He was Chicago's meat-packing king, the man skewered by Upton Sinclair in "The Jungle," but he was also a big Cubs fan, and at one time, a part owner of the team. He bought into the team for $50,000 and convinced a good buddy of his to the same; William Wrigley.

The year was 1916, and those men along with former Whales owner Charlie Weeghman were the saviors of the Cubs...the men who got the dreaded, hated, Charles Murphy out of the game. At the time, J. Ogden Armour was one of the three richest men in Chicago.

In 1916 Armour donated a mascot to the Cubs..a juvenile black bear. The bear was named "Joa" after Armour's initials, and the team built him a "den" (actually a cage) at Addison Street and Sheffield Avenue. It was the first year the Cubs played at what was then known as Cubs Park.

Joa debuted on June 20, 1916, for Cubs-Reds game. (It was rained out.) Joa lived there for most of that 1916 season, but by September the club realized he was more trouble than he was worth, and sold him to the Lincoln Park Zoo for twenty bucks.

When the stock market slumped after World War 1, Armour did too, and he was forced to sell his portion of the Cubs. He was also forced out at the meat-packing business his father founded after he lost a million dollars a day for 130 days in a row. At that point, one of his friends offered him a million dollars as a loan, and he said, "thanks, but it wouldn't be a drop in the bucket."

Armour wasn't just a Cub fan. He was a Bud man. He once famously quipped: "I don't suppose I shall ever be happy. Perhaps no one ever is. But the thing that would make me happiest just now would be to know that I could get roaring drunk and wander about the loop for two days without anyone paying any attention to me."

He saw his last Cubs game in 1923. He retired to California shortly after that. In 1927 on a trip to London, he fell ill and died. He had less than $25,000 in his personal accounts.