Barron Hilton, who founded the Chargers and the last surviving original owner of an American Football League team, has died at 91.
Hilton, who was the heir to his family’s hotel fortune, was approached by Lamar Hunt and Bud Adams about owning a team in the AFL. He founded the Chargers in 1959 and moved them from Los Angeles to San Diego two years later. The Chargers won five division titles and one AFL title in the league’s first six seasons.
Hilton helped negotiate the merger with the NFL before selling the team to Gene Klein in 1966 in order to take over his family’s main business. Current Chargers owner Dean Spanos remembered Hilton’s contributions to the team and professional football at large.
“Simply put, the modern NFL would not be what it is today without the vision of Barron Hilton,” Spanos said. “A founding father and charter member of the upstart AFL’s sarcastically self-dubbed ‘Foolish Club,’ Barron was a pioneering leader, risk-taking entrepreneur, prolific philanthropist, devoted family man and, of course, anything but foolish. . . . It seems fitting that we celebrate a life extraordinarily well-lived the same year as we recognize the Chargers 60th anniversary season since without Barron, there would be no Chargers. On behalf of my family and the entire Chargers organization, I want to express both our gratitude and deepest condolences to the Hilton family.”
We join Spanos in offering condolences to Hilton’s family and loved ones.
