Jay C. Upchurch
6/18/2010, 09:14 AM
If you want to meet a great Sooner this evening (June 18) then head to the Barnes and Noble book store at 13800 N. May in OKC. Appearing at 6 p.m. will be former OU football player and legendary Wall Street mogul Ace Greenberg. He will talk about his new book and sign an autograph or two.
Here is a story Sooner Spectator ran on Mr. Greenberg in its 2010 recruiting issue...
This is Sooner Flashback... but not the former style flashback... something new or more like the Chew Kennedy layout....
Sooner Flashback
Ace: Former football letterwinner Alan Greenberg has never forgotten
the university and scholarship that helped give him a start
Loyalty runs deep where Alan Greenberg is concerned, especially when it comes to recognizing and remembering the people and places that helped mold him into a successful Wall Street mogul. The University of Oklahoma athletics department is a perfect example of Greenberg’s timeless allegiance.
More than 60 years have passed since he enrolled in the summer of 1945 and stayed but a single semester at OU, attending classes and playing football as a true freshman. By the following spring, a back injury and other circumstances dictated his departure for the University of Missouri and eventually the path to becoming chairman and CEO of Bear Stearns.
While his stay in Norman may have been abbreviated, Greenberg, now 82, has never forgotten his ties to OU. Over the years, he has remained dedicated to the Sooner cause by giving back in a number of ways, including through a scholarship endowment program.
Greenberg, himself, was awarded a football scholarship coming out of Oklahoma City’s Classen High School, which is how he ended up at OU and how he created so many lasting bonds with the school and its history.
“I was very grateful to be given a football scholarship,” said Greenberg recently from his New York office, “and I am still indebted to the University for it.”
Greenberg has long demonstrated his appreciation for that scholarship he received back in 1945, even though OU ultimately played a small overall role in his success story.
“Ace Greenberg has always had a deep interest in his home state and a strong desire to help students at OU and especially students in need,” offered President David L. Boren in a written statement about Greenberg’s impact on Oklahoma.
Greenberg’s usual practice, added Boren, was to end each conversation by saying, “Don’t waste time on a thank you note. I want to help.”
That says a lot about Alan Greenberg’s loyalty.
“He has helped our intercollegiate athletics program in many ways, from endowing a scholarship to helping us build a new locker room for our football team,” wrote Joe Castiglione, OU’s director of athletics. “He cares about people and wants them to be successful.”
OU’s eventual benefactor arrived on campus in summer of ’45 and immediately enrolled in summer classes. That fall, Greenberg was one of the many new faces that spotted coach Snorter Luster’s roster, and he quickly earned a spot as an alternate wingback who went on to see a fair amount of action in the Sooners’ not-so-memorable 5-5 season.
Luster was not in good health and would resign by the end of the season, but not before a number of his players developed injuries that factored heavily into the team’s .500 record. Among those hurt was Greenberg, who suffered a ruptured disc in the second game, a 20-0 victory over Nebraska.
Although Greenberg played in several more games that season, the injury effectively ended his football career and helped put him on path toward a new destiny. The summer after the 18-year-old incurred the back injury, his father took him to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, but after some testing he chose to forgo surgery at the advice of clinic physicians.
Greenberg was born in Wichita, Kan., but moved to Oklahoma City at age 5. His parents owned Street’s, a local clothing store, and he was a solid student and talented athlete who went on to play prep football on a team that included future OU All-American Jim Owens.
By the time college rolled around, OU was offering a scholarship and it seemed like the perfect fit.
“I started out in engineering at OU,” said Greenberg, then adding with a chuckle, “but after that first lab, I transferred to business administration.”
That turned out to be a good decision, as he has spent the last 60-plus years in New York with Bear Stearns and now JP Morgan Chase, ascending to the position of CEO of Bear Stearns from 1978-93, as well as chairman of the board 1985-2001.
Greenberg was a solid player for the Sooners during his lone season on campus. Bob Bodenhamer and Lester “Bear” Jensen played with Greenberg on the ’45 team and both spoke glowingly of their friend and former teammate.
“He was a really good high school football player. He had good speed and didn’t start, but played a lot at OU,” recalled Jensen, a guard who played for Norman High School against Greenberg’s Classen team during their prep years.
Bodenhamer, a center and place kicker, noted that Greenberg saw considerable action for the Sooners, even though OU had a number of good running backs and a lot of older players from the Navy.
“He had 9.9 or 10-flat 100-yard speed and won the 100 and 200 and was on the winning relay team at the state track meet,” said Bodenhamer.
But a lengthy football career was not to be, and with his back still ailing at the end of his first full semester, Greenberg decided he was ready for a change. That spring, he transferred to Missouri, where he eventually graduated with a business administration degree in 1949.
“Norman was only 18 miles from home, and I decided I needed to go a little farther away. Even though I loved it at OU and had a great time there, I wanted to try school back East,” he said with a laugh.
So he headed east, first to Missouri and then New York.
It was at Missouri where Greenberg picked up a nickname — Ace — that has stuck with him all these years later. Not many of the nation’s investment bankers go by a handle like “Ace,” but it’s never bothered Greenberg, and he still laughs about the story behind it.
“Right after the war, I was at Missouri, and boys outnumbered girls four to one on campus,” he explained. “I had a friend who told me I wasn’t going to get a date with a name like Alan Greenberg, so he recommended I call myself Ace Gainesborough. And I did.”
Greenberg has helped OU athletics department in a lot of ways, but isn’t big on offering up details. In fact, he cited only one sample.
“I paid for a football locker,” he said, “… and I know Adrian Peterson used it.”
Of course, that is not the extent of his contributions.
Greenberg has given money to the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and funded OU scholarships for students from Scandinavian countries. In fact, he has contributed to so many programs that, when asked, he suggested one consult the university’s development office, because he couldn’t remember them all.
He did, however, mention one specific contribution, perhaps because it has benefited so many. That is the Thanks to Scandinavia (TTS) scholarship program, which allows as many as 20 students a year to come to OU with financial aid because of what their countries did during World War II to save Jewish people from the horrors of Nazi Germany.
“We founded that program nationally with Victor Borge, the comedian,” said Greenberg.
A great many students have taken advantage of the program since 1980, when Greenberg gave the University $250,000 to endow it in honor of his father, Ted H. Greenberg.
Greenberg is a busy man who likes to get things done. He is obliging in an interview but doesn't waste time. And nobody is better at returning phone calls.
“I told my employees they should return any phone call before they went home for the day, even if it was from somebody selling malaria,” said Greenberg.
The policy was plain, and it started at the top.
“It’s rude not to return a phone call,” he added.
Ever the loyal alumnus, Greenberg maintains strong ties with people at OU, from President Boren on down. He passion for the university has always run deep and he still follows the Sooners, including this past season when he described the team’s rash of injuries as “terrible.”
He has even returned to campus for the spring football game in years past.
These days he is a vice chairman for JP Morgan, the company that bought out Bear Sterns in 2008. Greenberg could have called it a career back then, but he had too much energy for that.
Is he retired?
“No, I come to work every day” was the quick answer.
Asked his date of birth, he replied, emphasizing the ending, “September 3, 1927 AD.”
Greenberg helped the OU football team for one season, and he’s been helping the football program and the entire university for much longer than that.
A memo from Robyn Tower, associate vice president for university development at OU, listed a few more of Greenberg’s contributions to the school, including the Esther and Ted Greenberg Chair of Neurosurgery at the Health Sciences Center (in honor of his parents), The Ted H. Greenberg Memorial Lectureship fund — to support research, scholarships, and lectureships in neurological sciences — and the Commitment of Fifty for the Holmberg Hall endowment.
And then, of course, there’s that locker room, a legacy gift from one OU football player to a bunch of others.
Loyal to the core.
-------
By Edgar Frost
Here is a story Sooner Spectator ran on Mr. Greenberg in its 2010 recruiting issue...
This is Sooner Flashback... but not the former style flashback... something new or more like the Chew Kennedy layout....
Sooner Flashback
Ace: Former football letterwinner Alan Greenberg has never forgotten
the university and scholarship that helped give him a start
Loyalty runs deep where Alan Greenberg is concerned, especially when it comes to recognizing and remembering the people and places that helped mold him into a successful Wall Street mogul. The University of Oklahoma athletics department is a perfect example of Greenberg’s timeless allegiance.
More than 60 years have passed since he enrolled in the summer of 1945 and stayed but a single semester at OU, attending classes and playing football as a true freshman. By the following spring, a back injury and other circumstances dictated his departure for the University of Missouri and eventually the path to becoming chairman and CEO of Bear Stearns.
While his stay in Norman may have been abbreviated, Greenberg, now 82, has never forgotten his ties to OU. Over the years, he has remained dedicated to the Sooner cause by giving back in a number of ways, including through a scholarship endowment program.
Greenberg, himself, was awarded a football scholarship coming out of Oklahoma City’s Classen High School, which is how he ended up at OU and how he created so many lasting bonds with the school and its history.
“I was very grateful to be given a football scholarship,” said Greenberg recently from his New York office, “and I am still indebted to the University for it.”
Greenberg has long demonstrated his appreciation for that scholarship he received back in 1945, even though OU ultimately played a small overall role in his success story.
“Ace Greenberg has always had a deep interest in his home state and a strong desire to help students at OU and especially students in need,” offered President David L. Boren in a written statement about Greenberg’s impact on Oklahoma.
Greenberg’s usual practice, added Boren, was to end each conversation by saying, “Don’t waste time on a thank you note. I want to help.”
That says a lot about Alan Greenberg’s loyalty.
“He has helped our intercollegiate athletics program in many ways, from endowing a scholarship to helping us build a new locker room for our football team,” wrote Joe Castiglione, OU’s director of athletics. “He cares about people and wants them to be successful.”
OU’s eventual benefactor arrived on campus in summer of ’45 and immediately enrolled in summer classes. That fall, Greenberg was one of the many new faces that spotted coach Snorter Luster’s roster, and he quickly earned a spot as an alternate wingback who went on to see a fair amount of action in the Sooners’ not-so-memorable 5-5 season.
Luster was not in good health and would resign by the end of the season, but not before a number of his players developed injuries that factored heavily into the team’s .500 record. Among those hurt was Greenberg, who suffered a ruptured disc in the second game, a 20-0 victory over Nebraska.
Although Greenberg played in several more games that season, the injury effectively ended his football career and helped put him on path toward a new destiny. The summer after the 18-year-old incurred the back injury, his father took him to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, but after some testing he chose to forgo surgery at the advice of clinic physicians.
Greenberg was born in Wichita, Kan., but moved to Oklahoma City at age 5. His parents owned Street’s, a local clothing store, and he was a solid student and talented athlete who went on to play prep football on a team that included future OU All-American Jim Owens.
By the time college rolled around, OU was offering a scholarship and it seemed like the perfect fit.
“I started out in engineering at OU,” said Greenberg, then adding with a chuckle, “but after that first lab, I transferred to business administration.”
That turned out to be a good decision, as he has spent the last 60-plus years in New York with Bear Stearns and now JP Morgan Chase, ascending to the position of CEO of Bear Stearns from 1978-93, as well as chairman of the board 1985-2001.
Greenberg was a solid player for the Sooners during his lone season on campus. Bob Bodenhamer and Lester “Bear” Jensen played with Greenberg on the ’45 team and both spoke glowingly of their friend and former teammate.
“He was a really good high school football player. He had good speed and didn’t start, but played a lot at OU,” recalled Jensen, a guard who played for Norman High School against Greenberg’s Classen team during their prep years.
Bodenhamer, a center and place kicker, noted that Greenberg saw considerable action for the Sooners, even though OU had a number of good running backs and a lot of older players from the Navy.
“He had 9.9 or 10-flat 100-yard speed and won the 100 and 200 and was on the winning relay team at the state track meet,” said Bodenhamer.
But a lengthy football career was not to be, and with his back still ailing at the end of his first full semester, Greenberg decided he was ready for a change. That spring, he transferred to Missouri, where he eventually graduated with a business administration degree in 1949.
“Norman was only 18 miles from home, and I decided I needed to go a little farther away. Even though I loved it at OU and had a great time there, I wanted to try school back East,” he said with a laugh.
So he headed east, first to Missouri and then New York.
It was at Missouri where Greenberg picked up a nickname — Ace — that has stuck with him all these years later. Not many of the nation’s investment bankers go by a handle like “Ace,” but it’s never bothered Greenberg, and he still laughs about the story behind it.
“Right after the war, I was at Missouri, and boys outnumbered girls four to one on campus,” he explained. “I had a friend who told me I wasn’t going to get a date with a name like Alan Greenberg, so he recommended I call myself Ace Gainesborough. And I did.”
Greenberg has helped OU athletics department in a lot of ways, but isn’t big on offering up details. In fact, he cited only one sample.
“I paid for a football locker,” he said, “… and I know Adrian Peterson used it.”
Of course, that is not the extent of his contributions.
Greenberg has given money to the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and funded OU scholarships for students from Scandinavian countries. In fact, he has contributed to so many programs that, when asked, he suggested one consult the university’s development office, because he couldn’t remember them all.
He did, however, mention one specific contribution, perhaps because it has benefited so many. That is the Thanks to Scandinavia (TTS) scholarship program, which allows as many as 20 students a year to come to OU with financial aid because of what their countries did during World War II to save Jewish people from the horrors of Nazi Germany.
“We founded that program nationally with Victor Borge, the comedian,” said Greenberg.
A great many students have taken advantage of the program since 1980, when Greenberg gave the University $250,000 to endow it in honor of his father, Ted H. Greenberg.
Greenberg is a busy man who likes to get things done. He is obliging in an interview but doesn't waste time. And nobody is better at returning phone calls.
“I told my employees they should return any phone call before they went home for the day, even if it was from somebody selling malaria,” said Greenberg.
The policy was plain, and it started at the top.
“It’s rude not to return a phone call,” he added.
Ever the loyal alumnus, Greenberg maintains strong ties with people at OU, from President Boren on down. He passion for the university has always run deep and he still follows the Sooners, including this past season when he described the team’s rash of injuries as “terrible.”
He has even returned to campus for the spring football game in years past.
These days he is a vice chairman for JP Morgan, the company that bought out Bear Sterns in 2008. Greenberg could have called it a career back then, but he had too much energy for that.
Is he retired?
“No, I come to work every day” was the quick answer.
Asked his date of birth, he replied, emphasizing the ending, “September 3, 1927 AD.”
Greenberg helped the OU football team for one season, and he’s been helping the football program and the entire university for much longer than that.
A memo from Robyn Tower, associate vice president for university development at OU, listed a few more of Greenberg’s contributions to the school, including the Esther and Ted Greenberg Chair of Neurosurgery at the Health Sciences Center (in honor of his parents), The Ted H. Greenberg Memorial Lectureship fund — to support research, scholarships, and lectureships in neurological sciences — and the Commitment of Fifty for the Holmberg Hall endowment.
And then, of course, there’s that locker room, a legacy gift from one OU football player to a bunch of others.
Loyal to the core.
-------
By Edgar Frost