Roger Staubach

Roger Staubach won two Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys, but the bigger fortune came after the final whistle.

Despite an 11-season Hall of Fame career, Staubach earned less than $1 million playing football. In the offseasons, he worked at Henry S. Miller Company, learning brokerage, leasing and facilities management. Staubach later likened Henry Miller’s discipline and integrity to that of Cowboys coach Tom Landry — and quietly studied the business. Staubach learned brokerage, leasing and facilities management. 

He recognized an underserved niche. In 1977, two years after throwing the famed Hail Mary, Staubach founded The Staubach Company, betting on tenant representation at a time when landlords dominated the market. The firm scaled rapidly, growing to 1,600 employees across 30 offices. Staubach also moved into retail, launching Staubach Retail Services with Chris Maguire in 1986 — the firm later rebranded as SRS, and Maguire still owns it.

In 2007, the Staubach Company handled transactions representing $28 billion and 200 million square feet. Staubach sold the company to JLL for $613 million the following year. He became executive chairman of JLL Americas until his retirement in 2018. He has also been involved in multifamily and mixed-use developments, and he was a joint venture partner in 2018 with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and developer Robert Shaw on a 17-story multifamily building near the Star in Frisco.

— Rachel Stone