Bill Daniels

Daniels was born in Greeley, Colorado and shortly thereafter moved to Hobbs, New Mexico. There he was enrolled at the New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI) in Roswell, New Mexico. In 1941 he won the New Mexico State Golden Gloves Championships (later in 1969, he financed an amateur boxing team called the Denver Rocks, and supported the International Boxing League.) In 1941, he joined the Navy and became an accomplished fighter pilot both in World War II and the Korean War, retiring with the rank of commander. Not long after the war, on his way home he happened upon a bar in Denver that was showing a boxing match from out-of-state, and he became interested in the technology that brought television over long distances. == Founding an industry ==

Daniels took a chance on this long-distance television market by setting up a microwave feed that delivered Denver programming to Casper, Wyoming in 1952. It was the first broadcast signal sent by microwave feed. His television feed had only one channel and polled his viewers every 90 days on what they preferred to watch. had brokered in excess of $100 million and this represented about 80 percent of the year's transactions. Daniels owned cable systems as well, with 31 cable systems in 10 states by 1986. When selling his cable systems, he often distributed a portion of the sale proceeds to his employees. One such sale of a system in Alaska resulted in $8 million in payouts to Daniels employees. In 1990, he sold 49% of Daniels & Associates to company executives. == Sports ==

A lifelong passionate fan for sports of all sorts, Daniels supported the Denver Grand Prix , was a co-owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, and owner of the American Basketball Association's Utah Stars franchise, and a founder of the Los Angeles Express in the United States Football League. Daniels sponsored the USAC Championship Car campaigns of Texan Lloyd Ruby both in 1970 under the Daniels' Cablevision banner and in 1971 while promoting Daniels's Utah Stars franchise and backed boxer Ron Lyle in a championship fight against Muhammad Ali. Later, he tried to merge the team with the Spirits of St. Louis, but that team received enough support from the city that it did not go through with the merger. The league ultimately folded the team and dispersed its players. The bankruptcy left season ticketholders without a team or a refund on their tickets. In 1980, he made amends, by paying out a total of $750,000 to 3,000 former season ticketholders which included their ticket price plus interest. He was one of the few owners to make money in the USFL. After the teams began signing increasingly lucrative player contracts, Daniels elected to sell his team to J. William Oldenburg for $8 million. ==Politics==

Daniels became active in politics, winning a seat as a National Committeeman from Colorado for the Republican National Committee and running for the Republican nomination for Governor of Colorado in 1974. Daniels faced incumbent Governor John Vanderhoof in the primary election and was defeated in a 60% to 40% landslide. Vanderhoof would subsequently be defeated in the general election by a 53% to 46% margin against Democrat Richard Lamm. He remained active in the Republican Party, donating more than $100,000 to the party in 1988. He also provided a job in the cable industry to Neil Bush, a son of Vice President George H. W. Bush after Neil's company, Silverado Savings and Loan, failed in the savings and loan crisis. ==Later life==

In 1987, Daniels founded the Young Americans Bank, a special bank with a unique Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-insured state charter. The bank caters only to patrons under the age of 22 and teaches young people about banking and related financial matters. In 1998, he founded Prime Ventures, which owned six cable networks and added Prime Networks, a sports channel for his cable systems. ==Personal life==

Daniels was married four times and had two stepsons but no children of his own. His brother Jack was a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives and ran for Governor of New Mexico and United States Senator from New Mexico. His niece Diane Denish was elected as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico in 2002 and later became a board member of the Daniels Fund. Daniels died on March 7, 2000, at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, after a long illness. In his will, he donated his mansion, Cableland, to the city of Denver for use as the official residence of the Mayor of Denver. ==Philanthropy==

Daniels had problems at times with alcohol and both patronized and supported the Betty Ford Center and helped found Cenikor Foundation, a rehabilitation center in Colorado. With his private Learjet 35, he sponsored a successful challenge to the world speed record which raised money for Junior Achievement. While attending a college graduation, he asked a graduate about the business ethics coursework, only to be told that for that school there were no ethics studies as a part of the business school program. This, in turn, led to Daniels's eventual endowment of what became the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver, as they shared a like-minded vision and included ethics studies in their program. He donated $22 million to the school over a period of years. Daniels decided to use his fortune to continue helping others by forming a foundation that supports issues relating to aging, alcoholism and substance abuse, amateur sports, disabilities, education (early childhood, K-12 reform, and ethics and integrity), the homelessness and disadvantaged, and youth development. This foundation, the Daniels Fund, received over $1 billion from the Daniels estate making it one of the largest private foundations in the United States. ==References==