HOUSTON--Look at the perfect picture.
The smiling man in the middle is Robert McNair, a University of South Carolina graduate who owns the 2-year-old Houston Texans because he cut a check to the National Football League for $700 million -- a whopping $560 million more than his friend Jerry Richardson paid for the Carolina Panthers in 1993. McNair next Sunday will serve as the host of Super Bowl XXXVIII, the Panthers vs. the New England Patriots at Houston's state-of-the-art Reliant Stadium, which McNair helped design. Everyone calls him Bob.
"Our goal," he said, "is to make this the most enjoyable Super Bowl anyone has ever attended."
The vibrant woman, beaming as usual, is Janice McNair, an Orangeburg native and Columbia College graduate. Her favorite part of the family financial empire is the renowned Stonerside Stable horse breeding and racing facility in Kentucky. It includes 2000 Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus and indomitable Congaree, still racing after third-place finishes in the 2001 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.
The star quarterback is David Carr, who as the Texans' initial first-round draft pick cost McNair an $11 million signing bonus.
Robert McNair, part-time Kiawah Island resident and owner of the Houston Texans, greet quarterback David Carr while at a game with his wife Janice.
Of course, that's a day-trade whim for a man who in 1999 sold the nation's largest privately held power company for $1.4 billion to another Houston-based energy giant: Enron. When the McNairs in 2002 listed their Kiawah Island vacation home for a staggering $28 million -- quickly withdrawn when they decided not to sell -- it became the highest asking price ever put on a Charleston-area residence.
But if the perfect picture implies a lifetime full of opulence and bliss, well, snapshots lie.
Bob McNair, as recently as the 1980s, nearly had to declare bankruptcy with the collapse of a truck leasing company he started in 1960 after arriving in Houston from South Carolina with $700 to his name.
A dedicated family man in celebration and in crisis, McNair gathered his wife and three children, two of whom were in college, and broke the news.
"Things are really tough right now," the proud father told them. "I just want to forewarn you that your standard of living may change and there will be some disappointments."
Five years later, Janice McNair was diagnosed with breast cancer.
"She's always been very courageous," said Bob McNair, 67. "But there's a time when you don't know if you can deal with the disease or if it will overcome you."
True, the McNairs have a nearly limitless liquidity (with $1.3 billion, he was No. 179 on the Forbes 400 list in September). Money makes them among the most influential people in the NFL, horse racing, private utilities, biotech research and Texas, not necessarily in that order. Bob McNair acknowledged as much this week at his home in Houston's old-money River Oaks neighborhood, while sitting near a warm fire in a den full of fine art and books neatly arranged 20-feet high to the ceiling. In the adjoining parlor, where a pair of secretaries were juggling family schedules, a young politician once glowed with gratitude as Janice McNair presided over one of his very first fund-raisers.
"You're going to be our next governor," she said to George W. Bush, "and you're going to be a great one."
But the McNairs remain grounded in a spiritual perspective tested by the fire of red ink and tumors. They have given away tens of millions of dollars -- nearly $25 million alone to the University of South Carolina.
"I don't know if we give more than the other NFL teams but we do a lot," said Tony Wyllie, who runs the Texans' Touchdown in the Community program, which last year awarded grants to 12 Houston charities. "It all starts at the top."
McNair, when asked to estimate the total of his philanthropy, blushed.
"Oh, I don't know. I don't keep a scorecard," he said. "All I know is I can't deduct anything for the next five years because we've already gone over the limit."
'A LITTLE MIND-BOGGLING'
Bob and Janice McNair met at a Columbia College dance for freshmen in 1954. Janice, homesick and crying, had to be coaxed out of her dorm room by a classmate at the all-women's school. Bob had arrived on campus without a date, tagging along with a fellow South Carolina student who had been invited by a Columbia College coed.
"I missed my mother and daddy and I really wanted to be back in Orangeburg," Janice recalled this week after a workout in her home gym. "I walked down the stairs and met this delightful young man who could tell funny stories and make you laugh."
Wooing Janice Suber, an attractive former All-State basketball player who earned the Most Outstanding Athlete award at Orangeburg High School, was one of McNair's finest sales jobs. But it wasn't his first. McNair as a 4-year-old growing up in Tampa, Fla., enjoyed helping out in his grandfather's restaurant located across the street from the Hav-A-Tampa cigar manufacturing plant in Ybor City. He got tobacco stains on his shoes carrying sandwiches to workers rolling popular cigars.
McNair moved around as his father, Ruse McNair, rose from errand runner to regional manager for his lifelong employer, the Sunshine Biscuits Co. The family went from Tampa to Savannah, Ga., to Charlotte and to Forest City, N.C., where McNair attended high school. Like his wife, McNair was a superb athlete. An N.C. State football scholarship offer was withdrawn at the last minute and McNair turned down a chance to sign with baseball's Chicago Cubs. He settled on a South Carolina academic scholarship and played basketball and tennis on freshman teams.
"I wanted to see if I could play basketball at that level, to prove it to myself. I did. I became a starter," McNair said. "But I didn't think I was going to be an All-American. I thought I should spend my time doing something else."
Upon graduating with a psychology degree in 1958, McNair worked briefly for an auto leasing company in Columbia. He set off for Houston in 1960 aiming to start an auto leasing business of his own.
"You had to think Bob would be successful," said Charlie Way, chairman of Charleston's Beach Company real estate holdings firm and one of McNair's Sigma Chi fraternity brothers at South Carolina. "His personality is so warm, such that he makes anyone feel very, very good. And he's a great salesman."
The leasing business expanded to include trucks and truck equipment, and kept expanding. But deregulation of the trucking business and other pitfalls led to the screeching checkbook trouble in the early 1980s.
Janice and each of the three children provided comfort.
"The kids said, 'We can handle whatever we have to go through. Don't worry,' " McNair said. "That kind of support was so important."
Then McNair took a bold but calculated gamble. In dealing with Texas refineries and chemical plants through his trucking business, McNair learned that owners of large industrial firms were fed up with their public utility bills.
"The electric utilities are semi-political animals and they responded to the largest number of customers they have, not to the biggest customers," McNair said.
The theory: Private utility companies could profitably provide large plants with cheaper energy, allowing the firms to save big money.
Bankers were skeptical. Friends worried.
"Just a big risk," said Way, who attended Orangeburg High School with Janice. "Nobody knew anything about the business."
McNair knew. Without a single partner in 1984, he went northeast and signed a power of sales agreement with Jersey Central Power and Light -- and celebrated.
"It was a life-changing moment," McNair said. "I had a contract to sell them power for 20 years. I had a viable project that was very substantial because it really put me into the power industry with the resources to compete."
McNair's Cogen Technologies grew into the world's largest privately owned co-generation company. Even with Enron's $1.4 billion purchase, McNair maintains control of two power plants within his diverse portfolio. He directly or indirectly has significant investments in over 100 companies. Palmetto Partners, Ltd., his private investment company, has nearly $400 million in assets.
McNair has been way out front in the hot biotech field. His Cogene Biotech Ventures has heavy investments in firms such as Opexa Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (seeking treatment answers for Multiple Sclerosis and other auto-immune diseases) and Xeotron Corp. (a high-tech biological research leader).
Not surprisingly, McNair looks for a maverick spirit when hiring young executives.
"He wants people who are loyal, honest and hard working," said Scott Schwinger, the Houston Texans' senior vice president, treasurer and chief financial officer who also has served McNair in other ventures. "He wants people who think about doing things differently, who don't accept the norm."
The hardest part for McNair, an avid golfer, is finding time to relax. The oceanfront home at Kiawah, a 24,000-foot sand castle without square corners, was to be a frequent retreat. But with the start of the Texans' inaugural NFL season in 2002, the McNairs had less free time for their homes-away-from-home, including horse breeding estates in Paris, Ky., and Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
The $28 million list price for the Kiawah place sent jaws dropping among Lowcountry real estate brokers not easily surprised by elite prices.
"It was like 'Wow' and just incredible," said Karen Bacot, director of marketing at Kiawah Development Partners, the master developer of Kiawah Island. "But it's a unique property, sort of Southwestern and contemporary and really kind of like a mini-hotel that gives each guest a porch and an ocean view."
But if you think real estate people were stunned at the sale offer, you should have seen the McNair's children, Carry McNair, Melissa Reichert and Ruth Smith. "An outcry," Bob McNair said.
The 12 grandchildren weren't thrilled, either.
"Tears started flowing," Janice McNair said.
The property didn't last a week on the market.
"The kids wouldn't allow us to sell it and I'm glad we didn't," Janice McNair said. "We have our family gatherings there. It's such a wonderful place, and we love Spoleto. The beach is just the best place there is for people of all ages."
The bluegrass of Kentucky isn't bad, either. Stonerside Stable, named for the Stoner Creek that runs near Paris, Ky., is a 1,500-acre farm the McNairs established in 1994. It has ranked among the nation's top 20 race earnings stables each of the last five years.
Current or recent Stonerside trainers read like an industry who's who list, including D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert. Janice McNair favors Congaree, the chestnut colt named for the river flowing through Columbia.
"Congaree is a people's horse," she said. "He loves to be petted."
Turning 5 in 2003, Congaree won major races in the Hollywood Gold Cup, Cigar Mile Handicap and Carter Handicap.
"He loves peppermints," said Janice McNair. "If he hears the paper unwrapping when someone is opening a peppermint candy he just gets so excited."
Bob McNair's parents haven't stopped pinching themselves in disbelief. Ruse and Ruth McNair sent their son 10 percent of their gross income to pay for college costs uncovered by his scholarship. Long ago, the appreciative McNair moved Mom and Dad to Texas. The birth of the Texans in 2002 gave him a chance to simultaneously celebrate his father's 92nd birthday and his parents' 71st wedding anniversary in the Founder's Suite at Reliant Stadium. The table was crowded with Texas beef, shrimp and two cakes. Former President Bush was there at the party held prior to a New York Giants-Texans game.
"My mother and father are amazed, knowing where we came from," McNair said. "I guess it is a little mind-boggling."
McNair enjoys reading biographies and autobiographies but has turned down offers to tell his own story.
"I don't know who would be interested," he said.
Huh? What about the bankruptcy-to-$1.4 billion deal part?
"Oh, I guess maybe," McNair said, "in regards to sort of sending a message to people that 'Look, you can do it' and that even if you didn't start out with wealth you can be very successful in this country. Even if you get knocked down you can get back up. Never quitting is the great lesson, in sports and in life."
SUPER SUNDAY
Bob McNair woke up Tuesday to a breakfast of poached eggs, grits and lean venison sausage. He read three newspapers while monitoring a television market report and then beat Janice to the home gym for a workout.
Most mornings, McNair begins business with a phone call to Stonerside Stable. By mid-morning, he shifts into his "football mode," operating either from his Houston Texans office at Reliant Stadium or another office near downtown.
"He delegates a lot but he'll roll up his sleeves, too," Schwinger said. "He'll pull out a calculator if necessary and start punching in numbers."
McNair's fellow NFL owners know he can be relentless. The odds for the league's 32nd team favored Los Angeles and Hollywood talent mogul Michael Ovitz, even if Ovitz was offering $160 million less than McNair. Among other things, NFL officials envisioned a bunch more Super Bowls with a team back in the high-profile L.A. market.
"The NFL ignored Bob for almost a year," Schwinger said. "Imagine that, a billionaire ignored. Most billionaires would have said 'Screw you, I'm taking my money elsewhere.' But Bob stuck with it because he really believed in football for Houston. He got in the middle of it and hired architects and engineers to design a stadium. He convinced the NFL that Houston was the place they really should be looking at."
America's fourth-largest city was still smarting after losing the Oilers when the NFL team moved to Tennessee following the 1996 season. By a 29-0 vote with two abstaining votes, McNair got his $700 million team in October of 1999. He immediately became the most popular man in Houston.
Where the Enron scandal made for a civic embarrassment, the Texans have stepped in to do just about everything right. The Oilers essentially discouraged fans from tailgating outside the Astrodome. The Texans encourage fans to show up early and stay long after games.
McNair's first major Texans hire was general manager Charley Casserly, a well-respected former GM of the Washington Redskins. Casserly brought Dom Capers in as head coach. Capers, the former Panthers head coach, guided Houston to a 5-11 record in 2003 (including a win over the Panthers), not bad for a second-year team.
"Ultimately, in the horse and football operations, if they're not successful, I'm responsible," McNair said. "I picked the people. I determined the strategy."
McNair takes the same personal approach to philanthropy. The McNair Scholars program at South Carolina is set up to attract "top drawer" out-of-state students.
Janice McNair has a stake in her contributions to the Komen Race for the Cure effort to battle breast cancer. It's been almost 16 years since her diagnosis.
"We really need a cure," she said. "I worry about daughters and granddaughters. I just pray that we get some answers and know how to prevent it. There are far too many people having to deal with this disease. It's just not acceptable."
The McNairs this year embraced the Souper Bowl of Caring, a Columbia-based charity in which teens collect donations placed in soup pots outside churches on or near Super Bowl Sunday.
"Their $10,000 donation was wonderful but by lending their name to what we are doing, we've really taken off," said Brenda Hellams, the Souper Bowl marketing director.
Talk about clout: McNair got former president George Bush and his wife Barbara to serve as honorary Souper Bowl chairpersons. Donations are up from $3.5 million in 2003 to a projected $5 million.
"It's very simple: We have a deep belief and strong faith in God and we feel like we're servants," McNair said. "These resources we have are really not ours, as such. We're just stewards of these things while we're here on Earth. I think you're judged on the basis of what you do with what you have."
At Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, where the McNairs have been members almost since they arrived in Houston, Bob has helped manage an $8 million budget as part of the Board of Elders and coached elementary school boys on the church football team. Pastor David Peterson is fascinated by the "interesting dynamic."
"Bob, on the one hand, is a gentle spirit," Peterson said. "On the other hand, he's tenacious. He goes after goals with great energy. The things he's committed to, he does what he needs to do to bring those things into being."
A reporter who spent two weeks researching McNair found nobody with a negative word to say.
Charlie Way said he hasn't seen McNair get angry one time during their five decades of friendship. Pressed to name her husband's worst trait Janice McNair is still thinking about it.
"He seems to have the Midas touch," said Jim Greer, who has covered McNair for the Houston Business Journal. "Everything he does, including the public relations approach with the Texans, has been first rate."
McNair gets a little credit, too, for the revival of the Houston Astros baseball team. Future Hall of Fame pitcher Roger Clemens and Astros general manager Gerry Hunsicker hadn't been on good terms since a messy Astros attempt to acquire Clemens from the Toronto Blue Jays several years ago. But Clemens and Hunsicker got along splendidly last month as McNair's guests at an Atlanta Falcons-Texans game. It wasn't long before Clemens stunned the baseball world by coming out of his brief retirement to sign with the Astros.
Next Sunday, with millions of Super Bowl dollars layered across Houston, the McNairs will stand together in the Founder's Suite at Reliant Stadium. And what a coincidence: The couple who met in college, one from North Carolina and one from South Carolina, will watch the Carolina Panthers take the field to a fight song praising the team as "the pride of both Carolinas."
"It's all sort of a dream come true," Bob McNair said. "We worked on this football thing for a long time before it came to fruition. Then lately we've been so busy as a franchise trying to play and improve that you really don't have time to pat yourself on the back.
"I'll have a chance to sit back and relax and take it all in. To think that none of this was here just three years ago, it's pretty amazing."
With America watching and thousands of flashbulbs popping, the Super Bowl XXXVIII kickoff as seen from Bob and Janice McNair's eyes will make for a truly perfect picture.
ADVENTURE CAPITAL
Big sale: Entrepreneur Robert McNair sold most -- but not all -- of his private utilities empire to Enron in 1999 for $1.4 billion.
Big buy: McNair in October of 1999 was granted a new NFL franchise, the Houston Texans, for $700 million.
Holdings: No. 179 on Forbes 400 list ($1.3 billion). Palmetto Partners, Ltd., McNair's private investment firm, has nearly $400 million in assets; Cogene Biotech Ventures is a limited partnership with investments mostly in biotech research companies; directly or indirectly is tied to more than 100 companies; Stonerside Stable in Kentucky has ranked among the top 20 horse racing earnings tables for five years in a row.
Houses: Lives primarily in Houston with other homes at Kiawah Island, Kentucky, New York and California; the 24,000-foot Kiawah Island property was listed for sale at a Charleston area-record $28 million in 2002 but quickly withdrawn from the market.
Donations: Has donated tens of millions of dollars to charity, including a scholarship grant of nearly $25 million to his alma mater, the University of South Carolina.
ROBERT MCNAIR FILE
Super host: McNair owns the Houston Texans, host team for Super Bowl XXXVIII on Sunday.
College: South Carolina '58.
Age: 67; born on New Year's Day, 1937, in Tampa, where his alma mater won New Year's Day Outback Bowl games in 2001 and 2002.
Family: Wife Janice is an Orangeburg native, three children, 12 grandchildren.
