Miller Automotive Group Inc history

But in November 1963, with the end of the building season, Miller found a job at American Auto Parts as a driver and apprentice counterman.

In December of 1969 they came to the conclusion that they could not feed two families on their efforts and Gary decided to sell his share to his partner.

November 16, 1978, the Chrysler-Plymouth dealership known as Dahl Motors, located at 5746 Peach St, Erie, PA, was purchased and the name was changed to Gary Miller Chrysler-Plymouth.

In 1980 he bought an undercapitalized dealership in Phoenix that turned out to be his best-selling operation.

But colorful Frank Layden, who became head coach in 1981, helped to turn things around eventually.

On April 11, 1985 he purchased half of the Utah Jazz for $8 million from Sam Battistone.

According to the Utah Division of Corporations, on December 30, 1986 the new Larry H. Miller Corporation was created as a Utah corporation.

The retail division of the Utah Jazz had started in March 1987 when the Jazz purchased four ProImage shops that sold sports apparel and other gifts and souvenirs.

By 1990 Miller owned 16 dealerships in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, and was ranked as Utah's largest car dealer and the seventeenth largest in the nation.

After five years of owning the Golden Eagles, a professional hockey team in Salt Lake City, in 1994 Miller sold the team that had lost about $1 million each year.

In 1996 the NBA Board of Governors approved the formation of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and Salt Lake City was chosen as one of the eight cities to sponsor charter teams.

Dennis Haslam, who had founded the law firm of Winder and Haslam, had served since 1997 as the president of the Larry H. Miller Group of Sports and Entertainment Companies.