John W. Mecom Jr. (born 1940) is the chairman of the John W. Mecom company and former owner of the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

NFL football team. Mecom is the son of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

oilman John W. Mecom Sr. and his wife Mary Elizabeth. He was a student at the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

. He is the owner and chairman of the John W. Mecom company, which was started by his father. The company is primarily involved in real estate and the oil and gas industry. John, Jr. followed with his own achievements in the oil and gas industry, and in various real estate ventures. He also branched out into professional sports with a special interest in motorsport and football. In the early 1960s he formed his own racing team, Mecom Racing that successfully competed throughout the U.S. and had such drivers as

Roger Penske Roger Searle Penske (born February 20, 1937) is an American businessman and entrepreneur involved in professional auto racing and a retired professional auto racing driver. He is most famous for his ownership of Team Penske, DJR Team Penske, t ...

, Pedro Rodriguez, AJ Foyt and

Jackie Stewart Sir John Young Stewart (born 11 June 1939), known as Jackie Stewart, is a British former Formula One racing driver from Scotland. Nicknamed the "Flying Scot", he competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973, winning three World Drivers' Cha ...

. Graham Hill raced his car to victory at the

1966 Indianapolis 500 The 50th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Monday, May 30, 1966. The official program cover for the race celebrated both the 50th running of the race, and 150th anniversary of ...

. In 1967, Mecom purchased the newly enfranchised New Orleans Saints for $8.5 million from the NFL and became the youngest owner of an NFL franchise. He owned the Saints until 1985, when he sold the team for $64 million to New Orleans-native businessman

Tom Benson Thomas Milton Benson (July 12, 1927 – March 15, 2018) was an American businessman, philanthropist and sports franchise owner. He was the owner of several automobile dealerships before buying the New Orleans Saints of the National Football Leagu ...

References

1940 births 20th-century American businesspeople Living people American businesspeople in the oil industry People from Houston University of Oklahoma alumni New Orleans Saints owners {{US-business-bio-1940s-stub