E. Michael Burke

Edmund Michael Burke (August 6, 1916–February 5, 1987) was a U.S. Navy Officer, O.S.S. agent, C.I.A. agent, general manager of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, CBS executive, President of the New York Yankees, the New York Knicks, New York Rangers and Madison Square Garden.

Burke was born in Enfield, Connecticut, and attended Kingswood-Oxford School in West Hartford, Connecticut. He was awarded an athletic scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania playing halfback on the football team. He graduated in 1939 and was given a tryout by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1941.

After working as a cargo inspector in the New York waterfront, Burke was commissioned an Ensign in the US Navy. A chance meeting with head of the O.S.S General William J. Donovan led to transfer to his command. Donovan told him "Anybody who can run back punts the way you can ought to be able to wiggle behind enemy lines".

Ensign Burke was sent to Algiers in 1942, then Sicily in 1943, and later landing in Salerno in the same year.

Burke was one of the members of the "MacGregor Mission" led by Lt. John M. Shaheen consisting of Burke, Henry Ringling North (brother of circus president John Ringling North) and Marcello Girosi, a former New York businessman who had a brother Massimo who was an Italian admiral. The "MacGregor Mission" was responsible for discovering information on Axis weapons.

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