John H. McConnell

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - John H. McConnell, a steel magnate who was the majority owner of the Columbus Blue Jackets, died Friday, the club said. He was 84.

McConnell, who had been diagnosed with cancer last year, died at a Columbus hospital, said Cathy Lyttle, a spokeswoman with Worthington Industries Inc., a $3 billion-a-year steel processing company that McConnell started in 1955 with $600 he borrowed against his car.

McConnell brought major professional sports to Columbus when he led a group of investors that acquired an NHL expansion team that began to play as the Blue Jackets in 2000.

McConnell was born May 10, 1923 in Pughtown, W.Va.

After serving three years with the Navy on the aircraft carrier Saratoga during World War II, he graduated with a degree in business administration from Michigan State in 1949.

In 1954, a steel company put McConnell in Columbus as a salesman. After realizing how much money he was making for his employers, he decided to put a phone in his basement and start his own company.

"My dad said, 'Don't do it,"' McConnell told The Columbus Dispatch for a story in 2000. "He said, 'What happens if you go broke?' I said, 'Well, I don't have anything to start with, so what am I going to lose?"

McConnell started Worthington Industries in 1955 by borrowing the money against his 1952 Oldsmobile. The company now employs about 8,000 people, with 69 facilities in 11 countries.

McConnell's son, John P. McConnell, became chairman and chief executive in 1996 while McConnell became chairman emeritus.
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