Sport: Big Casino

Cooke sells for a record price

Jack Kent Cooke signed checks worth $5 million to underwrite the first Ali-Frazier fight in 1971. He spent upwards of $10 million for 86% of the stock of the Washington Redskins. He bought the Los Angeles Lakers ($5.2 million in 1965) and in 1967 started a National Hockey League team called the Kings in, of all unlikely places, sunny Southern California. Then he built the $16 million Forum to house his athletic baubles. But the next check will read PAY TO THE ORDER OF JACK KENT COOKE. After 18 years as sport's premier entrepreneur, Cooke,...

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