I was driving in the area here on Long Island and we noticed some of our regular Hess stations are now Speedway. http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/10/all_hess_gas_staions_to_be_reb.html. I thought maybe the owner of the local franchises might have sold them and the new owner changed companies. Then I googled it and see that Marathon bought out Hess and one of their affiliated brands, Speedway is taking over all Hess service stations. Kind of a big surprise, it's for us big news since our long time owner was Leon Hess. So they're not going to remain under the Hess banner they're all being rebranded as Speedway. But they are going to keep the Hess toy truck. It'll be sold online and maybe at Speedway stations. Hess is still around but they are going to only be into oil production and refineries instead of retail.
Everything. When I think of Leon Hess, I think of that fat fuck. That era in Jets football is synonymous. Childhood experiences, ya know?
Leon Hess may not have been perhaps the owner you or I thought he should be, but the man is indeed an American success story as a businessman. he was a WWII veteran, grew up in the depression, and truly made something of himself. The news about the selling of Hess is not at all to be a surprise. Even the TV and on line ads at Christmas were pitching the last official Hess commemorative truck. The Marathon Oil purchase was not any secret.
Leon Hess. He made Woody look like Paul Allen. They put him in the Ring of Honor didn't they? Probably will always be remembered for hiring Lou Holtz as coach.
Hell. I'm sure he meant well. Just didn't know hire the right people to run the Jets. At least Woody learned that lesson. It's like the guy who hired Red Auerbach to coach the Celtics. He got a bunch of sports writers together and basically said, "since your so smart, you pick one." The rest is history.
The story as I remember it was Leon was sitting on the beach in the Bahamas, having just endured Pete Carroll's 6-10 season capped off with the Spike play when someone in his posse mentioned that Kotite had just been fired and he immediately had his people reach out and hire Kotite forthwith. Wtf? _
Hmnmm..... I am willing to bet there was more to this story. My guess is the people in his entourage had more influence on his decision.
Remember watching Kotite with the Eagles and thinking he's garbage. Of course he gets fucking hired by the Jets after he's fired. It's like nobody in the organization is paying attention to what the hell he was doing over there. Hess terminated Pete Carroll's contract because he believed in Kotite so much. Total cluster fuck.
Not what I remember. Apparently Leon always love Richie when he was the OC for the Jets and when he heard he was fired by Philly, he HAD to have him back. Wanted him so much he made him the GM. All from a beach chair in the Bahamas. _
Well at least that Carroll dude never amount to much, not like he went on to win a super bowl or something
I remember reading articles where Hess stated that he really liked the way Kotite carried himself with the Eagles (especially in press conferences) & was very excited to bring him aboard. Hess went straight for the candidate he wanted himself.
Leon Hess was known for never interfering in the operations of the Jets and even the groceries guy himself (Parcells) liked him. Except for one time. And that time was critical. Firing Carroll and hiring Kotite.
