Tony Morabito

Anthony J. "Tony" Morabito, a University of Santa Clara alumnus who had been moderately successful during the late 1930s and early 1940s in the lumber hauling business in San Francisco, California realized that air travel would make feasible a coast-to-coast rivalry in football.

In 1944, after several years of rejection of expansion applications by the NFL, Morabito led a visit to the NFL in Chicago. During that meeting Elmer Layden, the league commissioner and one of the legendary Four Horsemen of Notre Dame, who was presiding asked, according to Tony's Santa Clara teammate, longtime friend, partner and lawyer Al Ruffo, several patronizing questions. According to Ruffo, Layden then said, "Well, sonny, you better go out and get a football first and then come back."

Ruffo recalled that Tony was furious, and "Worst of all, he called Tony 'sonny'." They walked across the street to see Arch Ward, the sports editor of the Chicago Tribune who was trying to organize a rival league, the All-America Football Conference (AAFC). "We told him we were ready to join up", Ruffo recalled. On June 4, 1944 (two days before D-Day in Europe), the first meeting of the AAFC was held in St. Louis. Morabito agreed to form a franchise in San Francisco, with the AAFC set to start play after the end of the war.

Tony, his brother Victor P. Morabito, and his partners in the Lumber Terminals of San Francisco, Allen E. Sorrell and E.J. Turre became the founding owners of the soon to be San Francisco 49ers. Ruffo did the legal work while serving as the assistant coach to Lawrence T. "Buck" Shaw. Already known in the Bay Area as Santa Clara's famous "Silver Fox", Shaw was paid the then fabulous sum of $25,000 to coach the team.

On October 27, 1957, Tony Morabito died of a heart attack while watching the 49ers play the Chicago Bears at Kezar Stadium. Having suffered a coronary occlusion in 1952 Tony had been living on "borrowed time". Doctors citing the dangerous, high emotional factors of football urged him to get out of football the sport. The 49ers were losing, 17-7 when a note "Tony's gone" was passed to the coach. Turning away numerous Chicago touchdown onslaughts in the fourth period, they stormed back for a 21-17 upset victory.

After Tony died, majority control of the club passed on to his widow Josephine, and to his brother Victor after most of the remaining partners from the lumber business sold their interest after the 1946 season. Victor died of a similar condition in 1964, and their widows retained majority ownership of the team until 1977. That year they sold 85% of the team to Edward J. DeBartolo Jr. for $17,000,000. As of 2011, the 5% of the team still owned by the Morabito family is worth close to $50,000,000.