Business & brands / Sports / Auto industry
Walter O. Briggs
1877–1952 · auto-body manufacturer, owner of the Detroit Tigers
Ypsilanti-born industrialist whose Briggs Manufacturing built car bodies for Detroit's automakers and who expanded the Tigers' ballpark into Briggs Stadium.
- Born
Ypsilanti, Michigan- Died
Miami Beach, Florida
aged 74- Birth name
- Walter Owen Briggs
- Also known as
- Walter Briggs Sr.
- Detroit years
- 1900s–1952
- Field
- Business & brands, Sports, Auto industry
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Briggs worked for the Michigan Central Railroad as a young man and in 1908 founded Briggs Manufacturing, which grew into one of the largest independent makers of automobile bodies, supplying Ford, Chrysler and others, and later made plumbing fixtures. In 1919 Frank Navin sold him a quarter share of the Detroit Tigers; after Navin's death in 1935 he became sole owner. He enlarged Navin Field by double-decking the outfield, and it reopened in 1938 as Briggs Stadium with 53,000 seats; the Tigers won the World Series in 1945. His record on race is poor: he refused to sign Black players, kept Black fans in inferior seats and ran factories with discriminatory conditions, and the Tigers did not integrate until 1958, six years after his death. He is buried at Holy Sepulchre in Southfield.
Highlights
- Founded Briggs Manufacturing, a major auto-body supplier, in 1908
- Part-owner of the Tigers from 1919, sole owner 1935–1952
- Expanded Navin Field into Briggs Stadium (1938)
- Tigers won the 1945 World Series under his ownership
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Related place · 1919–1952
Tiger Stadium
Demolished · 1912–1999
He enlarged the ballpark, which carried his name from 1938 to 1960; demolished in 2008–2009, the site is now a youth ballpark.
Buried here · 1952
Holy Sepulchre Cemetery
The Catholic cemetery in Southfield where he is buried.