Robert William Daniels Jr. (July 1, 1920 – March 7, 2000) was an American cable television executive and owner of professional sports teams.
He also owned the Utah Stars of the American Basketball Association Daniels was born in Greeley, Colorado and shortly thereafter moved to Hobbs, New Mexico.
[2] 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.
By 1965 his company, Daniels and Associates [5] had brokered in excess of $100 million and this represented about 80 percent of the year's transactions.
[2] With Lakers co-owner Jerry Buss, Daniels started the Prime Ticket sports programming network in 1985, which he sold in 1994, sharing $12 million with his employees.
[7] A lifelong passionate fan for sports of all sorts, Daniels supported the Denver Grand Prix [1], 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.
In December 1975, 16 games into the season, Daniels announced that the team could not pay the players, who included future Hall of Famer Moses Malone.
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.
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.
[16] With his private Learjet 35, he sponsored a successful challenge to the world speed record which raised money for Junior Achievement.
[18] Daniels decided to use his fortune to continue helping others by forming a foundation[19] 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.