. May the Lord bless him and his family this day.
that is a pretty cool story. I agree with your sentiment. That was a great generation.
No, it will be the entire story.
RIP Mr. Ford.
One could live a great life, and someone would still talk bad about them? This is a moronic statement.
The man's most significant achievements were receiving Edsel Ford's sperm and not losing his fortune in an ugly divorce. My condolences to his family but it is a major embellishment to refer to this gentlemen as a great man even on the day of his death. I would prefer to reflect today on the thousands of individuals who gave their careers to his family's automobile company, accepted wages concessions to keep it floating and to decades of Lions football players and organization staff and to Harry Gilmer, Joe Schmidt, Don McCafferty, Rick Forzano, Tommy Hudspeth, Monte Clark, Darryl Rogers, Wayne Fontes, Bobby Ross, Gary Moeller, Marty Mornhinweg, Steve Mariucci, Dick Jauron, Rod Marinelli and Jim Schwartz who suffered through years of mismanagement there.
May the Lions win the Super Bowl next year as a tribute to his memory.
I feel bad for all the people who had a job because of his company. How horrible it must have been.
CBS in Detroit has the statement released by Ford Motor Company here - LINK
I will admit that most of my life, I really only thought of WCF Sr. as the owner of the Lions and rather overlooked the career he had at the company which bears his grandfather's name. It was a long career, a successful career, and one which produced some of Ford's best remembered automobiles. Some of his more charitable work included extensive involvement with United Way here in SE Michigan as well as with the Henry Ford Museum and several other local and national charities. Indeed, the tennis courts at the University Of Michigan are named for this man. We can debate his legacy as the owner of the Detroit Lions, but his service to Ford and and to the Detroit area cannot be overlooked.
Thoughts and condolences to the Ford family.
I thought the narrative was that Sr. was a drunk who was given a division to shit him up and then when he ran that into the ground, he bought the Lions?
Mgoblog's finest will look at the advanced stats and measure his life in terms of wins and losses or dollars and cents. The reality is just b/c something doesn't show up on a stat sheet doesn't mean it isn't important. WCF treated people the right way, and that matters. As other posters have said his lagecy might be tainted b/c of the lack of Lion's success, but he should be remembered as a true gentlemen and a man that treated people well regardless of what they could do for him.
What's amazing to me is how many people have strong opinions about him. I have no idea if he was good at his job at Ford or bad; it's hard to judge when you are not the one who started a business but rather one whom much was handed to because of your parents. I assume he was probably a decent fellow, as are most people.
What is clear from this thread is that many people judge it to be in poor taste to reflect on his negative qualities on the day of his death. Although in some ways silly (it clearly doesn't matter to him, and I suspect that not too many family members are scouring mgoblog for opinions today), it is easy to understand, and thus we should probably hold off on the honest assessments for a while. There is plenty of time for that down the road.
Some on here (and in life itself) are very sad, little people using a day when a man has died as a forum to point out all of his faults. I have feeling it may take countless days to point out all the faults of such callous people. People who feel as if they have some duty to take to their keyboard and diminish a mans life over a pro football team as if it were important.
Just because something may be true and you say it does not it justified because as with anything there is a time and a place and this is certainly not the time.
I didn't like the Lions failures as much as the next fan,
BUT
Lets not forget everything the Ford family has done for Michigan and the metro area. They have been a leading family to support($$$) many, many causes for metro Detroiters.
Mr Ford Sr is the one that gave us Bill Jr who I am a big fan of. He seems like a good guy who cares and tries to do the right thing.
Lets stay classy on Mgo blog like the Ford family is classy.
He made it one year shy of turning 90 in a life that was filled with incredible memories: active in the military during WW2, married to a Firestone, naming a car after his father (an unfortunate incident), observing the near death of the American auto industry and the eponyms Ford Mortor Company, then seeing his family company return to profitability.
Perhaps his greatest business achievement was purchasing the Lions for $4.5 million in 1963. While the Detroit fans might desire that someone else own the team, that is a wonderful legacy to leave his family.
RIP Bill Ford and thoughts to his family.
"In so many NFL locker rooms, if the owner is around, players put their heads down and hope not to get noticed," former Lions, Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers receiver Johnnie Morton said Sunday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "In Detroit, I noticed right away that players would go up to him to say hello. One time, I hollered, `Big Willie is in the house,' when he walked in the locker room. Some guys were looking at me like I was about to get cut, but then Mr. Ford later came over and cracked up about it.
"It became my pregame ritual to call him `Big Willie,' and sometimes I'd tell him, `If we win today, the postgame was going to be at your house tonight.' He was just a genuine, down-to-earth, cool dude -- the epitome of people from Michigan -- that just happened to own a car company and the Lions."
He probably wanted to win but I think he was just too nice and loyal to people he hired that needed to be fired! He probably was not shrewd enough to be an NFL owner.
He had a good life, born into riches and seemed to have a good family, something a lot of the silver spoon crowd seem to mess up.
Too bad he did not get to see the Lion's make it to a Superbowl. I guess those of of who are 40 or older are thinking the same, will we see the Lions reach the Superbowl before we die?