In a conference call with investors yesterday, Dallas dealmaker Tom Hicks referred to “his friends” at Blackstone Group in reference to his company’s $3.2 billion purchase of Graham Packaging Holdings Co., owned by Blackstone.

Texan Tom Hicks made a fortune in leveraged buyouts, won hockey’s Stanley Cup, agreed to give a baseball player the largest contract in sports history, and owns half of one of the world’s most famous soccer teams.

Still, when it comes to impressive resumes, he bows to a founding director of his newest venture, Hicks Acquisition Company I, which completed its initial public offering this week.

Brian Mulroney is a former Prime Minister of Canada and in June became a director of the Blackstone Group, the giant New York-based private equity firm that sold part of itself to the public this year. Mulroney is also a director of Archer Daniels Midland and Wyndham Worldwide, and has been a senior adviser to HM Capital, a successor to Hicks Muse Tate & Furst.