March 15, 1999 – A native of Chicago Heights, Illinois, Jerry Colangelo earned All-Big Ten honors as captain of the University of Illinois basketball team. Named general manager of the expansion Phoenix Suns in 1968 at the age of 28, he remained involved with the NBA franchise until 2012 in various roles, including head coach and managing general partner. A four-time NBA Executive of the Year, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004. In 2005 Colangelo was named to head the US men’s national basketball program. Under his leadership, the USA won the Olympic gold medal in 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020.

In 1998, three years after a group of investors headed by Colangelo as managing general partner were awarded a major league expansion franchise, the Arizona Diamondbacks made their debut, with Joe Garagiola, Jr. as their general manager. In 2001, they became the youngest franchise to win a World Series by beating the Yankees in seven games. In addition to the Diamondbacks and Suns, he also owned the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA and the Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League.

Also in 1998, Colangelo headed a fund drive to build the new home of the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in Chicago’s Little Italy. The new facility, named “The Jerry Colangelo Center,” was dedicated in 2000, and in 2021 he was awarded the Andretti Lifetime Achievement Award by the NIASHF.

In his office in the America West Arena in Phoenix, where we spoke, Colangelo had what he called his “roots corner.” Among other things, it displayed the accordion he played as a youngster and a photo of the small house where he grew up, which his grandfather built from railroad boxcar remnants.