Bill Laurie

Bill Laurie
Born	William J. Laurie July 1952 Versailles, Missouri
Residence	Crown Center Farms, Columbia, Missouri Henderson, Nevada Bel Air, Los Angeles, California
Alma mater	Memphis State University
Occupation	Basketball player and coach, business executive, philanthropist
Spouse(s)	Nancy Walton Laurie
Children	1
Relatives	James "Bud" Walton (father-in-law)

Bill Laurie is an American former basketball player and coach, and current business executive and philanthropist. He is the former owner of the St. Louis Blues and is the co-chairman of Paige Sports Entertainment.

Laurie grew up in rural Missouri. While attending high school in Versailles, he played basketball, leading the scoring across the state of Missouri as a senior. He graduated from Memphis State University in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1974. While he was in college, Laurie was part of the Memphis Tigers men's basketball team, and competed in the 1973 National Collegiate Athletic Association Championships, lost to the UCLA Bruins. During college, Laurie started dating childhood friend Nancy Walton, and the two married a year after graduating.

He started his career as a teacher and a basketball coach, managing both the Christian Brothers College High School and Rock Bridge High School. Since the late 1970s, he and his wife live at Crown Center Farms in Columbia, Missouri, where they breed race horses. He quit his job in 1983 to serve as the manager of the family real estate portfolio. He was the owner of the St. Louis Blues, a member of the National Hockey League which he acquired for US$153 million, from 1999 to 2011. He was also the owner of the Savvis Center in St. Louis, Missouri. He failed to acquire the Denver Nuggets in 1999, the Vancouver Grizzlies in 2000, and the Charlotte Hornets in 2001.

...
Wikipedia