John McMullen

John J. McMullen

• School United States Naval Academy

• Born May 10, 1918 in Jersey City, NJ USA
• Died September 16, 2005 in Montclair, NJ USA

Biographical Information

John McMullen owned the Houston Astros from 1979 to 1992. He bought the club from the Ford Motor Credit Company for a reported $19 million sold it to Drayton McLane for $115 million. Prior to owning the Astros, McMullen had been a limited partner in the New York Yankees. He was a shipbuilding magnate based in New Jersey and was largely an absentee owner of the Astros, although he still managed to antagonize the numerous Houston-based minority partners who were part of the ownership group (his own stake represented about a third of the team's capital). One of his first moves was to fire GM Tal Smith, who was the architect of turning the Astros into a contender. Smith, who had been one of the team's first employees, did not work for the Astros again until after McMullen had sold the team more than a decade later.

"nothing more limited than being a limited partner of Steinbrenner’s" [1]

McMullen also bought the Colorado Rockies of the NHL and moved them to his home state, renaming them the New Jersey Devils.

Further Reading

• David Barron: "McLane era represents Astros' most stable ownership", Houston Chronicle, January 18, 2010. [2]