Franklin Mieuli ( ; September 14, 1920 – April 25, 2010) was a

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

and

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon ...

who was best known as the principal owner of the San Francisco / Golden State Warriors from 1962 to 1986. The pinnacle of his 24 years with the

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

was its National Basketball Association (NBA) Championship in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

. He was also a minority shareholder in both the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

and

Giants A giant is a being of human appearance, sometimes of prodigious size and strength, common in folklore. Giant(s) or The Giant(s) may also refer to: Mythology and religion *Giants (Greek mythology) *Jötunn, a Germanic term often translated as 'gi ...

. An eccentric personality, Mieuli eschewed

formal attire Formal wear or full dress is the Western dress code category applicable for the most formal occasions, such as weddings, christenings, confirmations, funerals, Easter and Christmas traditions, in addition to certain state dinners, audiences, b ...

and conservative grooming in favor of a casual wardrobe and his ever-present full

beard A beard is the hair that grows on the jaw, chin, upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, usually pubescent or adult males are able to grow beards. Throughout the course of history, societal at ...

and

deerstalker A deerstalker is a type of cap that is typically worn in rural areas, often for hunting, especially deer stalking. Because of the cap's popular association with the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, it has become stereotypical headgear f ...

. His preferred mode of

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ation was the

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

Early years

Mieuli, the second son of Italian immigrants from

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, was born in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...

on September 14, 1920. His father Giacomo and older brother Jack Jr. owned and operated Navlet's Nursery in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area). Mieuli graduated from San Jose High School and the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

, in 1940 and 1944, respectively. In the early 1950s, Mieuli was the local promotions man for

Burgermeister Beer Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, literally "master of the town, master of the borough, master of the fortress, master of the citizens") is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief ...

("Burgie"). His association with the 49ers led him to land the team's star fullback, Joe "The Jet" Perry, on his own sports and music radio program, "Both Sides Of The Record", sponsored by Burgie, on R&B-formatted KWBR (1310 AM; later known as KDIA) beginning in 1954. Mieuli also produced the 49ers radio broadcasts on

KSFO KSFO (560 AM) is a commercial radio station in San Francisco, California. It is owned by Cumulus Media and airs a talk radio format. The station's studios and offices are on Battery Street in the SoMa district of San Francisco, along with f ...

beginning in the 1950s, and produced the first televised 49ers game in 1954. He subsequently produced Giants radio broadcasts, hosted by

Russ Hodges Russell Pleasant Hodges (June 18, 1910 – April 19, 1971) was an American sportscaster who did play-by-play for several baseball teams, most notably the New York Giants / San Francisco Giants. He is perhaps best remembered for his call of Bobby ...

and

Lon Simmons Lonnie Alexander "Lon" Simmons (July 19, 1923 – April 5, 2015) was an American sports announcer, best known for his play-by-play broadcasts of San Francisco Giants baseball and San Francisco 49ers football. He was born in Vancouver, Washin ...

upon the team's move from New York by owner

Horace Stoneham Horace Charles Stoneham ( ; April 27, 1903 – January 7, 1990) was an American Major League Baseball executive and the owner of the New York / San Francisco Giants from 1936 to 1976. Inheriting the Giants, then one of the most prominent franch ...

in 1958. Mieuli was influential in the hiring of sportscaster

Bill King Wilbur "Bill" King (October 6, 1927 – October 18, 2005) was an American sports announcer. In 2016, the National Baseball Hall of Fame named King recipient of the 2017 Ford C. Frick Award, the highest honor for American baseball broadcasters. ...

, initially the third man in the Giants broadcast booth in 1958, behind Hodges and Simmons. Upon Mieuli's purchase of the Warriors in 1962, King left Giants radio to become play-by-play voice of the newly minted "San Francisco Warriors". Coincidentally, at the time of Mieuli's purchase of the team, he was still producing the KSFO broadcasts of the Giants, 49ers, and the Warriors. In 1956, Mieuli purchased five reel-to-reel audiotape duplicators from

Ampex Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name AMPEX is a portmanteau, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence.AbramsoThe History ...

for use in distributing sports and music programming to radio stations. The venture led him to creat
Hi*Speed Duplicating Company
the first business of its kind in Northern California. In 1960, Mieuli produced national radio coverage of the VIII Winter Olympic Games at Squaw Valley. This was the start of his long-standing radio and television production company, Franklin Mieuli & Associates. On January 8, 1958, Mieuli was granted a construction permit for a new FM radio station in San Francisco, which went on the air on Thursday, December 10, 1959, as KPUP (106.9 FM); the station is now the FM portion of all-news KCBS radio's simulcast. Reflecting Mieuli's love for the style of music, KPUP programmed a

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

music format, drawing from the rich variety of artists and recordings that were popular at the time, as well as Mieuli's friendship with

Saul Zaentz Saul Zaentz (; February 28, 1921January 3, 2014) was an American film producer and record company executive. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture three times and, in 1996, was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. Zaentz's film p ...

Fantasy Records Fantasy Records is an American independent record label company founded by brothers Max and Sol Stanley Weiss in 1949. The early years of the company were dedicated to issuing recordings by jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, who was also one of its invest ...

. (The San Francisco Giants' 1962 season highlights, narrated by Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons and produced by Mieuli, were released on a long-playing record by Fantasy, catalog number GB-1962.) KPUP's call letters were changed to the jazzier-sounding KHIP in July 1960. To help finance his purchase of the Warriors, Mieuli sold KHIP to Leon Crosby in June 1962 for $146,000; Crosby renamed the station

KMPX KMPX (channel 29) is a television station licensed to Decatur, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex as an affiliate of the Spanish-language Estrella TV network. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Dallas-licensed ABC ...

Golden State Warriors

Mieuli, along with 32 other local investors, was part of a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...

headed by

Diners Club A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a com ...

that purchased the Philadelphia Warriors from

Eddie Gottlieb Edward Gottlieb (born Isadore Gottlieb; September 15, 1898 – December 7, 1979) was a Jewish-Ukrainian professional basketball coach and executive. Nicknamed "Mr. Basketball" and "The Mogul", he was the first coach and manager of the Philadelph ...

for $850,000 and moved the ballclub to the Bay Area following the 1961–62 NBA season.Bush, Davi
"A tip of the cap: There's still more to Mieuli than meets the eye"
''San Francisco Chronicle'', Wednesday, May 4, 2005 After drawing 5,579 per home game in the prior year, the Warriors fell to the bottom of the league in attendance average with 3,067 in 1962–63, its first season in San Francisco.Shouler, Ken; Ryan, Bob; Smith, Sam; Koppett, Leonard & Bellotti, Bob. ''Total Basketball: The Ultimate Basketball Encyclopedia''. Wilmington, Delaware: Sport Media Publishing Inc., 2003. When Diners Club and other stockholders threatened to bail out from the franchise, Mieuli simply purchased their shares until he eventually became the sole owner. His 24-year ownership of the Warriors was moderately successful on the court, as the team made the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eit ...

ten times with three NBA Finals appearances. The first two trips to the championship series resulted in defeats to the Boston Celtics in

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and the Philadelphia 76ers in

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

. The third one in

was a four-game sweep of the

Washington Bullets The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays ...

and the first time the franchise won the title after its move to the Bay Area. Home attendance was a different story as the Warriors averaged more than 10,000 a game only five times (1976–1979, 1981). Mieuli played a major role in breaking down racial barriers in the NBA by encouraging his team's front office to sign players regardless of

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are assoc ...

. Ten of the twelve players on the Warriors' championship roster during the 1975 Finals were

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, as was head coach Al Attles and his assistant Joe Roberts. Mieuli sold the Warriors to Jim Fitzgerald and Daniel Finnane on May 23, 1986.

Later career

Until his death in 2010,"Ex-Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli dies at 89" ''SF Gate''
/ref> Mieuli retained a 10% share of the 49ers, an investment that dates back to 1954. In addition to his role with Franklin Mieuli & Associates, which handles broadcast engineering for thirty pro and college sports teams, he was an active member of the San Francisco chapter o
Broadcast Legends
and was inducted into th
National Television Academy/Northern California Chapter's
Gold Circle in 2006, honoring him for his significant contributions to local television during a career spanning more than fifty years. In 2007, Mieuli was inducted into th
Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame
as a member of the second class to be honored. He was the recipient of five Super Bowl rings as a part-owner of the 49ers, as well as one NBA Championship trophy as the owner of the Warriors. He died at a hospital in the

in 2010.Weber, Bruc

''The New York Times'', Tuesday, April 27, 2010 His firm, Franklin Mieuli & Associates, continues to produce radio broadcasts for many professional teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB; as well as NCAA teams.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mieuli, Franklin 1920 births">"Franklin Mieuli, Offbeat N.B.A. Owner, Dies at 89"
''The New York Times'', Tuesday, April 27, 2010 His firm, Franklin Mieuli & Associates, continues to produce radio broadcasts for many professional teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB; as well as NCAA teams.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mieuli, Franklin 1920 births
2010 deaths People from San Jose, California American people of Italian descent Golden State Warriors owners National Basketball Association owners National Basketball Association executives San Francisco 49ers owners San Francisco Giants owners Major League Baseball owners Major League Baseball executives University of Oregon alumni