NOTE:
The following is extracted from the 1983 USFL Media
Guide. Supplemental information follows.
Jim Joseph, majority owner and president of the Arizona
Wranglers, has enjoyed a lengthy and successful career
in the real estate development field. Now he aims
to develop his Wranglers into one of the Phoenix area's
strongest professional franchises.
Born in Austria, Joseph graduated from the Wharton
School of Finance at the University of
Pennsylvania. He received both bachelor of arts
and master of business administration degrees.
His involvement in real estate began modestly, as he
participated in and oversaw the construction of homes,
apartments and office buildings.
He has since, as president of the Interland Corporation,
a real estate development, management and construction
company in San Mateo, CA, developed several
office-shopping complexes in the San Francisco Bay
area. His most recent achievement was the $200
million Levi Strauss Plaza in downtown San Francisco. |
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JIM
JOSEPH
Principal Owner
Arizona Outlaws |
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Joseph originally was to have had his franchise in the
Bay Area, but it went instead to his longtime friend and
business associate, Tad Taube.
Instead, after a possibility of a move to Los Angeles,
he has set up shop in the Valley of the Sun.
"We are here for the long haul," says
Joseph. "I honeestly believe I've landed with
the best franchise our league has to offer."
Joseph, who has pioneered several ventures in the real
estate world, is a pacesetter in pro football as
well. The Wranglers are the first football
franchise ever to locate in the greater Phoenix
area. The imminent challenge of being a dominant
force in the marketplace has not been lost on Joseph.
An active member within his community, Joseph directs
the Jewish Home for the Aged in San Francisco and is
also a director of the Jewish Community Federation of
San Francisco.
Joseph and his wife Diana are the parents of two
daughters and one son. The family resides in Los
Altos, CA.
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION:
Born Shimon ben Yosef Yitzhak on September 5, 1935, the
"long haul" for Jim Joseph amounted to one
year. After seeing Wranglers attendance wilt in
the heat of the Arizona sun and a 4-14-0 season in 1983,
Joseph sold the franchise to Chicago Blitz owner Ted
Diethrich, who in turn sold the Blitz. Fortunately
the Wranglers didn't drain Joseph financially to the
point that it would later USFL owners - far from it, in
fact, as he would go on to continue the expansion of his
real estate business interests. Joseph died on
December 19, 2003, and was buried by his family in
Israel. In 1998 as his estate was wound up, Joseph
bequeathed the bulk of his worth - over half a billion
dollars - to the Jim Joseph Foundation, which he founded
to improve education of Jewish traditions and history
among Jewish youth. |
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