Mark Cuban - Personal Life

Personal Life

Cuban was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and grew up in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon, in a Jewish working-class family. The surname "Cuban" was shortened from "Chabenisky" when his Russian grandparents landed on Ellis Island. He is the son of Shirley and Norton Cuban; Norton was an automobile upholsterer. Cuban's first step into the business world occurred at age 12, when he sold garbage bags to pay for a pair of expensive basketball shoes. While in school, he held a variety of jobs, including bartender, disco dancing instructor, and party promoter. He paid for college by collecting and selling stamps, and once gained about $1,100 from starting a chain letter.

Rather than attending high school for his senior year, he enrolled as a full time student at the University of Pittsburgh. After one year at the University of Pittsburgh, he transferred to Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana and graduated from the Kelley School of Business in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in business administration. He chose Indiana's Kelley School of Business without even visiting the campus because it had the least expensive tuition of all the business schools on the top 10 list. While in school he bought a popular college hangout on Kirkwood Avenue called Motley's Pub. Before that he gave disco lessons at sororities and says he paid for his junior year with a chain letter.