Billy Joe “Red” McCombs is the billionaire founder of the Red McCombs Automotive Group in San Antonio, Texas, a co-founder of Clear Channel Communications, Chairman of Constellis Group, a former owner of the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, and the Minnesota Vikings, and the namesake of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. He is on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans.
McCombs grew up in a normal family and attended the First Baptist Church of Spur, Texas. When his brother Gene was young he felt a call to the ministry. Everyone tried to talk him out of it, even his pastor. Just imagine, if you can, a Texas Baptist preacher trying to talk a teenager out of a call to preach. It is almost unbelievable, though when you hear some people preach you might wish they had gotten that kind of advice.
Gene’s sense of calling certainly seems justified, if you take into consideration that he ended his long career as an associate preaching pastor of the nationally known television personality, Adrian Rogers, of the Bellevue Baptist Church (a church Elvis Presley used to sneak into late and leave early) in Memphis, Tennessee. But things did not begin that auspiciously for Gene.
According to Red, a mutual friend of his and Gene’s came to him one day when Gene was in seminary. The friend told Red that his brother Gene was living close to poverty in order to chase his dream, the call to ministry he had heard. He told Red that Gene didn’t have much food in the refrigerator and that for income he was mowing lawns with a borrowed mower.
Red was not at all rich then, but he made his way up to Dallas and saw firsthand that what his friend had told him was true. Red said he and his brother both got down on their knees (most NFL owners only do that on Super Bowl Sunday), and there in prayer Red made a commitment to God that Gene would live on the same level as he lived.
Rev. Gene McCombs mostly pastored small churches, but because of his brother’s financial support he always owned a new car, a new house, and took trips to Europe.
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Jim Lutzweiler is an archivist at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #36296]