Tom Hicks, the Texas businessman and philanthropist who owned two Dallas-area professional sports franchises and an English Premier League soccer team, has died. He was 79.

Spokesperson Lisa LeMaster said in statement that Hicks died peacefully Saturday in Dallas surrounded by family.

Hicks owned the NHL's Dallas Stars from 19952011, winning the Stanley Cup in 1999. He also owned baseball's Texas Rangers from 19982010, a period when they won three American West Division titles and made their first World Series appearance just months after the team was sold. In 2007, he acquired a 50% stake in Liverpool.

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Being shoulder to shoulder with him was always about more than ballparks and stadiums, though, Dallas Cow

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