William D. Cox

William Drought Cox (November 8, 1909 – March 28, 1989) was an American businessman and sports executive.

Early life Cox was born in 1909, growing up on Riverside Drive on Manhattan's Upper West Side. He graduated from high school at the age of 15, then attended New York University and Yale University. After working in commercial and investment banking, he joined a lumber firm, becoming that company's president at the age of 27. He later founded his own lumber brokerage. Cox headed a 30-man syndicate that outbid another group headed by construction magnate John B. Kelly Sr., buying the Phillies for $190,000 and a $50,000 note on March 15, 1943. At the age of only 33 at the time, he was the youngest owner in the league.

At the time Cox took over, the Phillies had been the dregs of the NL for a quarter century; they had finished above .500 only once since , at least in part because the team's owners had been unwilling or unable to spend the money necessary to build a winner. Cox, however, was not afraid to spend what it took to get the Phillies out of the cellar. He significantly increased the team's payroll and devoted significant resources to player development (including the farm system) for the first time in the history of the franchise. He also hired Bucky Harris, who had won two pennants and one World Series with the Washington Senators, as manager.

However, Cox was a very hands-on owner; as Rich Westcott of the Society for American Baseball Research put it, he tried to run the Phillies "with the same strict regimen with which he ran his lumber company." He'd played baseball at Yale, and still thought of himself as a star athlete. Believing the team needed to be better conditioned, he hired his high school track coach, Harold Bruce, as team trainer. Cox even suited up for workouts, and frequently showed up at the clubhouse before and after games. All of this grated on Harris, and when he protested against Cox's interference, Cox fired him on July 27 at a press conference, without bothering to inform Harris. The players threatened to go on strike in protest, but Harris urged them to drop those plans after Cox threatened legal action.

Despite this, the Phillies showed signs of respectability for the first time in years, and they finished 64–90, a healthy 22-game improvement from 1942, to get out of the cellar for the first time in five years. Although they were still a long way from contention, the long-beleaguered Phillies fans appreciated what Cox was trying to do. The Phillies attracted over 466,000 fans, more than double their 1942 gate and their best attendance since . At the time of Harris' firing, the Phillies had already won 38 games, just four fewer than they had won in the previous season. More importantly in the long run, the farm system had begun developing the players who would help lead the Phillies to the 1950 World Series.

On July 28, Harris dropped a bombshell at his hotel room in Philadelphia: he had evidence that Cox was betting on his own team. When Landis got wind of Harris' charges, he launched an immediate investigation. Initially, Cox denied any wrongdoing, but conceded that some of his business associates bet on the Phillies. As the investigation progressed, Cox changed his story and admitted making some "sentimental" bets on the Phillies, and he claimed that he didn't know it was against the rules. This made no difference to Landis, who suspended Cox indefinitely on November 23, 1943.

Cox immediately resigned as team president but appealed Landis' ruling 11 days later.

Professional soccer leagues In 1960, Cox led entrepreneurs in creating the International Soccer League, an annual summer competition that would bring professional soccer teams from various nations, as well as a team of American-born players, the New York Americans to play against each other in New York City. The International Soccer League competition lasted for six summers, and would stage matches in other cities during its existence. In 1967, Cox and other sportsmen launched the National Professional Soccer League in 10 American cities. After a merger with the rival United Soccer Association, eight of the NPSL franchises (the Atlanta Chiefs, Baltimore Bays, Chicago/Kansas City Spurs, Los Angeles/San Diego Toros, New York Generals, Oakland Clippers, St. Louis Stars, and Toronto Falcons) would become part of the North American Soccer League.

Cox retired to other business interests and died in Mount Kisco, New York in 1989.