Humble Beginnings
A self-made man, Jerry Buss lived a rags-to-riches tale emblematic of the American Dream. A Great Depression-era child living at the poverty line in Wyoming, Gerald Hatten "Jerry" Buss experienced the hardships of a blue-collar lifestyle and began working at a young age.
Early on, Buss worked for his stepfather's plumbing business—waking up at 4:30 in the morning to dig ditches in frozen ground for three hours before school.
Later in high school, Buss worked at a local hotel making two dollars a day. He soon quit school to work for the railroad, eventually returning to receive his undergraduate degree from the University of Wyoming and a doctorate in physical chemistry from USC.
Saving money from his first job out of USC, in 1959, Buss recruited four other investors to purchase a 14-unit rental apartment in West Los Angeles for a $6,000 down payment and $100,000 loan from the bank.
Eighteen years later, Buss turned this $6,000 down payment into a $350 million real estate empire.
Visionary and Innovator
In 1979, Dr. Jerry Buss purchased the Lakers in a multifaceted $67.5 million deal that included the Lakers, the NHL Kings, the Great Western Forum in Inglewood and a 13,000-acre ranch in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Buss had a vision from the start: make the idea of going to a basketball game an all-out entertainment spectacle.
And so, the concept of "sports entertainment" was born.
At his newly-owned Great Western Forum, Buss added entertainment aspects that had never been thought of by any owner in any other sport.
He added cheerl...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
