Who Was Red McCombs?
Understanding how McCombs’ name came to be known on the Southwestern campus, and across the state of Texas
Billy Joe (more commonly known as “Red”) McCombs was renowned for his philanthropy to various educational institutions across the state of Texas, funded by the profits of his work in the oil and gas, automotive, and sports industries. This entry focuses on McCombs’ path to philanthropy through his experiences in higher education.
McCombs grew up in the small town of Spur, Texas, where he later said he first showed his “entrepreneurial spirit” by selling newspapers and washing dishes at a local restaurant after school. McCombs’ father was a mechanic in Spur but he moved the family to Corpus Christi in 1943 after receiving the opportunity to work at the Naval Air Station. McCombs was deeply saddened by the prospect of leaving Spur; however, he found success playing football for his new high school team.
After graduating from high school in 1945, McCombs spent the summer searching for colleges that would give him a scholarship for their institution. He tried out for Baylor University’s football team, which was returning from a hiatus after World War II, but he was rejected on the last day of tryouts. However, the athletic director Bill Henderson informed McCombs that he had a connection to Southwestern that would allow him to play on the football team and attend classes on scholarship.
This offer from Henderson led McCombs to play for Southwestern’s football team as both a defensive lineman and a receiver in the Fall of 1945 before leaving in the spring to serve in the U.S. Army from 1946 to 1947, where he was stationed in Korea. When he returned to the US in 1947, he transferred to Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, where Del Mar’s football coach offered to pay his tuition for the year, and an extra $10 a week if he would drive some of his teammates to the games. It was during his enrollment to Del Mar where he met Charline Hamblin, also a former Southwestern student, and they began dating.
McCombs transferred schools again, deciding to study pre-law at UT in the fall of 1948. However, an entrepreneur at heart, he was unsatisfied with the prospect of a career in law, so after 2 years he returned to his home in Corpus Christi to sell used cars at the local Austin Hemphill dealership. The success he experienced as the dealership’s top seller that year marked the beginning of his career as a car dealer whose multiple dealerships in San Antonio for multiple car brands still bear his name. Eventually he expanded into the petroleum industry and was a rancher, completing his image as a quintessential Anglo Texan wheeler-dealer.
Throughout it all, McCombs maintained his love of sports. In 1953, McCombs bought the minor league baseball team the Corpus Christi Aces, saving it from bankruptcy. The team was renamed the Corpus Christi Clippers, and managed to win the playoffs 1954. He went on to acquire the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs two separate times. In between, he owned a second NBA team, the Denver Nuggets, and for a while owned the Minnesota Vikings of the NFL.
In 1988, McCombs established the McCombs Foundation to aid various causes within the Texas education and health sectors, ensuring that his name is cemented across the landscape of Texas, at UT-San Antonio, Trinity University, and the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, as well as even sports rivals Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Baylor, and of course UT-Austin, which renamed its entire business school after McCombs after a $50 Million gift in 2000.
Closer to home for us, McCombs had an enormous influence at Southwestern from the 1980s into the 2000s. Recognizing how impactful his short time at Southwestern was, McCombs joined the Board of Trustees in 1987. Rising to the Board Chair position in 1992, he facilitated gifts of close to $92 million for the university and personally funded the Red and Charline McCombs Campus Center and other campus projects such as the Charline Hamblin McCombs apartment-style residence halls for upper-class students. Although he stepped down from the Board Chair position in 2000, McCombs maintained his place on the Board, being granted the title of Life Trustee member in 2014, maintaining that title for 9 years before his death in the Spring of 2023.
McCombs’ presence is still felt on campus through the various institutional landmarks named after him and his family, making his memory central to the life of everyone at Southwestern. Other Placing Memory entries explore the more complicated aspects of this legacy more fully.
