When you move to Southminster, you never know who you’ll meet, what you’ll learn and what new adventures you’ll have. For Dick Thigpen, life had already been quite an adventure when he came to Southminster 13 years ago.
Thigpen can tell you pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about how Charlotte put itself on the map as a vibrant professional sports destination. For example, did you know that the Charlotte Bantams were the first semi-pro football team in Charlotte in the 1930s? They played at old Central High and other high school fields because the American Legion Memorial Stadium wasn’t built until 1936.
“Interestingly enough,” Thigpen says, “The Bantams disappeared after a few years when Charlotte passed blue laws prohibiting sporting events on Sunday. That was an interesting way to kill an idea! Those were the days when George Ivey, Sr. pulled down the shades on his storefront so you couldn’t even window shop on Sunday!”
Football Firsts and Personalities
In 1967, the New York Jets, with Joe Namath as quarterback, and the Houston Oilers played an exhibition game in Memorial Stadium. The exhibition game was one of the first promotional games by the AFL, which wanted to merge with the NFL and gave our burgeoning city a taste of pro-sports.
The New York Stars, a World Football League franchise, opened their 1974 season in New York’s Randall Stadium. It was owned by Bob Smertz who also owned the Boston Celtics. Mounting debts and poor stadium conditions forced a mid-season move to Charlotte under Upton Bell, son of former NFL Commissioner Bert Bell who had led much of the NFL’s early growth. Upton had been the youngest general manager in the NFL, steering the Baltimore Colts. He ignited a fire for football in the Queen City, and the Charlotte Stars were renamed the Charlotte Hornets after playing their first game in Memorial Stadium.
During its inaugural season, Charlotte experienced one of its most exciting sports events when 20,000 people descended on its 16,000-capacity Memorial Stadium as the Charlotte Hornets played the Memphis Southmen who included all pro former NFL players Larry Csonka, Paul Warfield, and Jim Kiick. Unfortunately, the financially troubled WFL collapsed midway through its second season in 1975, leaving the Hornets as a brief footnote two decades before the arrival of the Carolina Panthers.
Thigpen once chaired a Chamber of Commerce committee to study sports, entertainment, and performing arts venues in Charlotte. “We came to the conclusion that Charlotte needed a new stadium in order to attract a professional football franchise, and that we could support a team. But when the WFL went down, our hope for a new stadium deflated like a balloon someone had stuck a needle in.”
Impact for Decades
Thigpen’s impact on Charlotte sports has spanned decades. “Renovation of the old Coliseum and Ovens Auditorium, studies that paved the way for the creation of Blumenthal Center, a new coliseum and a new stadium – I was involved in all of them. I represented George Shinn when he got the basketball franchise and Bob Benson when he obtained a soccer franchise for the Carolina Lightnin’. In 1987, I was asked if I would be interested in representing Jerry Richardson in his quest for an NFL franchise. Obviously, I quickly accepted that challenge.” Shinn took exception to that, and Thigpen was fired, along with Hugh McColl, John Lewis, and Max Muhleman. McColl was essential in bringing the Panthers to town, and Ericsson became the first sponsor of what is now Bank of America Stadium.
“If we were to obtain a franchise, we were going to have to finance and build a stadium. For the next five and a half years, I worked on identifying stadium locations, developing financial plans, and helping identify investors. The NFL has an extraordinary ability to find out about people,” Thigpen laughs, “so you were limited in who you could consider.”
Charlotte was awarded the 31st NFL franchise in October 1993 after we had proved that we had the support of the public and that we had a viable financial plan that complied with NFL policies. The support of Bank of America and Hugh McColl were essential and sufficient, but Richardson wanted Wachovia and First Union to be involved to help with community support. He also wanted to keep the two-state idea. We consulted with many Charlotte leaders including John Belk, Bill Lee, Rolfe Neill, and Pat Hall – all visionaries in Charlotte. Jim Hunt and Carroll Campbell were governors of North Carolina and South Carolina respectively at the time. Pat’s idea was to have the stadium on the state line, but that was not to be. Still, it was a good place to kick-off PSL (Personal Seat License) sales. Campbell and Hunt were co-chairmen of the campaign.
“We would have liked to have been able to sell stock, have public ownership, and save a lot of tax dollars, but time for submission of our financial plan was short. Max Muhleman did not invent the PSL, but he did a fabulous job selling PSLs. Many Universities have a form of a PSL. Gifts to booster clubs provide opportunities to purchase tickets. Examples include Clemson’s IPTAY, UNC’s Rams Club, and Duke’s Iron Dukes. In 1922, Duke had to issue bonds to build a new stadium, and these bonds included a right to buy tickets.
At Super Bowl 50
Through it all, Thigpen says one of his proudest accomplishments with the Panthers was the creation of legal documents, especially the PSL that have stood the test of time. On one major tax related matter, he wanted a second opinion, so he called a tax attorney friend in Washington and explained the rather complex matter. The friend asked, “How much of an opinion do you want?” “I replied that I wanted an opinion that if it does not stand up to the IRS, I can sue you for malpractice. We received a very solid opinion!”
Play Ball!
A look at the history of baseball in Charlotte is appropriate as the World Series approaches. Wearn Field, later known as Hayman Park, was a baseball park in Charlotte that operated from 1912 to 1940. Built and owned by Charlotte Hornets owner J.H. Wearn, the ballpark served as the home of the minor league Charlotte Hornets.
In 1926, Babe Ruth appeared at Wearn Field in a preseason exhibition game between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Robins (Dodgers), drawing approximately 4,000 fans and delighting the crowd with a home run.
Wearn Field also hosted games by the Charlotte Red Sox Negro League club. In 1933, the white Highland Park Mill team faced the North Charlotte Black Yankees in what historians identify as Charlotte’s first integrated baseball contest.
Other fond memories from Thigpen’s amazing recall of the past include our early professional baseball team which played in the Dixie League at the old Griffith Stadium named for Clark Griffith who owned the major league Washington Senators. Griffith Park opened in 1941 and held as many as 5,000 people in a covered grandstand which extended from first to third base. It served as the home field for the Charlotte Hornets, an affiliate of the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins from 1937 to 1972 in various minor leagues and for the Charlotte Orioles, a Southern League farm team for the Baltimore Orioles from 1976 to 1987. Today, Charlotte has an excellent ballpark – Truist Field – where the Charlotte Knights, the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, play.
Charlottean to the Core
Thigpen attended Elizabeth Grammar School, Piedmont Junior High, and Central High School, graduated from Duke undergrad and UNC Law School. He practiced tax law with Thigpen and Hines, Moore and Van Allen, and Poyner and Spruill before joining the Carolina Panthers as General Counsel. When he retired in 1998, he was succeeded by his son, who served in that role for 21 years.
Over the years, Thigpen represented many teams, leagues, and individuals across football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and soccer – including clients interested in buying teams like the Washington Redskins. No wonder he is mentioned in Jack Kent Cooke’s biography, The Last Mogul! He served as the President of the Sports Lawyers Association, an organization in which he was active for over twenty years.
Of all sports, golf may be his greatest passion. He spent many, many years and hours playing in innumerable golf events and running amateur and professional tournaments, serving in administrative positions. He served as President of the Southern Golf Association, legal counsel to the Carolinas Golf Association, twelve years as a member of the USGA Senior Amateur Committee and was General Chairman of the USGA Senior Amateur Championship. He continues to work on his game at age 95.
When asked what the next generation of sports counselors needs to understand, his response is seasoned by decades of perspective. “For some years, I have expressed concern to several university presidents and athletic directors about the direction they were headed in college athletics. It is in horrible shape right now, in large part because NIL has gotten way off track and television money dictates much of what happens. The same thing is true of professional athletics. Stop and think what the minimum is today in the NFL. Even several years ago, the worst guy on the team was making a half million dollars.”
If you ever want to talk about Charlotte sports, lessons learned, and pretty much anything else on the Charlotte sports scene, Dick Thigpen is a great place to start.