Creative

Creative Non-Fiction

For this assignment in Theories of Writing ,we were to find an artifact on or around campus that might contain an interesting story, and then research the context of that artifact and craft a creative non-fiction story revolving around what we researched. Being in the business school, I used the statue of Bill Daniels. I researched his life, and then I wrote a creative non-fiction about it.

Know Your Legacy

Here at the University of Denver, we praise and honor Bill Daniels through the naming of our business school and the statue of him within the building. I, being a part of Daniels College of Business, find that it is only fitting to very fitting to be versed in the history of Bill Daniels.

Robert William Daniels was born July 1, 1920 in Greeley Colorado and moved early on to Hobbs, New Mexico. From an early age, Bill found a passion in Sports. He was a fan, a player, and an ultimate competitor. After high school, Bill enrolled in the New Mexico Military Institute, a junior military college. It is here, that Bill began his journey to greatness, as he aligned with the motto “Duty, Honor, and Achievement”. It was also here that Bill won the Golden Gloves competition, for armature boxing in the U.S. After college, Bill Joined the Navy, where he became a decorated World War II and Korean War fighter pilot, working up to a full commander during his career there.

His charge did not stop, as he was ambitious and hungering for more action. Bill was also quite a pioneering entrepreneur. One night, Bill found himself at a bar in Denver watching an out of state boxing match. He immediately became very intrigued by this, and he combined his passion for sports and business and decided to get into the long-distance television market because why not? He engineered a technology to create a microwave feed that was able to deliver Denver sports programming to Wyoming. This was the first broadcast signal ever sent by microwave feed. This innovation is what spurred his business that would earn him the nickname of “the father of cable television”. This feed that he created had one channel, and he was able to poll the viewers so that he gave them what they wanted to watch, which was incredibly innovative at the time. This was his way in the door to the industry.

Once again, Bill proved that he was never satisfied to be complacent in his life. He shifted again and began focusing on brokering and investment banking in this industry. In 1958 he started his own firm, Daniels and Associates which was wildly successful, and by 1965, his company was brokering more than $100 million and representing over 80% of the years transactions. This company was well diversified, as it also owned cable systems with sales through the roof. He began crucial business relationships with some big wheels in the sports industry, and soon enough he started yet another business venture with Lakers co-owner Jerry Buss. This was called the Prime Ticket sports programming network. Through all of this, Bill remained an avid sports fan, co-owning the LA Lakers and LA Stars, before moving the Stars to Utah.

Sports was not Bill’s sole passion, as he was clearly interested in business as well. Further, Bill was very involved in politics and getting his opinions out there. In his quest to create change and make a difference, Bill won a seat as National Committeeman from Colorado for the Republican National Committee and even ran for governor of Colorado as a republican candidate. Although he lost the election for governor, he did not lose his political edge. He continued to donate over $100,000 to the Republican party in 1988.

Bill’s business ventures never seemed to cease, as he even founded the Young American’s Bank, to cater to younger people while teaching them about the fundamentals of financing and money management.

Because the extensive business and success Bill had dealt with over the years, Bill was able to give back to his community in more years than one. He donated millions of dollars to many educational and philanthropic organizations. He also made an endowment to what later became the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver. Bill’s values and character was engrained in ethics and honesty. His goal for DU was to create a leadership and teaching style that taught not only course material in business, but also the fundamentals of the values to practice business ethically. His endowment was presented to update the current curriculum to one which incorporated his vision. In 1994, the business school’s name was voted to be changed. He also started the Daniels Fund, which is the largest charitable fund in the state of Colorado, supporting initiates all throughout the region aligning with his message.

Throughout his success, Bill attributed everything to his strong core principles. He truly believed that his integrity, loyalty, innovation, and sense of community spurred all of his great successes.

I am honored to be part of a college that was named after such a noble man. Bill Daniels’ success stories not only speak to his character, but his ethics and integrity seem like a diamond in the ruff now. It is nice to know that in a world filled with deception and greed, people like this exist.