James H. Warsaw, former president of Irvine-based Sports Specialties Corp., passed away at the age of 61. Warsaw sold Sports Specialties to Nike for $78 million in 1993. A donation to the University of Oregon led to the creation of the school's Warsaw Sports Marketing Center.


 


According to the Los Angeles Times, Warsaw died on April 22nd at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of complications from infections. He also suffered from Parkinson's disease.


 


In 1928 his father, David Warsaw, founded Sports Specialties Corporation, which was the first company to sign a licensing contract with a professional sports team. While creating and manufacturing sports souvenirs at his Chicago-based company, he came up with the idea for ashtrays in the shape of Wrigley Field and selling them to Cubs fans. He approached Cubs owner Phil Wrigley for permission to sell them at Wrigley Field and won him over when he agreed to pay him a “royalty” on every ashtray sold. In addition to the ashtrays, David patented a miniature ceramic baseball player, whose head bounced on a small spring. Today this doll is known around the world as the “bobble-head doll”.


 


Jim Warsaw entered the family business in 1969 along with his brother, Robert. Together the Warsaw family grew Sports Specialties into the world’s leading licensed sports headwear company. In 1963, Sports Specialties became the first official licensee of the National Football League, and also was the first to be named as an official championship locker room headwear supplier for special sports events such as Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, All-Star Games and the NCAA Final Four. During the 1970's, Jim headed company offices in Hong Kong, Manila and Chicago and from 1981 to 1993 he served as president. Warsaw, who served as company president from 1981 to 1993, concentrated on marketing, and his brother, Robert, as chairman, oversaw production and distribution.


 


Under his leadership Sports Specialties secured the first “Authentics” license agreement in professional sports when the NFL “ProLine” was created in 1984. In addition, the company’s signature 100% wool sized caps, The “Pro”, were the first contracts for “on field” authentic headwear for the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, and Major League Baseball, the 1992 Olympic Basketball Dream Team, as well as over 80 countries in the International Baseball Association.


 


A short time after the sale of Sports Specialties to Nike in 1993, Warsaw approached the University of  Oregon's Lundquist College of Business about the sports marketing program, almost the same time that he learned he had Parkinson’s. Warsaw, who attended the UO in the 1960s, laid the foundation for what would become the James Warsaw Sports Marketing Center by donating $250,000 to endow a professorship in sports marketing. The Warsaw center became the country’s first sports business program to be housed within a business college.


 


“Jim has been a great friend of the Lundquist College of Business and will be greatly missed. He touched many of us here in a deeply personal way. Despite his long battle with Parkinson's, his spirit was indomitable,” said Dean Dennis Howard. “His relentlessly positive nature, his self-effacing humor, his love for his alma mater and for 'his students' in the Warsaw Center were defining qualities of his personality. All of which made him such a special and endearing person.”


University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer added, “With the passing of Jim Warsaw, the University of Oregon has lost a great friend and a true source of inspiration. Jim had an irrepressible energy and a spirit that made you believe anything was possible. We are indebted to Jim for his strong commitment to Oregon. Our hearts go out to the entire Warsaw family at this very difficult time. The entire University of Oregon community will very much miss its good friend Jim Warsaw.”


“The Warsaw Center was his passion and the students his pride,” noted Paul Swangard, Warsaw Center managing director. “He worked tirelessly to assist hundreds of students enter the sports industry and through them will have a lasting impact on the business he loved. As one of those former students. I'm forever grateful and was truly fortunate to call him my friend.”


In addition to being a dedicated friend of the Lundquist College of Business and the University of Oregon, Jim served on many boards across the country, including the Los Angeles Sports Council, the Giving Back Fund, the University of California, Irvine Athletic Advisors Board, the National Board of Governors of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation, the Brain Imaging Center at the University of California-Irvine College of Medicine, the Byron Scott Children's Charities, and more. He also founded the James H. Warsaw Foundation to Cure Parkinson's Disease, cofounded the Cure Parkinson's Program at the Giving Back Fund, and was a leading national patient advocate to cure Parkinson's Disease.



 


In addition to his brother Robert, Warsaw is survived by his wife, Ellyne; three sons, Bryan, Kyle and Zakary; his mother, Anne; another brother, Zeke; and a sister, Wendy Ruby.