Everything We Know About the York Family, Owners of the San Francisco 49ers (2024)

The San Francisco 49ers play in the Super Bowl today, hoping to beat the Kansas City Chiefs to win their sixth Super Bowl championship. The team has not won during its current iteration of ownership under the York family, but this year they are hoping to change that.

The 49ers were founded in 1946 by Tony Morabito, and after his death in 1957, the team stayed in the Morabito family, going to his younger brother, Victor. After Victor's death just seven years later, Tony and Victor's wives, Jane and Josephine, owned the team until 1977, when it was purchased by Edward DeBartolo Sr., and given to his son, Edward DeBartolo Jr.

Under DeBartolo Jr.'s ownership, the 49ers won five Super Bowls. "I tried to run the 49ers like a family rather than a business," he said in 2016. "I viewed the players and myself really, basically, as a partnership. Our goal was to win the Super Bowl every year, and we had to do that together."

In 1998, he pled guilty to gambling fraud—"to failing to report a felony when he paid $400,000 to former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards in exchange for a riverboat gambling license"—was fined $1 million and was suspended from the NFL for a year. He could've returned to team ownership, but after his suspension, decided not to.

"The team really wasn't taken away from me," he said years later. "I think it's been a misnomer for many many years. Commissioner Tagliabue did obviously suspend me, but as I was going through negotiations with my family and we went through these negotiations and we went through them with lawyers, obviously and with a judge in Akron, Ohio. It did not come down to that team being taken, it came down to a decision that had to be made whether or not I wanted the 49ers or whether or not I wanted to take the other part of the company."

He continued, "And I figured at that time, and my sister Denise [49ers owner Denise York] was involved totally as was her family. I decided in that meeting in Akron Ohio, that I thought it would be best that I took the other side and my tenure with the 49ers would end then and end there. I don't know if that story has ever been told, it may have been, it may have not been. But, it really was a choice, I figured there was more to do with my life at that time. I had succeeded and done a lot with the 49ers. It meant the world to me, but I figured with my daughters, with them getting older and obviously with all of us getting older and having grandchildren at the time, and them planning on families, that it would be best for me to do what was best to be a good grandfather, be a good husband and dad, and do what I want to do and maybe travel a little bit and spend more time with my family."

So, in 1999, ownership of the team passed to DeBartolo's sister, Denise Bartolo York, and her husband, John York. Denise and John have four children; the oldest, Jed York, runs the 49ers.

Jed is married to Danielle Belluomini, and they have two sons, Jaxon and Brixton.

At the AFC Championship game, when the 49ers were down at the halftime, Jed recalled to the San Francisco Chronicle, "My son was like on the verge of tears. And, you know, he just started playing flag football, like really getting into it. So, he brings his football with him everywhere. He's sitting there and he's ready to cry." He recalls that he told his 11-year-old, "Our friends are here; our family's here; we're in the NFC Championship Game. There are worse things in the world. Like, we're healthy, we're happy. I keep telling you, 'You've got to do well when there’s pressure.' Let’s throw the ball now."

They played catch in the suite, and the 49ers went on to win the game, to make it to the Super Bowl.