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Anschutz hasn't granted an interview for a feature story in more than 30 years. When I asked one of his assistants about the chances of talking to him, the assistant cracked up. When I asked what he could tell us about his boss, he replied, only half-jokingly, "I want to keep my job!"

Anschutz lives with his wife, Nancy, on a large ranch near Greeley, Colorado. According to various reports, he drives a used Lexus, and buys his coffee at a 7-11 and hot dogs from a corner vendor. An avid athlete, he has completed several marathons.

A 1999 Fortune magazine profile, "Billionaire Next Door," noted that one of the most interesting things about Anschutz "is not that he's worth well over $10 billion [his worth at that time]. It's that he's a genuinely nice guy worth more than $10 billion. He didn't make his money by being a nasty, grasping, miserly bastard. Once he got rich, he didn't turn into a twisted, weirdo billionaire like Howard Hughes. … As billionaires go, Anschutz is abnormally normal."

Anschutz and his wife, both Presbyterians, attend a local church and support various local charities, including Step 13, a Denver home for alcoholic men.

One longtime friend says Anschutz's faith informs everything he does.

"His set of values and beliefs permeates his life," said Jim Monaghan, a spokesman who has worked with Anschutz for 24 years. "He is a composite of religious values, ethics, and morals, but he doesn't wear it on his sleeve. He walks the talk."

Monaghan wouldn't say much more about Anschutz: "My job is to keep people from writing articles about him at all. He just doesn't want the publicity."

Phil and Nancy are involved with the Anschutz Family Foundation in Denver, run by Phil's sister, Sue Anschutz-Rodgers. The $54 million foundation helps poor children and families in the community. Anschutz is also known for his steady financial support of Republican candidates over the years, including his longtime friend and fellow Kansas native Bob Dole, and President Bush. According to Newsmeat.com's campaign-finance database, Anschutz has donated $269,165 to Republicans (and $22,750 to Democrats) since 1979.

Several companies in the Anschutz empire have made news for questionable dealings, if not outright scandal. In 2007, former Qwest chief executive Joe Nacchio was convicted for insider trading for illegally selling $52 million in company stock in 2001. But a U.S. appeals court recently overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial in front of a different judge. The appeals court slammed the original judge for excluding testimony by an expert witness upon whom the defense based much of its case. Nacchio also faces a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit that alleges he and six other Qwest officials took part in a $3 billion accounting fraud.

In another case, Qwest was fined $25.9 million by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission in 2003 for allegedly violating competition laws, but the penalty was overturned in July 2007 by the Minnesota Court of Appeals in a unanimous decision.

More recently, the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which owns several sports teams and arenas, was in the news when one of its properties, London's The O2 (formerly the Millennium Dome), was involved in a bid for a super-casino. London's Greenwich borough was one of eight British municipalities bidding for the facility, which would have been built on O2 property, but lost out to Manchester in early 2007. (Manchester city officials later voted to not have the casino, so none will be built at all.) In 2005, Anschutz made U.K. headlines after hosting and reportedly giving gifts to then–British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at his Colorado ranch. Britain's Parliament and Scotland Yard investigated a potential conflict of interest, but both probes were later dropped.

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May 2008, Vol. 52, No. 5