Jacobs was born in 1940, the son of Genevieve (née Bibby) and Louis Jacobs. His mother was of Irish Catholic descent, and his father was the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland. The original surname of his family’s paternal side was Yakobovitch. In 1915, his father and his two brothers, Charles and Marvin, founded a company that first sold concessions in theaters and then expanded to major league ballparks. His father took over the company in the 1950s when the health of his brothers faltered and Jeremy took over at age 28 when his father died in 1968. Louis also at one point was the operator at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium and owned the Buffalo Bisons of the American Hockey League.

Jacobs was listed for several years in a row as one of Sports Business Journal’s Most Influential People in Sports. He was inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame in Western New York in October 2006.

Jacobs has owned the National Hockey League’s Boston Bruins since 1975. Jacobs represents the club on the NHL’s Board of Governors and serves on its Executive Committee. At the NHL Board of Governors meeting in June 2007, Jacobs was elected chairman. He replaced the Calgary Flames’ Harley Hotchkiss, who stepped down after 12 years.

In 2007, Jacobs donated $1 million to support an endowed chair in immunology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI). The gift was made to RPCI’s Leaders for Life endowment campaign in honor of Jacobs’ brother, the late Dr. Lawrence D. Jacobs, an immunology researcher who died in 2001.

The University at Buffalo received a $10 million gift from Jacobs, his wife Margaret, and other family members on June 11, 2008 to establish the Jacobs Institute. The Jacobs Institute supports research and clinical collaboration on the causes, treatment, and prevention of heart and vascular diseases. This gift was also made in honor of his late brother, Lawrence. The Jacobs’ gift was at the time the largest single gift ever made to the University at Buffalo. The donation also made the Jacobs family the university’s most generous donor, with gifts totaling $18.4 million. Jacobs has also served the University at Buffalo as chairman, trustee, and director of its foundation, chairman of the President’s Board of Visitors, advisor to the School of Management, and as chairman of the University at Buffalo Council.

After years of disappointing performance, Jacobs replaced numerous managers and coaches. Harry Sinden, the longtime president of the team, retired active work and moved into an advisory role. New management included Peter Chiarelli and head coach Claude Julien. Cam Neely, a former Bruins player, was also lured back to the new organization and was named president. These changes were effective. The Bruins record in the 2008–09 season was the second best in the NHL. In 2011, the Bruins won their first Stanley Cup in 39 years after beating the Vancouver Canucks in a seven-game series.

The Jacobs family and their company, Delaware North, donated $250,000 to the Martin House Restoration Project in March 2012. They had made an earlier donation of $146,000. The project aims to restore the Darwin D. Martin House in Western New York, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs.

In November 2012, Jacobs and his family announced a $1 million donation to the Say Yes Buffalo Scholarship. Say Yes Buffalo is “an education-based initiative that provides a powerful engine for long-term economic development, which will radically improve the life course of public school students in the City of Buffalo.”

In 2013, Jacobs paid for a two-year study on the nutrition and food preferences of cancer patients. The study, called the Cancer Nutrition Consortium, focused on patient preferences and issues related to their ability to eat and drink while undergoing cancer treatment, including therapies like chemotherapy and radiation. The consortium aimed to help cancer patients make healthy choices that will support their treatment.

On April 17, 2013, Jacobs announced that he had pledged $100,000 on behalf of the Bruins and its players to The One Fund Boston to help victims of the Boston Marathon bombing and their families.

Jacobs holds honorary doctorates from the University at Buffalo, Canisius College, Johnson and Wales University, and Niagara University, where he was awarded an honorary doctor of commercial science in October 2013.

On January 6, 2015, Jacobs relinquished the title of CEO and named Jerry Jacobs Jr. and Louis Jacobs co-CEOs. He also named Charlie Jacobs CEO of Delaware North’s Boston Holdings.

In July 2015, Jacobs donated $250,000 to Iroquois Central High School in Elma, NY for the improvement of its athletic fields. Part of Jacobs’ East Aurora, NY estate is located in Elma.