Detroit Lions Owner William Clay Ford, Sr. Is Dead

Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford, Sr. has died.

Ford owned the team for more than 50 years. He bought controlling interest from Lions shareholders on Nov. 22, 1963—the same day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Back in 2003, the Detroit Free Press talked to Ford about the bizarre coincidence:

"It turned into a sad, terrible day. About a half-hour after the meeting, a few of us were having lunch at the Statler Hilton to celebrate. And a waitress came up to me and asked if I heard about Kennedy in Dallas. And I was waiting for the punch line. There were a lot of sick people making jokes about Kennedy around that time. But then you could tell that she was serious, and she said that he had been shot.

"It's a terrible coincidence that both of these things would occur around the same time. But there were a couple of times over the years when some things happened to us that you just couldn't figure out why or how it happened, and you'd briefly think if there's some kind of stigma attached to anything else that may have taken place that awful day."

Ford was 88 years old.

Photo: AP