A pair of the most important and influential members of the Chargers organization are going into the team's Hall of Fame.
The Chargers announced Tuesday that Alex and Faye Spanos will be the 2024 inductees into the Chargers Hall of Fame. The couple will be the 42nd and 43rd respective members enshrined into the Chargers Hall of Fame.
Alex Spanos, who credited much of his success in life to his beloved wife, purchased the Chargers in 1984.
"I always believed in the pursuit of one's dreams. In buying the Chargers, I've been able to realize a dream," Spanos said upon becoming the owner.
Alex and Faye Spanos passed away within two months of each other in 2018.
"I wouldn't be sitting here if it wasn't for my mother or father," said Dean Spanos, their son and the Chargers Owner and Chairman of the Board. "My family wouldn't be owning the team if it wasn't for the vision my father had.
"It's just a small way to honor them. They have done so much for all our family. It really makes me feel good, I know it does [for] my sister and brother," Dean Spanos added. "They are the reason we're all here and they are the reason the Chargers are part of LA."
A family man through and through, Alex Spanos made the Chargers a family-run operation that continues to this day.
Michael Spanos, another of Alex's sons, is the Chargers Owner and Vice Chairman. And a pair of Alex Spanos' grandsons — A.G. (President of Business Operations) and John (President of Football Operations) — each oversee integral parts of the organization.
Alex Spanos had humble beginnings as the son of Greek immigrants in Stockton as he worked at his family's diner.
But he turned himself into a self-made man with timely real estate investments, eventually forming the A.G. Spanos Construction Company. By 1978, the company was the No. 1 apartment builder in the country.
Alex Spanos then set his sights even higher as he achieved a personal aspiration of owning an NFL team in 1984.
The Chargers are now one of the NFL's most recognizable brands and operate out of The Bolt, a world-class facility that just opened in El Segundo.
Dean Spanos said that his father's business acumen and ability to relate with everyone would have served him well in the modern NFL.
"Nothing would surprise me with what he would be thinking because he was a visionary. He probably could have seen this 40 years ago," Dean Spanos said. "When you look back like 40 years ago, we had like 50 people in the entire company. Now we're over 300.
"We had a small little office in the stadium with one practice field. Now we have this huge facility here with 300-plus people," Dean Spanos added. "It's changed, but not to sound redundant, he would have clearly seen this potentially happening."
Fred Maas, the Chargers Chief of Staff and Counsel, said the impact of Alex Spanos is still felt within the organization on a daily basis.
"People will hear a lot of stories about Alex and what it meant to him to own an NFL team and how it all happened going back to Barron Hilton and the early days and what this organization meant to him," Maas said. "I really think one of the travesties obviously is that he can't be here to see this.
"But this really is the exclamation point on his legacy, on his vision and what he wanted for this team," Maas added.
Alex Spanos routinely said that his wife was a driving force and rock of support throughout his life.
Born in 1926 to Greek immigrant parents in Florida, Faye met Alex when she was just 18 years old. At the time, Alex was in the Air Force and stationed at Drew Field in Tampa.
The two married in 1948, and as Alex and the family's success grew, Faye made sure to share their good fortune with their large extended families and their community. Known for their philanthropy, she and her husband made donations benefitting schools, children, the arts, hospitals and people in need.
It is only fitting that Alex and Faye go into the Chargers Hall of Fame together.
