Jerry Wolman

A small-town grocer’s son who made a fortune as a Washington real estate developer, owned the National Football League’s Philadelphia Eagles and helped found the National Hockey League’s Philadelphia Flyers in the 1960s, but who saw his financial empire crumble and his pro sports franchises pass from his hands by decade’s end. In December 1963, at age 36, he became the youngest owner in the N.F.L., joining with a business partner, Earl Foreman, to buy the Eagles from a syndicate for $5.5 million. In April 1965, Mr. Wolman became the developer for a projected 100-story office and apartment complex in Chicago to be called the John Hancock Center. But problems with laying the foundation delayed the project, and he lost millions. Mr. Wolman had appointed Ed Snider, a former business associate, to run the Eagles’ business operations. In 1966, Mr. Wolman and Mr. Snider were part of an ownership group awarded an N.H.L. franchise for Philadelphia. Their Flyers began play in 1967-68 in a new arena, the Spectrum, which Mr. Wolman financed. Mr. Wolman also bought Connie Mack Stadium, the home of baseball’s Philadelphia Phillies, and the Yellow Cab Company of Philadelphia. He sold the Eagles to Leonard Tose, a trucking executive, in the spring of 1969 for $16.1 million. Mr. Wolman returned to the Washington area and later built housing in the Maryland suburbs. In December 1998, he joined with his son, Alan, and a Silver Spring, Md., real estate developer, Zalmon Chelec, in an unsuccessful bid to buy the Washington Redskins. Besides his son, Mr. Wolman is survived by his second wife, Bobbie; a daughter, Helene; a sister, Sandy Teplin; a brother, Manny; and seven grandchildren. His first wife, Anne, died in 1971.