Chicago Bulls, White Sox Owner Jerry Reinsdorf will Speak at Elmhurst College Sept. 20

Jerry Reinsdorf is an attorney, certified public accountant, and the majority owner of the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago White Sox. His teams have delivered seven world championship titles to the city and its impassioned fans, and over his career Reinsdorf has shaped the modern era of two professional sports.

Ranked No. 14 on Chicago magazine’s 2012 list of 100 Most Powerful Chicagoans, Reinsdorf is described as “arguably the most masterful negotiator the sports world has ever seen.” Meanwhile, over the last two years his charity programs “have generously, and quietly, funneled more than $1.5 million into Chicago Public Schools, cancer programs, and children’s charities.”

Reinsdorf will present The Economics of Sports and of the Real World at 190 Prospect Ave., at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 20, in Hammerschmidt Memorial Chapel. The lecture is part of the Elmhurst College Democracy Forum lecture series.

Few Americans are better acquainted than Reinsdorf with the peculiar economic realities of the high-profile professional sports industry. Even fewer have had as much success. Fulfilling a dream that began as a baseball fan growing up in Brooklyn during the 1930s and 1940s, Reinsdorf accepted the Commissioner’s Trophy from Bud Selig on Oct. 26, 2005, after the White Sox swept their way to the team’s first World Series Championship since 1917. During his tenure as chairman of the Bulls, the team captured six World Championships (1991-93, and 1996-98).

As a leader of Major League Baseball at the national level, he has developed labor policy, advanced equal opportunity initiatives, and informed the industry’s crucial engagement with new media.

Reinsdorf also was responsible for the construction of two new sports facilities in Chicago: Comiskey Park (1991), now U.S. Cellular Field, and the United Center (1994). He also has played a critical role in developing of the West Side area surrounding the United Center, and was responsible for introducing an innovative reading program to the Chicago Public Schools. Through the Chicago Bulls/Sox Training Academy and outreach efforts such as White Sox Training Centers and Chicago Bulls Basketball Schools, Reinsdorf’s franchises promote sports to thousands of youth each year.

Admission for the Sept. 20 lecture is $10 for the general public and free for Elmhurst College students, faculty, staff and alumni. Tickets are available at the door or by visiting www.elmhurst.edu/tix. For more information, call (630) 617-3390.