How a ‘bright light’ of Kansas City became a trailblazing part-owner of the KC Royals
When Lou Smith heard about Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes recently buying into the Royals’ ownership group, he thought of it simply as “pleasing.”
“It said to me a great deal about who Patrick Mahomes is, and it also said a lot about (majority owner) John Sherman and his group,” Smith, 77, said across the living room at his Leawood home the other day. “A welcome addition, I would think.
“I have not met Patrick, of course, but he seems to be the kind of individual who would be an asset on and off the field. … Kind of reminds you of the long-term commitment that George Brett made to greater Kansas City and how involved he got in so much.”
It also reminded us of the long-term commitment Smith made to Kansas City. And how involved he got in so much. And how before Mahomes became one of the few known Black men to have a stake in a Major League Baseball franchise, Smith was among the first, if not the first, to be part of an ownership group in MLB history.
Even today, per a 2019 article Forbes article, there are no majority Black owners in MLB. Most visibly, Marlins CEO Derek Jeter owns 4 percent of the franchise. And there remains scant representation in ownership groups. (In addition to Mahomes, The Star has learned, a Black woman is part of the JE Dunn component of the current ownership group. But it’s understood she wishes to remain anonymous in accordance with a stated ownership policy that it’s up to any individuals whether they wish their role to be known publicly).
Lest it be forgotten, Smith’s time with the Royals was part of an unorthodox arrangement at a pivotal moment in franchise history.
A matter of Trust
After the death of Royals founder and owner Ewing Kauffman in 1993, the team was donated to the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation with one particular end in mind.
Smith served at the behest of Kauffman in the five-person limited partnership that purchased Class A voting stock to run the team, with the mission of honoring one of Kauffman’s dying wishes — keeping the team here.
That notion might sound odd now. But when Kauffman couldn’t recruit new local ownership in his waning years, relocation seemed at least a possibility in a city that already had lost one MLB team when the Athletics moved to Oakland after the 1967 season.
“If people in Kansas City don’t want baseball in Kansas City, what can we do?” Royals president Mike Herman, the former Marion Labs executive who devised the structure for the team to be owned in trust, said in 1998. “If we can’t find local buyers, we are permitted to move the team. It’s something we don’t want to do.”
With attendance plunging amid the fallout of the 1994 strike and a steep drop on the field amid painful financial cuts the trust was compelled to make, murmurs of contraction hovered even through the ultimate sale to trust managing partner David Glass 20 years ago.
While the late Glass bought the team for $96 million and sold it for $1 billion, it didn’t quite work that way for Smith and others, who by design made only the return of investment.
So in some ways, it might have seemed a thankless task (other than perhaps the part where Smith and his family went to a lot of ballgames) ... and an endless one. The intricate and convoluted process no doubt was stressful along a way that included efforts by Brett, Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt and New York attorney Miles Prentice, whose bid the board approved only to have MLB not approve it.
But like others in the group that included Herman and, later, former Kansas City Star editor Joe McGuff, Smith’s endless devotion to Kauffman was inspiration enough.
That’s why Smith still speaks with awe about his book of handwritten personal notes from Kauffman, still takes to heart his words of treating others with dignity and respect ... and why it was urgent he make good on preserving what he considered one of Kauffman’s gifts to Kansas City.
But it came at a price, as Smith put it, “when you lose a wealthy owner who is willing to underwrite losses, and substantial losses.” Case in point: Small market notwithstanding, the Royals had the fourth-highest payroll in the game by 1993.
That model wasn’t sustainable when streamlining for a sale. And Kauffman himself “had suggested reducing payroll to minimize losses until a buyer could be found and baseball’s economics recalibrated,” according to a meticulously documented study of the Royals’ ownership history written by Daniel Levitt for the Society For American Baseball Research (SABR).
“Even though Mr K. was generous in the additional money he left us to help cover the losses and what we were able to raise from the community, it required us to put some discipline (into the running) of the ballclub,” said Smith, who had a sterling business career before being recruited by Kauffman and went on to thrive as president of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation from 1995 to 2002. “It’s not really that complicated …
“It’s a business, and if you want to stay in business your revenues need to exceed your expenses. Or at least match. And we were not in that position. And it took some time.”
A unique time, to be sure, in which the accomplished and genial Smith was essential because of his business acumen and wavelength with Mr. K.
“He is methodical. He misses nothing. I’m sure that’s why Daddy had him (in the group),” said Julia Irene Kauffman, chairman and CEO of the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation.
“He picked the right man for the right job,” she added, noting Smith is on the board of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and calling him a mentor and one of her favorite people.
‘A bright light’
Smith grew up about seven miles north of Jefferson City in Holts Summit, Missouri, where his parents, George and Maureen, operated “George’s Rib Station” from 1947 to 1967. At a time when segregation remained in force, George Smith refused to comply and the restaurant welcomed all.
By the time Lou was ready for high school, he was one of the few Black students to enter recently integrated Jefferson City High, where he was proud to play football for the legendary Pete Adkins. While he appreciated the education and didn’t say it was difficult to be part of that fresh wave against the tide, he smiled and added, “Looking back, you accepted more than I would be able to accept now.”
Since his father also worked full-time as a printer for the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Smith was eligible for a University of Missouri-Rolla program that enabled him to live at the patrol’s then-training academy and work for room and board and a small stipend.
That allowed him to earn his degree in electrical engineering and set the stage for a remarkable career.
“To the African-American community, Lou Smith is a bright light,” former Kansas City Mayor Emanuel Cleaver said upon Smith’s retirement in 2002.
Smith spent nearly 30 years with AlliedSignal (previously Bendix, now Honeywell International) before he retired as president of the Kansas City division to join the foundation, where The Star reported that spending on education and entrepreneurship grew from $37 million in 1995 to about $80 million when he retired.
He also has served on numerous local boards, including H&R Block Inc., Sprint Corporation and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and has had a hand in many other endeavors.
“He was instrumental in helping get the Kauffman Foundation’s support to help build the NLBM’s new home that opened in 1997,” Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick said.
All of this makes for a perhaps underappreciated legacy in Kansas City. Maybe particularly so if you consider part of how it started: When Smith sought an apartment for grad school at Rockhurst, a building owner told him, “ ‘I’d burn this place down before I’d sell it to (racial slur).’ That’s the way it was.”
Being the first or only of anything can be a lonely or daunting experience, but Smith saw that differently. Asked about becoming the first Black member of Mission Hills Country Club in 1996, Smith said it was important not just to have equal opportunities but to make a broader statement.
“Because you can’t change perceptions,” he said, “unless you actually change the reality of people who are dealing with you.”
He’s seen that happen in Kansas City, quite visibly in corporate and political leadership. And as he considers racial progress amid the widespread movement after the killing of George Floyd beneath the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, he’s delighted by the diversity of the participants.
“My belief all along has been we will not take the last leap in equality until more white people get outraged at what’s been going on,” he said, adding, “Part of this, in my opinion, is because we as a race haven’t done all we could and should do in voting and getting involved, the other part of it is being outnumbered.”
While he hopes to see protests transformed into more specific action, he added, “This is not going away now.”
Thanks in part to him, neither are the Royals. Something that we might take for granted now that once was less than certain.
“We caught a lot of flak; it was tough,” he said, with a laugh. “But that’s why we were there. If you can’t take the heat …”
Heat that was worth it for Kansas City ... and for Mr. K.
This story was originally published August 9, 2020 at 5:00 AM.