On This Date: William Clay Ford Buys Detroit Lions

The Ford Family has owned the Lions for 60 years.

The Detroit Lions have been owned by the Ford Family for 60 years. 

On this date back in 1963, William Clay Ford became the owner on the exact same day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

Back in 1961, Ford was a minority shareholder and even served as the team's  President. 

Ford reportedly was able to buyout the other minority shareholders for $4.5 million in order to assume total control. 

Despite every effort to make the team a winner, the late principal never was never able to bring the City a Super Bowl victory. 

After owning the team for just a little over 50 years, Ford passed away on March 9, 2014. 

Now, Sheila Hamp is Detroit's principal owner and has worked diligently to change Detroit's losing culture. 

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After taking over for Martha Firestone Ford, work was done to build more of a collaborative approach between the many different facets of running a National Football League franchise. 

“My message (is) I’m going to do everything in my power to create a winning organization, and especially on the field,” Hamp said, via the Free Press. “The fans deserve it, the city deserves it, and I am a very competitive person. I grew up playing competitive tennis. It’s an individual sport and I’m out there by myself and, boy, I hated to lose. I still hate to lose. I guess that’s my message to the fans: I’ll hate to lose as much as they do, and I’ll try not to.”