Howard Slusher

The sports agent Howard Slusher used hardball tactics to win lucrative contracts for professional athletes. For more than 20 years, Mr. Slusher was an enemy of National Football League and National Basketball Association owners. Mr. Slusher, who went on to a second career as a consultant for Nike, died on July 13 2022 at a hospital in Portland, Ore. He was 85. His death was confirmed by his son, John, an executive vice president of Nike. Howard Sidney Slusher was born on June 11, 1937, in Jersey City, N.J majored in physical education at Brooklyn College, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1959; and earned a Ph.D. in physical education from the Ohio State University in 1962. He taught the psychology of sport at the University of Maryland and then at the University of Southern California until 1972, when he received a law degree there. Mr. Slusher’s marriage to Nancy Berger ended in divorce. In addition to his son and a daughter, Jennifer Henderson, from that marriage, he is survived by his wife, Rebecca (Helbling) Slusher; their daughter, Emily Slusher; his brother, Norman; and four grandchildren.