Sunday Interview with Neil Stillwell: ‘I really couldn’t afford to fail’

Neil Stillwell’s business education came at his father’s Phenix City barbecue restaurant — Bill and Neil’s.

There was nothing formal about it, even though he tried college after graduating from Central High School in 1962.

“I went one year at Columbus College,” he said. “I wanted to get out, go to work, and make money. I went to school and didn’t do very well; it’s because I’m not real smart.”

He is smart like a fox.

He ran a successful sporting goods store, Neil’s Sports Shop in the 1960s and ’70s. He was the first to sell T-shirts, caps and other memorabilia in college football stadiums across the South.

He started The Game, sold it, then bought it back. For five decades, he has been been one of the Chattahoochee Valley’s most successful businessmen and salesmen.

Recently, he sat down with Ledger-Enquirer reporter Chuck Williams and photographer Robin Trimarchi to talk about life, timing and success. Here are excerpts of that interview, edited for length and clarity.

Q: How did you get started in the sporting goods apparel business?

A: Going to Central High School, I was an athlete. I played all the sports and all that stuff. As I was coming up, we didn’t have a sporting goods store in Phenix City. I didn’t really have any money — $8,000 was my life’s savings. I wanted to go in business, and I said, “Everybody knows me. Everybody over here will buy stuff from me.” Well, it wasn’t that simple. ... It was probably the most ignorant thing I probably could have possibly done.

Q: Neil’s Sport Shop?

A: Neil’s Sport Shop. I really couldn’t afford to fail. My son was just born. ... I opened in July of ’66. The following January, it was a cold, rainy day. I only had one employee. He called in and said, “Man, I’ve got the flu or something, I’m sick as a dog.” I usually go out and call on recreation departments and boys clubs and such as that, schools, to try to sell them something. He would run the store during the day.

Well, I couldn’t go out and call on schools, I had to stay there. Like I said, it was a rainy and cold, just a miserable day. ... At the end of the day I have a little report I filled out. I did 42 cents. I just felt like the biggest failure in the world. I cried like a baby. I didn’t do that — I felt like I was a man’s man and I just didn’t cry, but it just scared me to death.

I wasn’t raised in a Christian home, but my wife is the most dynamic Christian I know — still is today. She had talked to me about tithing and all. I thought that’s the craziest thing I ever heard of. Anyway, I asked the Lord to help me. I felt like, “Oh my gosh,” everything just started falling into place for me. Over the next few years, I went from one store, to another store, to another store, to another store. This was in the ’80s. From the ’60s — in 20 years — my little business went from pretty much zero to $10 million. Back then, $10 million was a pretty good-sized sporting goods store.

Q: Was putting stores in the local malls one of the smartest business decisions you made?

A: I told my son Jeff, “We’re here today because I made that decision to pay that high rent.” I remember, Columbus Square, I had it figured out: “I need to do $700 a day to break even.” Right off the bat it started out I was averaging over $1,400 a day. Then I got to the point where I was averaging $3,000 a day. The two mall stores ... Man, I went to Albany, Ga., when they opened their mall ... got a place in the Auburn mall.

Q: Was it gut, or were you that smart?

A: You know, I really think it was just the good Lord looked after me. I asked for help and he blessed me. I worked hard, I called on schools, I was one of these 14-hour-a-day workers, seven days a week.

Q: Where did that work ethic come from?

A: My daddy was a brick layer. When he was a brick layer he started that barbecue place ... Well, it was Bill and Neil’s. ... Mama and Daddy started that when I was 7 years old. When I first started I couldn’t be a carhop, because it had carhops. That’s where Mike Howard worked. He was a carhop. ... I had to separate the drink bottles and pick up paper, because Mother and Daddy both worked. They worked until 11 at night.

Q: They were Depression era, right?

A: Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

Q: Did that filter down to you?

A: I know it did, because both them were very hard workers and they told me that you’ve got to work for it. I believe that; I found out I was a carhop and I think something I’m blessed with, I feel like as a personality and I enjoy people. I like talking to people. ... I found out real quick ... Daddy didn’t pay me. I made my money on tips. He’d pay the others $2 a day and paid for their meals. I’d end up most of the time making more money than they would just on tips. I felt like the more you talk to people the more they like you.

Q: You’re a natural born salesman, right?

A: I’m blessed with that. People love to be sold. ... Somebody can show me something and man, I’ll take that. I guarantee you, people like to be asked for their business.

Q: Talk about The Game. How did The Game start?

A: When I was at Neil’s Sport Shop, I got to where Auburn University was my No. 1 account. The purchasing agent and I got to be the best of friends. John Burgess was his name — he was a character. This was back when Auburn had 40,000 people there for a game. He asked me did I want to come and sell at the football stadium and pay them a royalty? I said, “I’ll try it.” I took six pasteboard boxes full of T-shirts and caps. At that time there was no such thing as licensed products. ... I remember I sold everything I took over there, six boxes and six tables. We did something like $7,000 and I made $2,000 profit that day. I thought, “That’s great. Here I am I’m making $2,000 in a day to come to a football game.”

As things went on with six stands and 10 years later, here comes the Bo Jacksons, and it got to be 75,000 and 80,000 people there. I had 20 stands all over there. I was doing $80,000 to $100,000 per game. I got Auburn, I had Alabama, I got Georgia, Florida, Florida State, Clemson, Southern Mississippi — everybody I could reach. I gave them 25 percent of what I made. You ask me, “How did The Game get started?”

Q: I think you just told me.

A: Caps, nobody had them on the shelf. I had to figure out and get a company to make me all these caps ahead of time and it would take them a long time to make these caps for me. ... A lot of times I didn’t have enough caps to work a ballgame. I ended up going to Taiwan. That’s when you first started seeing everything made in Taiwan.

Q: You were here in the textile capital of the world and ...

A: Nobody made caps. I went to Taiwan. I found this company that today makes all of Nike’s caps. I met them and they were coming up with the first embroidered caps ever, the first collegiate caps. They were making baseball caps for the New York Yankees and such as that. They made some caps for me and I brought some of the first embroidered caps over here. Then I got my coaches, I’d bring them in, but you had to buy 500 dozen per style, per color. I got about four caps, at least, for every school. I remember, I’m right next to CB&T here, which is my banker. I thought, “Oh my God. ... When I got back on the plane I got nervous as I could be because I’d ordered all of these ... I had to order at least four caps, so that’s 2,000 dozen caps for every one of them.

I thought, “Oh my God, Neil, you’ve gone absolutely crazy.”

Q: How much did that order cost you?

A: You know what, I don’t even remember what it was at this time, but it was a pile of money. Plus, I bought baseball gloves over there. I bought Olympic weights. I bought a lot of stuff. I went crazy when I was over there buying because the prices were so cheap. Them caps cost me less than $2 apiece at that time. I’m bringing them back and I’m selling the caps at the stadium for $15.

Q: Those were the original hats that had Auburn in cursive and had the lines, right?

A: Auburn in cursive and it had the AU. Anyway, I took these caps and had these samples they made up for me when I was over there. ... I took them around, I showed them to the bookstores at Auburn. I knew every sporting goods store. I’d tell them, I’d say, “Look, I got the official football cap for Auburn, for Alabama, for whatever.”

... There was no licensing, no such thing as licensing. I got the official cap but they don’t know. I bought them for $2, I sold to them for $5 and I said, “I’m retailing these for $15.” They loved that, buying it for $5 and selling it for $15. ... Everybody would call and wanted to get some of them caps. I got to where I was selling more to them than I was selling at that stadium. I figured this all out by myself. They’ve got colleges in every state, all over the United States. I said, “Oh my God, I could sell these caps, buy them at a good price, and sell them.” That’s how I talked my brother Phil into leaving Nike. He left them and came to work with me to start The Game. That first year Phil saw as a mistake. He felt like we did less than $1 million the first year, but seven years later we were doing $82 million.

Q: You took The Game to an $82 million company.?

A: Right, with the help — OK, well, let me tell you this story. This building right next door to me, Brad Turner ... Do you know Brad?

Q: I do know Brad.

A: I tell he and Steve Butler all the time they were very special to me, but Brad was my loan officer. We got to be friends and he loved my sporting goods business, that just intrigued him. Then he left (the bank) and went to be the president of W.C. Bradley Co. He called me and said, “We want to diversify. I’m going to leave here; you’re going to have to have another banker. I don’t know if you remember James Chambliss, but anyway he introduced me to James. Just me and Brad went to lunch, and he said, “I’d like to talk about you ... I don’t want to buy you out,” but he bought 80 percent of my company, and I owned 20 percent. He paid me a good sum of money. We eventually sold out and I only had 20 percent of it, but I still did pretty good. They ended up selling it. Five years later, they sold it for $43 million.

Q: Who’d they sell it to?

A: Russell Athletic. Then Russell Athletic kept it for five years and I turned around and bought it back.

The Bradley Company was involved. The Bradley Company only owned 30 percent of it this time. Me and my family owned the rest of it. Let’s see, we bought it back. We kept it for five more years, then we sold it to Ashworth. When we bought it back from Russell Athletic, Russell Athletic had let it go down to $11 million (in sales). We turned around and built it back up to $50-something million, me and my brother again.

Q: You’ve bought and sold The Game three times?

A: Yes.

Q: Let me ask you this: how did you get involved in NASCAR?

A: It was in 1993. Bill Jordan at Realtree and I have been good friends for a long time. He was real good friends with (driver) Davey Allison. He hunted with him a lot and all that stuff. He introduced me to (Davey’s cousin and business manager) Tommy (Allison) and Davey. When I was at The Game, he brought them over there, because Davey wanted to go independent and go into licensing for himself.

Q: Davey figured out his name and his number were worth money?

A: Worth more than that 10 percent he was getting as a royalty. He could buy his own trailers and all that kind of stuff. He didn’t really have the money to do it.

Q: He could show up at tracks and sell his own stuff out of his own trailer?

A: The year before we did the NASCAR deal, my secretary told me I spent 210 nights in hotels. That’s how much I traveled. Like I said, working all the time. They came on board and we took ... Bill had Realtree to grow. He was right in the middle of that. He came to me and said, “Neil, I understand you’re leaving The Game.” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “What are you going to do?” I said, “I don’t know, my wife hasn’t seen much of me in the last few years. We’re just going to take some time off.”

I left in December, Jan. 21 — it was on my birthday and me and Tommy were buying Davey’s trailers back from the people out of Charlotte. It was cold and snowing and everything else. We were up there moving all that inventory and ready to build, and brought it back to Phenix City and started Davey’s sales. Then Bill and Davey went together as a three-way partnership and I’m the one that ran the company that we brought back. We sat down and did a business plan and thought, “We can do $2.5 million this year. We can pay off our debt.” Pretty much that was our goal for that year. Of course, Davey ended up getting killed in July.

Q: Davey’s helicopter crashed at Talladega, right?

A: Talladega.

Q: It was in July.

A: Our sales, instead of $2.5 million, went to $9.5 million in the wake of his death. Everybody wanted to have something with Davey Allison on it because he was a legend. He was coming up as a real legend. He was doing very well.

Q: Did you like Davey?

A: I loved Davey. I spent a lot of time with him. We ate together every — gosh darn it — every Saturday night.

Q: At a race track.

A: At a race track, going out to eat somewhere. It was pitiful, we’d go out to eat somewhere and ... I’ve got to tell you this story. We were in Rockingham, N.C. We were at a real famous catfish place and we were eating. I was sitting there next to Davey and, bless his heart, this place had 300 people in it, I guess. They were coming over and Davey couldn’t eat. ...

Some lady came up in line and asked Davey for his autograph ... I said, “Ma’am, you didn’t want my autograph? What’s wrong?” She said, “I’m sorry, sir, who are you?” I said, “I’m Neil Stillwell. I’m the collard green eating champion of Alabama for the last two years.” She turned and walked away confused and it sort of sunk in what I said. She laughed, she came back, she said, “I’d love to have your autograph.” I signed her autograph and then when she got the signed autograph people thought, “I don’t know who he is but he’s got to be important.” They’d go to Davey and then go to me. Me and him sitting there, and Davey said, “You are one crazy son of a gun.”

Q: Do you remember when you learned of his death?

A: It was a shock to all of us. He told me he bought a helicopter and he said, “Neil, you’ve got to go up with me, you’d love it.” I said, “Davey, I won’t even get on the roof of a building. ...” It was three days later he had an accident on that thing and killed himself.

Q: Let’s talk about Salt Life — we’ve got to start wrapping up. What is Salt Life? How did it get started?

A: It’s these four guys down in Jacksonville, Fla. Let me go back. I’ve had such an interesting life — I really truly have — not just from Neil’s Sport Shop, The Game, the Davey Allison deal, Bradley Company, when they did the torch relay. After we sold The Game, we started another company called Kudzu. We did the torch relay. It started in ’96.

Q: The Olympic torch relay?

A: Coca-Cola owned the rights to the torch relay, through the Bradley Company, and they partnered with us to do it. We went to 44 states taking all that stuff on several trailers with 27 employees. I was on that thing for 89 straight days from California to Atlanta. I enjoyed it so much I stayed at that and I lost 38 pounds. I told somebody I need to go about two more of them trips. I’m too old to do that, but we did that. You asked about Salt Life, how’d that got started. We cut a deal. ... A guy that used to work for The Game, he went to work for PGA. They called us about doing the PGA golf events. We used to do every major build there. We did all the Kentucky Derbies for 10 years; this is the first year ...

Q: You’re selling hats and T-shirts.

A: Caps and T-shirts. Anything you bought with Kentucky Derby on it was ours. Anything you bought with an Olympics logo was ours. Again, all the golf tournaments, the major gold tournaments, we enjoyed that business. Salt Life, the people at PGA said that these four people in Jacksonville, best buddies, every weekend they’d get together and they would just hang out at the beach, fish, their families and all that kind of stuff. Well, one of them speared this big old huge grouper, brought him up right at dusk. Held him up and they took pictures. He said, “Man, we are really enjoying the Salt Life.” He wrote it down on a napkin, he went and got some decals made with Salt Life.

He thought just to give to his buddies, but he had to do 100. He ended up giving them to the tackle store and saying, “How about trying to sell these things for me?” He put $5 on them and sold out pretty quick. He said, “I need to buy some more of these decals.” They bought some more, they eventually got T-shirts and all that. They dickered with that thing for about five or six years. They were doing about $3.5 million. The people from the PGA told us, “Y’all might need to look at this company.” My son went down and looked at it, talked about it. We bought all their inventory, moved it to Phenix City, and paid them a royalty for what we sold.

Q: There’s no Salt Life in Phenix City.

A: No, there’s not, but that’s where our distribution and everything else is — not to sell it in Phenix City. It’s still more of a beach line and all that. The first year we bought it we went to about $9 or $10 million, then $20, and $30, and $40, $50 (million). It’s $50-something a year now and it’s still growing like crazy. Anyway, we took a chance and bought it. This is the Delta Corporation now. I don’t own anything anymore. They still want me to hang around — I don’t know why — but I hang around.

Q: Your expertise helped drive this company to another level.

A: This is my son. He’s a ...

Q: Did he get it from you?

A: I think he’s a smarter business man than his daddy was. He’s got bigger ideas. He’ll grow bigger things than what his daddy’s done. You’ve got to think about the dollar amount then. I remember buying a Coke for a dime. He don’t remember nothing like that. He just turned 50 but he’s got a good business head on him.

Q: Let’s go back to The Game before we finish.

A: I didn’t tell you about the bar design. Let me just real quick ...

Q: Coach (Pat) Dye was the first one to wear your hat on the side lines, right?

A: He was, he was. He was the first one. I went to him about wearing it and make it his official cap. Whatever the coaches wear does become the official cap. They want to be just like the coach. I put that “G” on the outside of the cap — another story. ... I actually shipped some of them caps to a store in Atlanta and they sent them back to us and said, “You stupid idiot, you put that label on the outside.” We were the first one that would do that. Then I came up with the bar design. I put that on and that took off. It’s still today the No. 1 collegiate cap in America. It’s just got UGA, University of Alabama — UCLA one of our best. I miss that part of our business, the college part of it. Licensing, they made it harder and harder. They kept going up and up on the price, and they give it to the Nikes, and the Under Armors, and the people willing to pay huge bucks for exclusives.

... We were the first company ever to take coaches to wear our product.

Q: What did you pay Coach Dye to wear that hat?

A: We first started paying — I said we’d give him 2 percent of the sales. It was a nightmare. People returned stuff and this. I got to where I paid him $1,000 every game he wore it. Then I paid him $5,000 if he wore it on TV. We had somebody hired just to check all these TVs. If you wore it to a bowl game we’d pay him $10,000.

Q: Are you an unlikely success story?

A: I think so. I don’t deserve to be successful. Again, I feel like I’ve just been blessed. I feel like I had the ability to work hard. I feel like I can take a look at something and see it, and say, “Oh gosh, that’ll sell.”

This story was originally published June 11, 2016 at 7:26 PM with the headline "Sunday Interview with Neil Stillwell: ‘I really couldn’t afford to fail’."