Malcolm Glazer, the owner of the N.F.L.’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the renowned English soccer club Manchester United, which he purchased in 2005, creating a furor among its fans, died on Wednesday. He was 85.
His death was announced by the Buccaneers. The team did not say where he died.
Mr. Glazer had a stroke in 2006 that impaired his speech and his mobility in his right arm. His family has represented him in running the football and soccer franchises.
The Buccaneers said Wednesday that Mr. Glazer’s wife, Linda, along with their five sons and a daughter, would continue family ownership under a long-established estate succession plan.
On a Sunday night in January 2003, Mr. Glazer accepted the N.F.L. championship trophy after his Buccaneers routed the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII, the climax of their stunning transformation in his eight years as their owner.
“We’ve got the greatest players in the whole world,” USA Today quoted Mr. Glazer as saying. “If you haven’t heard about them, you’ve heard about them now.”
It was a rare public appearance by Mr. Glazer, who was hardly accustomed to making himself heard, or even seen. A small man with a reddish beard — sometimes referred to in the news media as “the leprechaun” — he customarily shunned interviews, and he remained largely silent when he obtained Manchester United of the Premier League.
When Mr. Glazer closed in on gaining control of the club, which was then publicly held, its fan organizations — one of which, Shareholders United, represented nearly 20 percent of the stockholders — expressed outrage. They resented the prospect of American ownership and feared that by incurring heavy debts to help buy the team, Mr. Glazer might ultimately undermine one of the sports world’s most celebrated franchises.
The Buccaneers have earned seven playoff berths since Mr. Glazer bought the team, but they had losing records in the previous three seasons.
Manchester United has enjoyed great success under the Glazer family’s ownership. Since 2005 it has won five Premier League titles and the 2008 Champions League. The club also reached the Champions League final in 2009 and 2011 and won English League Cups in 2006, 2009 and 2010.
The Glazers had held Manchester United privately, but they took it public in 2012. They have, however, retained control of the team as a result of holding Class B shares, giving them dominant voting rights.
Malcolm Irving Glazer was born on Aug. 15, 1928, in Rochester. He began working in his father’s watch-parts business at age 8. At 15, when his father died, he entered the business world. Reuters quoted Mr. Glazer as once remarking that his father’s death “was probably the most tragic thing that ever happened in my life, but it was good in one way” because “it made me a man.”
In the 1950s, he dropped out of college to run a watch repair and jewelry business and then expanded into real estate, buying duplexes and mobile homes in Rochester, according to The Orlando Sentinel.
Mr. Glazer became the chief executive of First Allied Corporation, a holding company for his family investments. He had interests in shopping centers, restaurants, food packaging and supplies, broadcasting, nursing homes, banking and natural gas.
Mr. Glazer bought the Buccaneers in 1995 from the estate of their owner, Hugh Culverhouse, for $192 million, a league record at the time. Tampa Bay was the league’s doormat, having made the playoffs only three times since its debut in 1976. But the team soon thrived with three of Mr. Glazers’s sons — Joel, Bryan and Edward — overseeing day-to-day activities as executive vice presidents.
The Bucs hired Tony Dungy, a superb defensive strategist, as their coach in 1996, and a year later they replaced their uninspiring orange jerseys with a more marketable red-and-pewter scheme. In 1998 they opened Raymond James Stadium (named after the financial services company that acquired the naming rights), replacing the antiquated Tampa Stadium.
They made the playoffs four times in six seasons under Dungy, then gave the Raiders $8 million and four draft picks in February 2002 to sign their coach, Jon Gruden, to replace Dungy. Gruden led the Buccaneers to the Super Bowl title in his first season.
In addition to his wife and his sons Joel, Bryan and Edward, Mr. Glazer’s survivors include two other sons, Avram and Kevin, and a daughter, Darcie.
In 2003, Mr. Glazer began buying shares in Manchester United, one of the world’s richest soccer teams and an international brand name with millions of fans around the world.
He was hanged in effigy by disgruntled fans, some of whom ripped up season tickets and threatened to boycott the team’s merchandise, not appeased by a family statement saying the Glazers were “avid Manchester United fans.”
In May 2005, Mr. Glazer gained control of Manchester United — valued at $1.47 billion — by buying 75 percent of the stock. He soon bought up virtually all the shares. Joel and Bryan, officials of the Buccaneers, and Avram were named to the board, overseeing major commercial decisions, while David Gill, the club’s chief executive, handled daily administration.
In July 2005, Bryan Glazer told The Orlando Sentinel: “Man-U has a tremendous history, and we respect that history. We’re not going to try and Americanize the game. We’re not going to bring in cheerleaders.”