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[4], 222, [6] pages. References. Also includes 30 pages of black and white photographs of Jerry Wolman and his family. Bookplate from Bernhardt Wealth Management on fep. Includes Prologue, as well as chapters on Christmas Eve, 1967; Shenandoah, Pennsylvania; Flying, Robel and Football; The Shenandoah "Drop-out'; War for Wolman and Robel; Williamsport, Pennsylvania; Merchant Marines--1945; Bernie to Anne; The Hitch-hiker; Colonial Paint; Painting To Building--1951; Loans; A Promise Kept; The Soft-hearted Home-builder; Building Wealth; Friends and Neighbors; Summit Hill; Office Buildings; Friends of the Theatre; A Childhood Dream; The Favor; The Bid; Closing Down The Bar; Eagles Office--First Day; The Coach; A Hero's Welcome; Changes; Tackling Mayor Tate; Hershey--1964; The 1964 Season; The Heart of the Owner; Chicago--1964; John Hancock Center; Chevy Chase, Maryland--1965; The $100 Million Dollar Fortune; The Flyers and the Spectrum; Mahanoy City; The Caisson Failure; The Quandary; Losing "Big John"; Mixed Emotions; Paris--1967; Betrayal; New Life; The Firing; The Press Conference; Chapter XI; The Fund Drive; Bankruptcy Court; The Understated Heroine; Leonard Tose; Sold; "I'm Doing It For Me"; ''Jerry's Camelot'; Epilogue. Jerry Wolman was the Cinderella fellow from the coal-mining region of Pennsylvania, who came from nothing and made it big. Wolman's rapid success. However, in attempting to build one of the world's tallest buildings, The John Hancock Center in Chicago, he ran into severe construction problems, causing his $100 million empire to topple. This is the remarkable tale of one man's heartfelt meteoric rise and fall, and the thousands he touched throughout his larger-than-life journey. Jerry Wolman (February 14, 1927 - August 6, 2013) was an American, Washington, D.C. developer and owner of the Philadelphia Eagles football team of the National Football League. Wolman was born to an Orthodox Jewish family in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the son of a grocer. He worked in the family business into his high school years, when his father had a stroke. Not graduating, Wolman joined the Merchant Marines, returned home, and moved to Washington, D.C. In the 1950s, he began his own construction company, building apartment units and offices. In 1963, Wolman bought the Eagles franchise from the "Happy Hundred", a group of investors that owned the team from 1949-1963, for a sale price of $5,505,000, to become the youngest owner in the league. He was also the owner of Connie Mack Stadium. He was also one of the founding owners, briefly in 1967, of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League. Over the next two years, his $100-million financial empire crumbled into bankruptcy, and he was forced to give up his interests in both teams. In 1967, he sold his Flyers interest to his co-owners, with Ed Snider assuming control, along with his partners, Bill Putnam and Joe Scott. In 1969, he sold the Eagles to Leonard Tose for a reported $16.1 million, then a record price for a professional sports team. Wolman was a member of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame; one of its chapters is named after him. Wolman was a philanthropic individual who never forgot his coal mining town roots. He kept in contact with his hometown of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania through good and bad times. Richard "Max" Bockol was an admired attorney practicing in Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs for 45 years. He began his long career as an Assistant District Attorney in Philadelphia, serving under Arlen Specter and along side the Hon. Edward Rendell and the Hon. Lynne Abraham. He authored widely appreciated, always humorous restaurant reviews for more than 30 years under the pseudonyms "Fatty R Bockol" and, later, "Skinny D'Bockol." He co-authored with his son, Joseph, Jerry Wolman: The World's Richest Man (2010).
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