John V. Mara (March 21, 1908 – June 29, 1965) was a co-owner of the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...

, an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

team that plays in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

. Jack was the son of Elizabeth "Lizette" (née Barclay) and

Tim Mara Timothy James Mara (July 29, 1887 – February 16, 1959) was the founding owner of the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL).''Wellington, the Maras, the Giants, and the City of New York'', Carlo DeVito, Triumph Books, 2006, pp ...

and brother of

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by ...

, and served as the team's president for 24 years. He and Wellington inherited the team upon their father's death in 1959. He graduated from

Fordham University Fordham University () is a private Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its original campus is located, Fordham is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit un ...

in 1933 with a law degree. However, he never became a practicing lawyer, instead joining the Giants as team president. In 1934 he married Helen Phelan, daughter of

New York State Athletic Commission The New York State Athletic Commission or NYSAC, also known as the New York Athletic Commission, is a division of the New York State Department of State which regulates all contests and exhibitions of unarmed combat within the state of New York, ...

chairman John J. Phelan. They had two children - Maura and Timothy J. Mara. Jack Mara died at the age of 57 on June 29, 1965, of cancer at Memorial Hospital. He is buried at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Valhalla, New York. He was inducted into the New York Giants Ring of Honor in 2010.

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* 1908 births 1965 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople National Football League team presidents New York Giants executives New York Giants owners Sportspeople from New York City Mara family {{Amfoot-bio-stub