Marcus Thompson II of the Bay Area News Group reports:
Franklin Mieuli, the only owner to bring a championship to the Warriors franchise since it moved West, died Sunday of natural causes. He was 89.
Mieuli owned the Warriors for 24 years, selling the franchise in 1985. But Mieuli, with his bushy beard and plaid deerstalker cap, was a regular sight courtside at Warriors games over the years, even the early part of this past season. He had been hospitalized recently, the family told the Warriors.
“Franklin Mieuli was one of the most instrumental figures in my life,” Al Attles, who was coach of Mieuli’s 1975 championship team, said in a news release.
The AP reports:
Mieuli was the principal owner of the Warriors from the time they moved to the Bay Area in 1962 until he sold them in 1986. He won an NBA title with the team in 1975…
Mieuli also once owned a small percentage of the San Francisco Giants and still had a five per cent interest in the 49ers, which he purchased in 1954.
Mieuli, who grew up in San Jose and attended the University of Oregon, was an advertising executive for a San Francisco brewery which, at his instigation, began sponsoring 49ers radio broadcasts.
