Detroit Lions ownership has often been a hot topic over the decades and for good reason.

The franchise has been under ownership from the famous Ford family since 1963, with three different controlling owners since.

The franchise won four NFL championships in the three decades prior to the Fords purchasing the club, but has been among the worst in all of U.S. professional sports since.

They have yet to reach a Super Bowl, one of four NFL teams never to do so and the lone continuous franchise, and have just three playoff wins since 1957.

But times are changing for the better. The Lions did just snap an NFL-leading 32-year playoff winless drought and have reached their second-ever NFC championship game.

[ Lions fans: Celebrate the epic 2023 season with a new book from the Free Press! ]

Here's more on the Fords and their ownership of the Lions over six decades:

Who owns the Detroit Lions?

William Clay Ford, born to Eleanor Clay Ford and Edsel Ford, and the grandson of auto pioneer Henry Ford, was a Ford Motor Co. executive. Bill Ford bought into the 144-member syndicate that owned the team in 1956, and partied with the team after the 1957 NFL championship. But he did not get officially involved with the Lions until 1961, when he became team president.

He purchased the club for $6 million, according to the Free Press, on one of the most infamous days in United States history: Nov. 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

Roughly 94% of the more than 23,000 shares were voted in favor of the 38-year-old Ford, the Free Press wrote the following day, and his offer was the most ever for a sports franchise at the time.

The deal dissolved a 15-year period of group ownership.

Two days later, the Lions lost 34-31 at the Minnesota Vikings, squandering a 28-17 third-quarter lead.

Ford officially acquired ownership Jan. 10, 1964. The team has had just 19 winning seasons since — five coming since Ford's death in March 2014 at 88 years old — and three playoff wins, with two coming in 2023. Ford was regarded as generous and loyal who too often trusted the wrong people to build a sustained winner. He allowed Russ Thomas to run the team as general manager from 1967-89 despite just three postseason appearances.

"He was involved, but yet he let you do your job, too," Bobby Ross, Lions head coach from 1997-2000, said of Ford.

And after some success in the 1990s with Barry Sanders at running back, Ford installed former NFL player and TV analyst Matt Millen to run the team in 2001. The Lions went an NFL-worst 31-84 during Millen's tenure until his firing three games into an 0-16 season in 2008.

"I loved Mr. Ford," Millen said in 2013. "I think the world of him. Like I said, I wish the people of Detroit could know him the way I know him. I came away a better person for knowing him and I probably didn't return the favor, but I thought the world of him."

Bill Ford Jr. had a more active role helping run the Lions later in his father’s life, but Martha Ford took control as owner and chairman at age 88 after her husband's death. She quickly showed she was a bit different from her more patient husband, making big changes during a 1-7 start to the 2015 season by firing president Tom Lewand and GM Martin Mayhew.

But Martha Ford oversaw the ill-fated Bob Quinn hiring as GM in 2016, and his hiring of Matt Patricia as head coach two years later.

Ford stepped down as owner in 2020, but, at 98 years old, remains chair emeritus. She made a surprise speech in the Lions' locker room after their regular season finale win over Minnesota on Jan. 7.

"I'm so proud of our whole team," she said after making a quip about not being as athletic as her daughter, who got the game ball from coach Dan Campbell. "I mean it wasn't for how many years, 50? 60 years and I have never been more proud than this season."

Who is Sheila Hamp?

Sheila Ford Hamp, 72, is the current Lions principal owner. She is one of four children of William Clay Ford Sr. and Martha Firestone Ford, born in 1951. She has three sons and resides in Ann Arbor with her husband, Steve.

"One of my first things that I want to do is set up with Rod (Wood, team president) some meetings with other parts of the organization that I really don't know that well," Hamp said in 2020 upon succeeding her 94-year-old mother. "I really want to take a deep dive and understand the whole thing."

Free Press columnist Jeff Seidel laid out before this season the eight moments under Hamp that has changed everything about this franchise, calling her "bold, different and smart."

How did she get here?

Hamp's climb to the Lions' helm was a winding one. She did not have a role while her father was owner.

“We were all huge fans, went to the games and stuff but we had like zero input on anything,” she said in 2021. “I mean I’d offer suggestions here and there and (my dad would) say, ‘Oh, thank you very much,’ and then do whatever he was going to do anyways.”

Hamp had served as a vice chairwoman since 2014 and played a key role in keeping Quinn and Patricia during a 3-12-1 season in 2019. She took over as principal owner in June 2020, later revealing her siblings voted her to be their mother's successor after her father's passing.

She therefore took on a large role under her mother, and was appointed in 2019 to the NFL’s Super Bowl and Major Events advisory committee.

MORE: Lions owner Sheila Hamp has been bold, different and smart. It's paying dividends.

Hamp was among the first group of women to graduate from Yale in 1973, following in the footsteps of her dad, a 1949 grad. Like her dad, she was a Yale varsity tennis player, and won a Michigan state tennis title as a 17-year-old.

Her dream was to work in the NFL, and following graduation, befriended NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle after sitting next to him at a dinner. But she couldn't get a job in the sport.

"I know he tried because he liked me and thought it would be fine. But he couldn’t think of one thing — nothing — that a woman could do in the NFL. So I’m thinking how far we’ve come,” Hamp said in 2021.

She later earned a master's degree from Boston University in teaching and early childhood education.

Hamp's first big move as owner came 157 days into her tenure, when she fired Quinn and Patricia two days after a Thanksgiving loss to Houston.

“It clearly wasn't working," Hamp said.

Hamp is involved in the day-to-day operations (though she previously has said, "I don't plan to meddle"), attending training camp practices during the hot Michigan summers, and is visible on game days pregame on the sideline.

She hired former Lions Pro Bowl linebacker Chris Spielman, then a TV analyst, as special assistant to herself and team president Rod Wood in 2020. She said she wanted to take a more day-to-day, hands-on approach to the duty than her mother had. For example, after hiring Campbell and GM Brad Holmes in 2021, she sat in on personnel meetings in preparation for both the draft and free agency as a way to learn.

Hamp is supported by her mother, Martha Firestone Ford (chair emeritus) and siblings Martha Ford Morse, Bill Ford Jr. and Elizabeth Ford Kontulis, each serving as vice chairs.

How much are the Lions worth?

Forbes in August 2023 valued the Lions at $3.6 billion, 31st out of the NFL's 32 teams, ahead of only the Cincinnati Bengals. The Dallas Cowboys were No. 1 at $9 billion.

Forbes wrote the average NFL team is worth $5.1 billion in 2023, an increase of 14% year-over-year, fueled by new television money and the Washington Commanders being sold for $6.05 billion in July.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Who owns the Detroit Lions: What to know about Sheila Ford Hamp