Bill Bidwill

William V. Bidwill Sr., the longtime owner of the N.F.L.’s Arizona Cardinals, who moved the team from St. Louis to the Phoenix area, died on Tuesday October 1 2019 in Phoenix. He was 88. Part of a fading generation of owners whose main business was football, Bidwill spent nearly his entire life with the Cardinals, beginning as a ball boy when the team was in Chicago. He was named a vice president while attending Georgetown University and went to work full-time for the team in 1960, the year it moved to St. Louis. Bidwill and his brother, Charles Jr., who was known as Stormy, inherited the team from their mother, Violet Bidwill, who died in 1962. Bill Bidwill bought his brother’s shares and became the sole owner in 1972. He moved the team to Arizona in 1988. In recent years he had stepped away from running the team. His son Michael is now the team president. William Vogel Bidwill was born on July 31, 1931, and grew up in Chicago. His father, Charles W. Bidwill Sr., who was involved in horse racing, bought the Cardinals for $50,000 (the equivalent of about $900,000 today) in 1932. His mother, Violet (Fults) Bidwill, took over the team after Charles Sr. died in 1947. Bidwill graduated from Georgetown in 1953 and did a stint in the Navy. When Bidwill’s mother died, her second husband fought unsuccessfully in court for ownership of the team, arguing that because the sons had been adopted, they were not eligible to inherit it. The Illinois Supreme Court ruled against him in 1963. Bidwill’s wife of 56 years, Nancy (Lavezorrio), died in 2016. In addition to his son Michael, he is survived by his brother; four other children, Bill Jr., Nicole, Patrick and Tim Bidwill; 10 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.