Civic leader Dan Ulmer, who helped return minor league baseball to Louisville, dead at 90

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Dan Ulmer, a former bank executive and civic leader who helped bring the attendance-smashing Louisville Redbirds to town in the early 1980s and went on to co-own the minor league club now known as the Louisville Bats, has died at 90.

Ulmer's death was confirmed by the Bats in a statement Friday afternoon.

As president of the old Citizens Fidelity Bank, Ulmer led a group that returned minor league baseball to Louisville in 1982 by convincing A. Ray Smith to relocate his AAA affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The team, the Redbirds, debuted at old Cardinal Stadium at the Kentucky Exposition Center and in 1983 drew more than 1 million fans in becoming the first minor league team to reach that mark. Following the 1986 season, Ulmer's group bought the franchise from Smith, with Ulmer becoming its chairman.

"Without Dan, his partners and this commitment, the experience of millions of baseball fans, past, present, and future would be drastically different," Randy Mobley, president of the International League, said in a statement. "Dan’s leadership and vision forever changed the trajectory of professional baseball in Louisville."

One member of the team's ownership group, Louisville attorney Ed Glasscock, said Ulmer and co-owner Jack Hillerich were instrumental in moving from the fairgrounds stadium to the newly built Louisville Slugger Field on Main Street in 2000 along with then-team President Gary Ulmer, Dan Ulmer's son.

"I would give the two of them the credit for for the idea and and the community development initiative with respect to it because it drew more people, created more excitement downtown," Glasscock said.

Ulmer and Glasscock also teamed with other investors on a deal to buy the Long John Silver's restaurant chain from Yum! Brands. Ulmer, Glasscock said, "helped lead that initiative to keep the company in Louisville, and keep the employees here and home office here."

Ulmer was a hard worker who had a "love of community," said his son Gary Ulmer, who worked alongside his father with the baseball club, where he retired from as team president in 2019.

"You know, a lot of people don't have the opportunity like he did to really make a difference," Gary Ulmer said. "So I think he was one of those kind of people. ... He really made a difference."

Gary Ulmer said his father, who joined the bank as a trainee and worked his way to become its president, would make it home for family dinners and play backyard sports. And he recalled one time as a boy that he caddied for his father.

"There was the time where I had to climb a tree to retrieve a seven-iron he threw up in it as I was caddying for him. We always laughed about that," Gary Ulmer said. "But he was young. He was a hard charger, had a bit of a temper. That was the legendary story of his 10-year-old son trying to climb a tree to get a seven iron."

Ulmer was a 1955 graduate of the University of Louisville's College of Business, served as chair of the university's board of trustees and was a member of the U of L foundation board. His family's name is on Ulmer Stadium, home to the Louisville women's softball team.

Ulmer was a past board member of the Louisville Arena Authority and former chair of the Kentucky State Fair Board, among other organizations.

Jim Host, who chaired the arena authority during the financing and building of the KFC Yum! Center, said Ulmer was "one of the most dependable, best-thinking board people I ever served with on a volunteer board."

On the arena authority, Ulmer was instrumental in the arena construction, serving as chair of the board's construction committee. Host said Ulmer "spent a huge amount of time on the numbers and the way we were building it."

Former Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson called Ulmer a "tremendous corporate citizen and corporate leader."

"He was extremely engaging in support of community efforts, not only the Redbirds/Bats, but affordable housing, education," Abramson said. "He was just involved in so much in his leadership position at the bank and afterwards, where he made a commitment to ensure that the Bats would stay in Louisville with local ownership."