Abe Pollin

Abe Pollin
Born	December 3, 1923 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died	November 24, 2009(2009-11-24) (aged 85) Washington, D.C.
Nationality (legal)	American
Occupation(s)	Building contractor Real estate developer Sports team owner Philanthropist
Spouse	Irene Pollin 1945-2009 (his death)

Abe Pollin (December 3, 1923 – November 24, 2009) was the owner of a number of professional sports teams including the Washington Capitals in the National Hockey League (NHL), the Washington Mystics in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and the Washington Wizards in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Pollin was the longest-tenured owner of an NBA team, holding the Packers/Zephyrs/Bullets/Wizards franchise for 46 years.

Biography

Pollin was born on December 3, 1923 to Mr. and Mrs. Morris Pollin. When he was 8, Pollin's family moved to the Washington area from Philadelphia. Pollin graduated from The George Washington University in 1945 and took a job with his family’s construction company for 12 years. The Pollins launched their own construction company in 1957.

He grew to be lanky (6 feet) and skinny (about 135 pounds) and considered himself a fairly good athlete. He played touch football, basketball and Ping-Pong, winning the table tennis championship of the Jewish Community Center. When he attended Theodore Roosevelt High School in Northwest, pals urged him to try out for the basketball team. But he passed up the audition at the last minute.

"I didn't want to put myself in the position of getting cut. . . . I chickened out," Mr. Pollin recalled decades later. "And to this day . . . I try not to back away from challenges. I try not to sit on the sidelines of life."

Abe and his older brother, Jack, joined their father and started Morris Pollin & Sons, contractors and builders. Earlier, Mr. Pollin worked summers for his dad, hauling bathtubs on his back to prove to his co-workers that he was more than the boss's son. A back injury he suffered during the heavy lifting rendered him 4-F when he later tried to enlist during World War II.

After graduating in 1941, Mr. Pollin worked for his father and awaited his enrollment that fall at the University of Maryland. That summer, he met Irene Kerchek, the niece of his uncle's wife, who was visiting from St. Louis. He was 18, she was 17, and they had a whirlwind summer romance of movie-going and sightseeing in a convertible he borrowed from his brother. Mr. Pollin promised to visit her during Christmas break, but Pearl Harbor was bombed Dec. 7, so seats on trains became scarce because of the war effort. Mr. Pollin kept promising to visit. "I thought, 'Is he kidding?' " she recalled. But he delivered, sitting on his suitcase on an all-night train ride.

A successful construction contractor in the Washington area, Pollin headed an investment group that bought the then Baltimore Bullets in 1964. He moved the team to the Washington area in 1973 after building the Capital Centre.

By 1968, the Bullets were losing money, and the partners faced mounting debt. But Mr. Pollin decided to buy out his partners for $2.5 million and press on. Despite stars such as Gus Johnson, Earl Monroe and Wes Unseld, and an appearance in the NBA Finals after the 1970-71 season, the team was drawing only a few thousand fans a game. Mr. Pollin knew that to stop the drain of money, the Bullets needed to move. Mr. Pollin always preferred to be in Washington, but it lacked a major sports arena. He explored sites in Montgomery and Fairfax counties and received overtures from Columbia.

With options seemingly running out, Mr. Pollin decided to build an arena in Prince George's, where a former business partner had a lease on publicly owned property in Landover. Mr. Pollin enlisted the help of the county's key political power broker, Peter F. O'Malley, a lawyer who helped him win approval of the massive project.

To get the financing he needed to build, Mr. Pollin applied for an NHL expansion franchise that was scheduled to start play in 1974. With an assist from former Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke, who owned the Los Angeles Kings and was chairman of the NHL's expansion committee, Mr. Pollin got his team, the Washington Capitals, in June 1972.

In 1996, Pollin announced that he was changing the team's name because he felt the name "Bullets" had too many negative connotations. "Our slogan used to be 'Faster than a speeding bullet,' but that is no longer appropriate," Pollin told the press. A "name-the-team" contest yielded the name "Wizards."

Pollin supported the Washington DC community philanthropically, including a 1988 partnership with businessman Melvin Cohen to award college scholarships to 59 fifth-graders in Seat Pleasant, MD. Beginning in 2002, an award called "The Pollin Award" has been awarded annually in his honor. People are chosen for the Pollin Award based on their dedication to the Washington DC community and the impact they have on it. Winners of the award have included Georgia M. Dickens, 2002 Executive Director, The S.T.E.P.U.P. Foundation Of Greater Washington, D.C. Inc., Harvey C. Barnum, Jr., 2005 Teacher of the Year, Jason Kamras and 2006 Miss District of Columbia, Kate Michael.

Pollin died on November 24, 2009, of corticobasal degeneration, a rare brain disease. He had made donations totaling $3 million toward finding a cure for the disease.

Personal

Pollin and his wife, Irene Lee (née Kercheck) were married on June 10, 1945 in Washington, DC. He has two sons, Jim and Robert. His wife Irene is now 88 years old.

Holdings

Abe Pollin was the chairman of the board, chief executive, and the majority shareholder of his company, Washington Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Wizards and the Verizon Center, amongst other entertainment interests. He was also the builder and owner of the Capital Centre, former home of the Washington Bullets (Now Wizards) and Capitals.

Accomplishments and honors

On March 9, 2009, Pollin was inducted into the George Washington University School of Business Sports Executives Hall of Fame. In March 2011, he was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Pollin's building and financing of the Verizon Center is often given credit for revitalizing Downtown Washington, D.C. The Verizon Center block of F Street NW is named "Abe Pollin Way" in his honor. The Irene Apartments at 4701 Willard Ave, Chevy Chase, Maryland, were built by Abe and named after his wife.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty named December 3, 2007, "Abe Pollin Day" in Washington, D.C.

External links

• Wizards profile
• AISH profile
• Goldstein, Richard. "Abe Pollin, Team Owner and Philanthropist, Dies at 85," The New York Times, Wednesday, November 25, 2009.