Clint Murchison Jr. inherited an oil fortune, bought the Dallas Cowboys for $550,000, and died $100 million short of his debts

Clint Murchison Sr. made a fortune in oil, real estate, construction and railroads in the 1920s and 1930s. His sons Clint Jr. and John inherited it and did business as Murchison Brothers from the late 1940s. In 1960 Clint Jr. bought the new Dallas Cowboys franchise for $550,000. In 1984 he was forced to sell the team. UPI put the price at $40 to $60 million; the Handbook of Texas says $80 million, then a record for an NFL team. The sale alerted creditors to his troubles. In February 1985 Toronto-Dominion Bank, Kona-Post Corporation and Citicorp petitioned to force him into bankruptcy, and he filed under Chapter 11. Forbes had valued him at $350 million, but most of his assets could not be turned into cash. RepublicBank of Dallas and Saudi European Bank of Paris were among the creditors suing over about $500 million in loans. Lawyers called it one of the largest personal bankruptcies in US history. In 1986 a court-approved plan took his business assets and his 25-acre North Dallas estate, and he was still $100 million short. He had a nerve disease that put him in a wheelchair. He died of pneumonia on 30 March 1987, aged 63, and is buried at Sparkman-Hillcrest in Dallas. The buyer of the Cowboys sold them to Jerry Jones in 1989.