01/09/2025
Wow
From a Single Gas Station in 1958… to a $15 Billion Fortune and owning an NFL team
In 1958, James “Jim” Haslam II was just 27 years old when he scraped together $6,000 in savings and bought a run-down service station in Gate City, Virginia. He called it Pilot Oil, after a brand of tires he admired.
Jim pumped gas by day, fixed flats by night, and slowly built his reputation. By the 1970s, Pilot was growing into a chain of convenience stores. But Jim saw a bigger play: the trucking industry.
In the early 1980s, he launched the first Pilot Travel Center, equipped with diesel pumps, parking, showers, and hot food for truckers. It was an instant hit. Over the next two decades, Pilot spread like wildfire across America’s highways.
In 2010, Pilot merged with rival Flying J, creating Pilot Flying J, the largest travel center network in North America. By then, Jim’s son Jimmy Haslam was CEO, pushing the company even further, building over 800 locations nationwide and with revenues soaring past $40 billion annually.
But the Haslams didn’t stop at trucking. In 2012, Jimmy bought the Cleveland Browns for over $1 billion, putting the family in the NFL spotlight. Later, they would also acquired a stake in the Milwaukee Bucks NBA team.
In 2017, the family struck gold again: selling a controlling stake in Pilot Flying J to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. By the final phase of the deal, the Haslams had secured a payout of over $10 billion dollars, cementing them as one of America’s richest trucking dynasties.
Today, the Haslam family’s estimated net worth sits just north of $15 Billion dollars. Their wealth is reflected in their lifestyle: sprawling estates across Tennessee, Ohio, and Florida, including a $25 million mansion that ranks among the priciest private homes in south Florida.
But they’re not just business titans. The Haslams are also major philanthropists. The family has donated hundreds of millions to hospitals, schools, and charities.
From a $6,000 gamble to owning an NFL team and making billions, this is the story of the Haslam family.
