Walter Owen “Spike” Briggs, Jr. (January 20, 1912 – July 3, 1970) was a Major League Baseball executive. He was owner of the Detroit Tigers for five seasons following the death of his father, industrialist Walter O. Briggs, Sr., in 1952.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Briggs was educated at Canterbury School and graduated from Georgetown University in 1934. He joined the family business, Briggs Manufacturing Company (maker of automobile bodies), and interrupted his business career to serve as a lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He also had become a vice president of the Tigers before the war.
Briggs was elected to The Lambs in 1940 as a non-resident member, one of many baseball men who were members of the Club. His father was elected to The Lambs in 1920.
Spike Briggs held 46 percent of the Tigers shares after his father died. However, his four sisters balked at selling the team to their brother due to concern about his hard living. Their decision created a rift in the family, and opened up a bidding process which saw a group of 11 Michigan businessmen, led by radio executives John Fetzer and Fred Knorr, purchase the Tigers for $5.2 million in July 1956, with the sale due to close October 1 — a handsome return on Walter Sr.’s purchase of a stake in the Tigers in 1919.
Knorr and Fetzer had promised to retain Briggs if their bid was successful. Accordingly, when the Knorr/Fetzer group closed on their purchase, they named Briggs executive vice president, and prior to the 1957 campaign, he also became general manager. Despite this, a clash between the boisterous Briggs and the more restrained Fetzer was inevitable. Fetzer forced Briggs’ resignation from both posts in April 1957, after Briggs clashed with the board over the choice of Harris’ successor. His tenure as owner and general manager saw the continuation of the Tigers’ policy of enforcing the baseball color line; when the team fielded its first black player, future Hall-of-Famer Ozzie Virgil, Sr., on June 6, 1958, the Tigers were the second-to-last of 16 MLB clubs to integrate its playing roster. In fact, Virgil was Dominican so he also was the first Latino Tiger player.
Briggs died at age 58 in Detroit after a prolonged period of ill health. He was survived by his wife, three children, sisters, and 13 grandchildren. Briggs is interred in Southfield, Michigan, in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.