A Complete History Of Chicago Cubs Owners

First thing’s first: this isn’t a guide about how to own the Chicago Cubs. That’s going to require a lot of connections and networking, limitless knowledge about the inner workings of an international brand, a positive-ish reputation in the larger Chicago area… oh, and roughly 4.3 billion dollars. I’m just a writer without any good advice to give on that front, and unless you’re one of the 50 richest people in America, you won’t have the resources to pull off an acquisition of that size.

Instead, this reflects the different ownership groups that have controlled the Cubs over their long and winding history. If you ever wanted to know who owned the Chicago Cubs at any point in time, this is the primer for you.

Click any link below to jump to a history of that ownership group/individual.

Complete List of Chicago Cubs Owners

• 2010-Present: Joe & Thomas (Tom) Ricketts
• 1981-2009: The Tribune Company
• 1922-1980: The Wrigley Family
• 1916-1921: Charles Weeghman, J. Ogden Armour, Albert Lasker, William Wrigley Jr., More
• 1915-1915: Charles Taft
• 1906-1914: Charles Murphy
• 1903-1905: James Hart
• 1882-1902: Albert Spalding
• 1876-1881: William A. Hulbert

2010-Present: Joe & Thomas (Tom) Ricketts

Date of Sale: January 22, 2009
Amount Paid: $845,000,000
Regular Season Record: 1,162-1,166 (As of end of 2024 season)

Unlike their distant past, there’s no ambiguity in the answer to the question of “Who is the current owner of the Chicago Cubs?”. It’s Tom Ricketts, the son of Joe Ricketts, the patriarch of the Ricketts family. 

Joe Ricketts made his fortune by founding First Omaha Securities, a brokerage firm that eventually became TD Ameritrade. He also founded and owns High Plains Bison (the official Bison vender of Wrigley Field), The American Film Company, and the now-defunct DNAinfo.com. He’s been a part of some controversies over his 15-year stint as Cubs owner, including an anti-union bust of multiple websites he once owned and a racist, anti-muslim email scandal. His son, Tom, is the chairman of the Cubs, while Joe remains as a hands-off financier.

It’s somewhat fitting that the team is almost exactly .500 under Ricketts’ stewardship. They’ve gone through oscillating periods of rebuilding and championship contention since 2010, with four seasons under 72 total wins and four over 90. Of course, the team’s crowning moment during the Ricketts era was in 2016, when they won 100 games for the first time since 1935. Oh, and they also won their first pennant since 1945. And then, they did the impossible, breaking the greatest drought in sports history during the best game in baseball history.

It’s been an up-and-down roller coaster with the Ricketts family at the controls, with unparalleled highs and some really disturbing lows. It’s hard to ignore some strong recency bias when evaluating this group - the most recent “Letter to the Fans” left a lot to be desired - but that World Series victory bought them a lot of goodwill and a legacy as the owners that finally broke the curse.

1981-2009: The Tribune Company

Date of Sale: June 15, 1981
Amount Paid: $20,500,000
Regular Season Record: 2,217-2,347

The Tribune Company (also known as the Chicago Tribune) was founded in 1847 as one of the first print publishing companies in the country. Much of their fortune was amassed once the company moved into broadcasting in 1924, starting with WDAP, which was eventually rebranded to WGN. In 1981, they purchased the Chicago Cubs for $20.5 million dollars from the Wrigley family, and functionally served as their ownership group and broadcaster from 1981 on.

Eventually, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy thanks to a debt that was larger than $13 billion, making it the largest bankruptcy in the history of American media. The Tribune Company would be forced to sell off their assets, including the Cubs, Wrigley Field, and a 25% ownership stake in Comcast SportsNet Chicago, which were taken over by the Ricketts upon the completion of their purchase of the baseball franchise.

The Cubs struggled badly during this period for the most part, save for a few seasons in which they got agonizingly close to the World Series. The North Siders won 96 games and the NL East in 1984, though they blew a 2-0 lead against the Padres in the NLCS (back when the series was best out of five) thanks to Leon Durham’s famous error in Game 5.

The Cubs also won the NL East in 1989 but were dismissed in the NLCS by way of a gentleman’s sweep against the Giants. They would only make it back to that stage once more under the leadership of the Tribune Company, losing to the Marlins in 2003 in a series that is far too painful to recount in any great detail. Outside of those three failed attempts at winning the pennant, the team only made the postseason on three other occasions in the 28 years under the Tribune Company (1998, 2007, 2008), getting swept in the NLDS each time.

1922-1980: The Wrigley Family

Date of Sale: 1921
Amount Paid: N/A
Regular Season Record: 4,549-4,667

When did the Wrigley family’s tenure as the owners of the Chicago Cubs actually start? This is a piece of history that remains hotly debated to this day, as chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. bought shares of the franchise as early as 1916 from Charles Taft, the owner of the franchise in 1915. However, he was part of a very large syndicate of Chicagoans that were actually brought together by Charles Weeghman. It was only in 1919 when Wrigley bought out Weeghman’s stake, and later in 1921 when he did the same with other parties with controlling interest such as J. Ogden Armour and Albert Lasker, and became the sole majority owner of the franchise.

As such, we’ll consider that their run began the season following that buy out, which lasted all the way until the Tribune Company made their purchase in the summer of 1981. The Wrigley Family was the longest standing owner of the Cubs, operating the franchise for nearly 60 years during the middle of the 20th century. William Wrigley Jr. ran the franchise for a decade, from 1922-1932, amassing a total record 932-758 and making two World Series appearances (1929, 1932). In 1926, the team’s ballpark was renamed from “Cubs Park” to the now-iconic “Wrigley Field”.

Once Wrigley Jr. died of a heart attack in 1932, his son Philip K. Wrigley took over the team from 1933-1977, posting a record of 3,394-3,646 as the controlling owner. The team made three World Series in that time, all during the first third of his tenure (1935, 1938, 1945). They wouldn’t make the playoffs again until the Tribune Company took over and guided the Cubs to that heartbreaking loss in the 1984 NLCS. During Philip’s term, the team employed some of its most iconic franchise legends, including Billy Williams, Ernie Banks, Fergie Jenkins, and Ron Santo.

Finally, Philip’s son William Wrigley III took over the franchise once Philip died in 1977. He owned the team for just three years, from 1978-1980, accumulating a 223-263 record. Eventually, William Wrigley III would sell the team to the Tribune Company in order to settle his estate and massive tax bills following his mother’s death.

1916-1921: Charles Weeghman, J. Ogden Armour, Albert Lasker, William Wrigley Jr., More

Date of Sale: January 20, 1916
Amount Paid: $503,500
Regular Season Record: 439-444

This was a tumultuous period of Cubs ownership, as the franchise never had a defined party running the operations. Weeghman was the spearhead of the group, earning his fortune and fame from “Onearm-lunch” operators and restaurant chains that specialized in quick service. He failed to acquire the St. Louis Cardinals in 1911, and would eventually help found the Federal League as owner of the Chicago Whales. Once that league went defunct, he created the group that owned the Cubs briefly before the Wrigleys took over, and moved the major league team into the stadium he built for the Whales - Weeghman park - that would eventually become Wrigley Field.

The team struggled during this time, finishing 18 or more games out of the National League pennant in every season but 1918, when they lost to the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. Weeghman lost control of the Cubs in 1919, and the whole group of owners that he had brought together left the team in 1921 once William Wrigley Jr. took over. He died in 1938 while serving as an assistant manager at a Fort Lee, New Jersey restaurant.

1915-1915: Charles Taft

Date of Sale: 1915
Amount Paid: N/A
Regular Season Record: 73-81

Charles Taft was the controlling owner of the Cubs for only one season before selling to the Weeghman group, though he was the financier of Charles’ Murphy’s purchase of the team in 1905, as well Horace Fogel’s purchase of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1909. Taft attended Columbia Law School and became a partner of the Sage, Haacke & Taft law firm. He would also have a strong career in politics, getting elected to the Ohio State Legislature in 1869 and a member of Congress from 1895-1897. His claim to fame remains his time as a newspaper mogul, which included owning the Cincinnati Enquirer and serving as editor for the Cincinnati Post.

The 1915 season was nondescript for the Cubs, as Charles H. Thomas (Charles Murphy’s secretary) was asked to run the club. The team finished below .500 and 17.5 games out of first place in the National League. Following this season, Charles Weeghman and company would purchase the franchise from Taft.

1906-1914: Charles Murphy

Date of Sale: October, 1905
Amount Paid: $125,000
Regular Season Record: 879-497

Finally, we have arrived at the period when the Cubs were baseball’s foremost dynasty. Hard as that may be to believe, the team had a whopping .653 winning percentage under Murphy, won the 1907 and 1908 World Series, and made two others (1906, 1910). The team never had a losing record during this time, finishing with more than 100 wins four times and three more seasons in which they finished with 90+ wins.

Murphy was a sportswriter for much of his life, working for the Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati Time-Star for decades before joining the New York (baseball) Giants’ front office in 1905. Charles Taft financed his bid to buy the Cubs, though Murphy did make money from his eventual sale of the team to Taft in 1915, financing the construction of the Murphy Theater in 1918 in Wilmington, Ohio.

1903-1905: James Hart

Date of Sale: 1903
Amount Paid: N/A
Regular Season Record: 267-177

Admittedly, this is when details start to become a little scarce. James Hart managed the Louisville Cardinals of the American Association, the minor-league Milwaukee Brewers, and Boston Beaneaters of the National League in the late 19th century. He would also go on to manage multiple teams at the same time in the National League of Baseball of Great Britain as part of an effort by Albert Spalding to grow the game internationally.

Once Hart succeeded Spalding as Team President of the Chicago Colts in 1891, he served as a minority owner until taking over in 1903. He was the one who renamed the team to the “Chicago Cubs” (from the “Chicago Orphans”, which was a name that stuck around for only a few years at the turn of the century), and guided them to a number of solid season, including back-to-back 90+ win campaigns in 1904 and 1905. During his tenure, the team never made the playoffs (at the time, the World Series was the only postseason round).

1882-1902: Albert Spalding

Date of Sale: April 10, 1882
Amount Paid: N/A
Regular Season Record: 1,464-1,234

Spalding is, of course, one of the most recognizable players from the founding era of baseball, as he served as a player, manager, and executive in the 19th century. Spalding was the first pitcher to reach 200 career wins, though he retired from playing in 1878 at the age of 27. He remained as the Team President and part-owner of the then-Chicago White Stockings. William Hulbert was one of the team’s founders and enlisted Spalding as the team President in 1876 once the team was created. He would eventually take over complete ownership of the team ahead of the 1882 season following Hulbert’s death.

Baseball success is much harder to judge looking back at the “dead ball era” nowadays, as the team routinely finished 20+ games above .500 but has no hardware to show for it. They did lose the 1886 World Series to the St. Louis Browns (now the Cardinals), though they tied with them in 1885 (3-3-1). Spalding was an important figure in Chicago sports history and remains a legendary figure in the annals of baseball (he created the National League along with Hulbert), though his tenure as principal owner of the Cubs is hard to gauge.

1876-1881: William A. Hulbert

Date of Sale: N/A
Amount Paid: N/A
Regular Season Record: 221-127

Hulbert is perhaps best known for his decision to ban four members of the Louisville Grays for life following their decision to throw the pennant and lose games in exchange for money. However, he was also one of the founders of the National League, along with Spalding, and was one of the founders of the Chicago White Stockings and their first official owner. Notably, the team was founded in 1870, though Hulbert wouldn’t take over as owner until 1876, following the Great Chicago Fire.

The team performed exceptionally well during its formative years, posting a record of nearly 100 games over .500. They won the National League in 1876, 1880, 1881, and 1882, though there was no official championship series to determine the league’s winner during that window.