Paul Owens graduated from St. Bonaventure in 1951 after serving in the Army during World War II.
Batting champion of the PA-Ontario-NY League in 1951, 1956 and 1957 while playing for the Olean Oilers, then an affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, Paul Owens became a minor league manager (1955-1959). He won the PONY League batting crown, hitting .407.
Owens was a sergeant in an engineering unit during World War II. He met his wife in Belgium. He graduated from St. Bonaventure College and began his minor league career. When he retired, he batted .374 and won three batting titles, but some people have said his “advanced age” cost him a shot at the major leagues.
In 1955, the Phillies named him as a player/manager for their minor league team in Olean. He then managed two seasons in Bakersfield, Ca.
After being a major league scout (1959-1965), he served the Philadelphia Phillies organization as farm system director (1965-1972), general manager (1972-1984), and vice president and director of player personnel (1977). He also was a manager for the Phillies (1972, 1983-84) with a record of 161-158.
Nicknamed "The Pope," his work is seen as vital to the Phillies capturing the World Series crown in 1980.
He's seen by some as Philadelphia's all-time best GM.
As the Phillies Scouting Director, he employed what he called “Good dogged scouting” when evaluating players. He traveled to Illinois to see then prospect Greg Luzinski play basketball, saying he wanted to see if he was aggressive under the boards. An area scout was very high on a shortstop at Ohio University. Owens attended a game watching Mike Schmidt, and thought he’d move him to third base, where he played for 18 seasons with the team and was inducted into the Hall of Fame. (The Phillies honored him in 1986, creating the Paul Owens Award, presented yearly to the organization’s best player and pitcher in its minor league system.)
He became a shrewd trader, acquiring Garry Maddox, Tug McGraw, Manny Trillo, Bake McBride and others to complement the Phillies home grown players, such as Schmidt, Luzinski, Bob Boone and Larry Bowa. Four years later, he became GM, and the Phils went on to win three consecutive NL East titles in 1976, ’77 and ’78, but lost the League Championship Series each year. Then, he hired Dallas Green to manage the team and did not break up the nucleus of the club in a proposed multi-player deal with an American League club. Both moves helped the team win its first World Series.
