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Walter Owen Briggs Sr. (February 27, 1877 – January 17, 1952) was an American entrepreneur and professional sports owner. He was part-owner of the Detroit Tigers in Major League Baseball from 1919 to 1935, and then sole owner from 1935 to his death in 1952. Briggs also helped fund the Detroit Zoo in 1928, and personally paid for many of its first exhibits. He was also a patron of Eastern Michigan University and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Biography

Briggs was born on February 27, 1877, in Ypsilanti, Michigan, to Rodney D. Briggs and Ada Warner. He followed the Detroit Tigers from the time he was young. In his early youth he worked at the Michigan Central Railroad and later opened Briggs Manufacturing Company in 1908, which specialized in the manufacturing of automobile bodies for the auto industry and later diversified into plumbing fixtures.

After the death of Tigers' part-owner Bill Yawkey in 1919, Briggs surviving partner Frank Navin arranged for Briggs and industrialist John Kelsey to buy a 25 percent stake in the club. Briggs had long chafed at not being able to see the Tigers play the Chicago Cubs in the 1908 World Series; he saw his stake in the Tigers as a way to ensure he would never have to worry about getting a seat to a game again. In 1927, Briggs bought Kelsey's stake to become a full partner with Navin, though he stayed in the background while Navin was alive. After Navin died in 1935, Briggs became the sole owner of the franchise.

As owner, among Briggs' first actions was completing major renovation and expansion plans to Navin Field, then seating 23,000. He double-decked the grandstand and converted the park into a bowl. It reopened in 1938 as Briggs Stadium, with a seating capacity of 58,000. The stadium was later renamed Tiger Stadium.

Briggs was noted for fielding a well-paid team that won two American League pennants (1940, 1945) and a World Series championship in 1945 under his ownership. He had a reputation for being prejudiced against African Americans, in part because he refused to sign black players and would only allow black fans to sit in inferior obstructed-view sections at Briggs Stadium. While he employed blacks at his factory, they were subjected to pervasive discrimination and less-than-ideal working conditions. The Tigers did not field their first non-white player until 1958, six years after Briggs' death, making them the second-to-last team in the majors to integrate (ahead of only the Boston Red Sox).

Briggs died at age 74 in Miami Beach, Florida, on January 17, 1952. He was interred at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, Michigan.

Legacy

His son, Walter Briggs Jr., briefly inherited the Tigers before a court forced him to sell the team in 1956.

His daughter, Jane Briggs Hart was known as an aviator and in the 1960s, became one of the Mercury 13, women who qualified physically in the same tests as those used for male astronauts. She died in 2015.

See also

• Detroit Tigers/Managers and ownership

Notes

1. ^ "Walter O. Briggs Dies At Age Of 74. Owner of Detroit Tigers Ball Club Was Head of Auto Body Manufacturing Company. Succumbs In Miami-Home. Began as Rail Yard Worker in Michigan at 10 and Became Industrial, Sports Leader". New York Times. January 18, 1952. Retrieved August 17, 2014.
2. ^ "Walter Briggs Sr". Coachbuilt. Retrieved August 17, 2014. Walter O. Briggs was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan on February 27, 1877 to Rodney D. Briggs and Ada (Warner) Briggs. ...
3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on April 30, 2008. Retrieved February 24, 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
4. ^ "BaseballLibrary.com". Archived from the original on October 11, 2012. Retrieved September 21, 2006.
5. ^ Harvey Briggs (August 22, 2017). "Great grandson of former Tigers owner: Turning a racist legacy into one of hope". Detroit Free Press.
6. Jim Hawkins; Dan Ewald; George Van Dusen (2002). The Detroit Tigers Encyclopedia. Sports Publishing LLC. ISBN 9781582612225.
7. Tiger Stadium at BallparksOfBaseball.com
8. Walter Briggs Sr. obituary at TheDeadBallEra.com
9. detnews.com | Michigan History
10. Holmes, Dan (April 29, 2012). "Mansion of former Tiger owner on the market for less than $500k". Vintage Detroit. Retrieved June 14, 2022.
11. Couch, Graham (August 10, 2008). "Tigers notes: Ozzie Virgil blazed trail for today's Latin American players". MLive. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
12. Austin, Dan (January 28, 2015). "The day the Detroit Tigers gave up their color barrier". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
13. "Scoreboard". Time magazine. May 6, 1957. Archived from the original on October 19, 2011. Retrieved August 17, 2014. Tossed out at home: the Detroit Tigers' Walter ("Spike") Briggs Jr. A man with a tiger by the tail ever since he inherited the team from his father, Spike tried hard not to let go. When the courts ordered him to sell, he talked the new owners into keeping him on as executive vice president and general manager, but last week his resignation was 'accepted.' Said Spike: 'It was a semi-force play.'
14. Jane Briggs Hart collection, Bentley Library, University of Michigan

External links

• Walter Briggs Sr. at Find a Grave

• American manufacturing businesspeople
• Major League Baseball executives
• Major League Baseball owners
• Detroit Tigers executives
• Detroit Tigers owners
• Businesspeople from Miami
• Sportspeople from Ypsilanti, Michigan
• 1877 births
• 1952 deaths