Saturday, April 09, 2022

I just learned of George Shinn, and his car collection



2010 Iacocca Edition Mustang

Shinn worked in a textile mill, a car wash at his dad's Gulf service station, and as a school janitor. 
His dad passed away when he was 8 of a heart attack, and George finished dead last in his high school graduating class 


he recreated his dad's Gulf station

He later attended Evans Business College in Concord, North Carolina. Upon graduating, he raised enough money to buy Evans and other small colleges that offered 18-24 month programs, consolidating them all under the umbrella company Rutledge Education Systems. He sold the schools and bought the basketball team with the proceeds. 


1972 340 Demon

Shinn is the former owner of the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets, as well as the Charlotte Knights and Gastonia Rangers minor league baseball teams, along with the Raleigh–Durham Skyhawks, of the World League of American Football. He purchased the Hornets for $32.5 million in 1987. The name of the Hornets cheerleader/dancers? The Honey Bees. Was he accused of sexual assault? Yep. Settle out of court with a cash payment? Yep. 

He is still hated in Charlotte, not only for moving the team to New Orleans, but also for trading player Alonzo Mourning in 1995. Shinn has not returned to Charlotte since the Hornets left for New Orleans in 2002.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Shinn

His 2nd marriage ended in 2016, when he was 75 and she was 47, in 2020 he remarried at age 80, and she is 50, and his Wikipedia ain't going to mention any of that. 


"I used to buy my executives cars from a Lincoln-Mercury dealership and I always used the same salesman: Rick Hendrick," recalls Shinn. "We became good friends so when I became interested in buying a car dealership, I asked Rick if he wanted to partner with me."

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