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Charge Forward Podcast
The Charge Forward Podcast: Dedicated to those who choose to Charge Forward into the Storm when hit with challenges. This is what makes them different and has lead to their success. When in doubt.... Charge Forward!
Charge Forward Podcast
Larry Schmittou - Part 2: The Man Who Brought Baseball Back to Nashville & Built a Bowling Empire
What does it take to build a business that thrives for decades? Larry Schmittou, the man who brought professional baseball back to Nashville and built a thriving bowling empire, reveals his secrets to leadership, longevity, and purpose in this must-watch episode of the Charge Forward Podcast.
At 84 years old, Schmittou still leads 500+ employees across multiple Strike & Spare bowling centers with the same passion and integrity that fueled his career in baseball, including founding the Nashville Sounds. His straightforward leadership style, emphasis on honesty and accountability, and commitment to putting people first have made him a legend in both sports and business.
🎯 Key Takeaways from This Episode:
✅ Why work should be your passion, not just a job
✅ The three leadership lessons that shaped Schmittou’s success
✅ How he built a bowling business that prioritizes customer experience
✅ The importance of family, integrity, and hiring the right people
✅ How servant leadership fosters loyalty and long-term success
🔔 Watch now and learn how to build a business that provides purpose well into your 90s!
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You had to have some joy in it to stay in it this long.
Speaker 2:Well, I enjoy it. I enjoy my employees. We have 500-some-odd employees now and I really enjoy the customers. That's what I enjoyed about the sounds. I enjoyed walking those steps and talking to the customers. I enjoyed talking baseball to them.
Speaker 2:I've never wanted to just sit around and do nothing. I used to play golf, but I don't do it anymore. I don't garden, I don't fish, I don't hunt, so my hobby is work and I don't even regard that as work. I back up to take my paycheck. So you know, I just think you've got to be active, you've got to have a reason to get up, and I've always jokingly tell my employees I don't want you to work, but a half a day, and I don't really care which 12 hours you work. So I don't work 12 hours anymore, but I enjoy what I do. If I weren't doing that, I would be doing something else that I enjoy, whether it be a greeter at Walmart or something that I enjoyed that I was around people.
Speaker 2:We had made an approach to buying Kansas City. That went to the guy that was already running them, that was from the Walmart clan. So Rick stayed on me, let's do something together. And so the center in Murfreesboro, tennessee, became available. We reached agreement. I presented it to Rick. Here's an idea I had taken the financial statements of a company called Bowl America that at that time owned 18 bowling centers, but they were publicly traded and they were all made mostly in one area of washington baltimore area and I said we could do this. So I got involved with the patrick family. Doug had been in baseball I mean in bowling for a time. So I said why don't you stick with me for 90 days and teach me something about this? And so that was our first center and we bought it. Then all of a sudden a lot of other people said it's time for us to get out. So by the next july we went from owning no centers.
Speaker 1:In September of you are the cap for whatever goes on in your store, in your company, in your district, in your household. However excited you are, what you believe is possible, whatever that threshold is. Who's been a mentor for you through the kind of through that? I'm sure that these days you're a mentor for others. But who, who, who?
Speaker 2:helped you along the way? Well, I don't. I think the most help that I received, to set me a standard, was Jess Neely, my athletic director at Vanderbilt. He had been a head football coach at Rice and Clemson and he's just a man of integrity. I remember when he came to see me at Goodall's he said I want you to be our baseball coach at Vanderbilt. And I said why would I want to do that? Y'all not very good. And he said well, you're right, we're not, but I'll help you.
Speaker 2:And it's just something about that man. And I learned that you know he was at Rice when Bearryant was at a and m. He would never call bear, barry, called him paul because paul had caught, been caught, barry had been caught cheating at a and m and he just emphasized play by the rules. When things go bad, don't be blaming other people, don't take credit for everything. You know, he's just a manner that he had and he was up in his years after he became real quick being ad, served as a golf coach at vanderbilt and uh, he was just, uh, an inspiration to me.
Speaker 2:You know, don't? You know, keep your word. If you give your word, keep it. If something comes up you can't you go explain why you can't do that and treat your players with respect, treat them all like, give them a responsibility and hold them to that. I can't emphasize any more from what I learned at Vanderbilt dealing with less than what other teams had, but not using it as an alibi. That probably taught me more than any other thing I've done I'm sure it served you well, growing your own businesses sure did?
Speaker 1:yeah, because at the end of the day, as the business owner, you have to assume responsibility for everything that happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah and that's where you know I've always kind of wink when some head coach got their school, got caught doing something, so they fire the assistant coach and said the head coach didn't know anything about it. Well, his jobs know yeah about everything right, so don't be just blaming it on somebody else to protect you on high. Just admit it yeah I make mistakes every day and you're going to.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's nobody's perfect and for us to assume that we're going to be perfect is is just setting ourselves up to fail. Now, I do believe in perfect moments. Um, you know there's a lot of people that will challenge perfect perfection at all, but I think, think every once in a while, a moment comes together. Maybe maybe it was uh, being able to put the sounds together, maybe it was, uh, you know the situation at the Royals, or maybe it was just, uh, last Tuesday, but every once in a while we get something just comes together, and that's that's fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Uh, that's fun. Yeah, One of the things that comes up on the podcast pretty frequently. Now you and your wife have been married 65 years.
Speaker 2:Going on 66.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. Now, how much of your success do you think is because you had the right partner, that you had somebody that supported you, supported them, and I mean you have five kids. Obviously that's a big undertaking by itself, much less. All the rest, 100%, yeah, that's great. And so give me a ballpark on everybody's ages. How old are all the kids? Steve, you might have to help with that one.
Speaker 2:How old are I? Yeah, how old is the 60? Steve is the youngest. How old are you? Yeah, how old is he? 60. Steve is the youngest.
Speaker 3:How old are you 50?, 52. There's probably a few nights in the English that they'd suck it for?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we went four and four years.
Speaker 1:Wow, and you were busy at that time too with the business, and you know.
Speaker 2:Well, I was still coaching when the first ones were born, right. Just to speak of his work ethic while he was at Peabody he was working at Ford Motor Glass at the same time.
Speaker 3:I don't think he slept for the first 20 years of their marriage. He was working the graveyard shift at Ford, going to Peabody with the young wife, and then they started having us kids along the way. So I didn't know you were at Ford too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I worked there for three years full-time. I went to school during the day and coached some little league teams and then, when I taught school at Bailey, my at bailey jr and then goodless for high, I would go back and work there in a summer and make more money in 10 weeks than I made all year teaching sure oh, I believe that my grandfather retired from ford now.
Speaker 1:Uh, he was at the glass plant, but he would have been. He would have been a little older than you, I think he would have been. He would have turned 100 this year.
Speaker 2:That's where I was.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I worked in every department except maintenance.
Speaker 1:I believe it. So when did you sleep?
Speaker 2:I get through four hours a day, but you can do a lot of things when you're 20 years old.
Speaker 3:Oh sure, Absolutely. He was also the head football recruiter at vanderbilt and made a pretty good acquaintance that went on to be a pretty good coach of his own right at the same time talk about bill parcells okay, all right, so this is new information for me.
Speaker 1:I did not know you were involved with the football program yeah, I was a head football recruiter back when.
Speaker 2:when I coached in vanderilt almost all the baseball coaches did something else except the two Mississippi schools had full-time baseball coaches, but I was a head recruiter became real good friends with Parcells. He was a great motivator and we're still friends. We've had a gin and rummy game going for a long time.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's great. Uh, who's your favorite coach besides your mentor? Who? Who do you see out there that maybe it's coaching today or has coached along the way? That, uh, maybe makes your list.
Speaker 2:Oh, there's a lot of uh actually going back to old timer Walt Austin and Sparky Anderson and people. But you know Nashville is very Vanderbilt's got an excellent baseball coach in Corbin. He's done a great job. He's established, put them on a level with anybody else in the country. Looks like they got a pretty good basketball coach now and certainly you know the. You know I look at a lot of the best coaches are not coaching at the big schools that uh are making a living and doing the best they can at a middle tennessee or austin p or places like that. So I don't keep up with it as much as I used to as who I would say is the best and all now. But uh, certainly I guess the guy at ohio state established himself is pretty good yeah, I think he's.
Speaker 1:I think you can probably mark that one down. Um, now, well, because you take a lot from what you've learned coaching and you know, obviously, growing, the sounds and and those things, uh, what, what do you think are some of the keys to your winning strategies, other than identifying the different types of people you want to cater to in your bowling centers? But just in business in general, what would? What advice would you give somebody out there? That's, that's a maybe a hallmark that you, what advice would you give somebody out there? That's maybe a hallmark that you really stand by.
Speaker 2:Well, the employees you hire and how you mold them into what they should be doing you know, have a manual and then verbally tell them you know, this is what you do and this is what I had to learn when I first got into bowling. A lot of people have been doing the same thing for like 20 years. I worked the front desk. That's all I do. That wasn't my philosophy, and sometimes I've had to replace people because I'd say you know, okay, you have slow times.
Speaker 2:If you're slow time and all of a sudden our snack bar get real busy, you need to go over and help them out, and vice versa. Sure, you need to help clean the stadium, your building, and so to establish teamwork that we're on the same team in this center, I'm going to treat this center in Hendersonville as if it's the only center I got. We're not worried about the one at Tuscaloosa, we're not worried about the one in Louisville or Cincinnati. We're going to make your center the best because you are a team, and then translate that to the general manager, which we've tried to get at least somebody in every center that really knows bowling Like. If you come to Hendersonville and you think you know something, I guarantee you, tracy, who has been on a pro tour, knows more than you do.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, he's been around a long time and so we have even in Knoxville, where I have one lady running three centers.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Wendy is the second or best bowler in the whole state so she can talk to every league bowler. You know, I've got a guy at E-Town. He just was on the national championship team and I tell him if somebody complains that something wrong, these lanes say let's go out there and you want to bowl me for 10 bucks. So uh, we, we try to get the team right. Yeah, it's still a team game. It just don't keep standing. So a baseball or football does yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I, to me. That is that's why so many people go wrong. They don't one. They just assume that people are going to know and everybody's experience is not your experience or my experience and you have to own that for your business. So you having the manual, setting the standard and then putting somebody in place that knows bowling which so many people get that wrong but knows bowling and can talk bowling but also understands the mission and that is that is, to excite people, to get people to come back because they enjoyed their time there. Um, and then some things that we take for granted that obviously you know so many people don't do these days. It was just keeping a center clean or being cross-trained so that they can step in for somebody. So I think that's fantastic and you're really, if they decide not to stay in bowling, you're actually helping them get the skills for their next job.
Speaker 2:Oh, we have a world of first-time job holders, especially in our circus worlds, our family entertainment center. We got a lot. I mean, picture yourself as you're now the general manager and on Saturdays you've got 16 teenagers working over there. They all have their cell phones and they want to talk on their cell phones and you don't want them to talk on their cell phones. You want them to do their job. Fortunately, crystal Moore, who runs, has been with me since 2001. She has a criteria. Over there You're going to work. You know no one should ever see you. No customer should ever see you on a cell phone.
Speaker 2:That's a great question and you must show up and you must do your job, and if you don't show up, if you have something, come up, you're supposed to call somebody else to fill your job, and if you don't, you're fired. Okay, so, and she sticks to it and she's had a lot of those people start out as a 15-year-old party host and now is working full-time as doing something either in a snack bar, the bar or the bowling counter. Been with us for 10 years or more yeah, well, because they're growing.
Speaker 1:They're still growing, and that's why a lot of people leave a position is because they're not getting closer to their goal, or they don't feel like they're moving up, or they don't. They don't feel like they're gaining skills, and so kudos to you and your team for growing people through their employment.
Speaker 2:Well, we're trying. We don't grow them all, some just don't work out.
Speaker 1:Well, that's just part of it.
Speaker 3:I think that speaks to dad's leadership and his management team, from the front office to the managers, mechanics a lot of long lasting people have been there 20 plus years that stick with them, go above and beyond. We just opened a new center in louisville that a handful of managers and a handful of mechanics were all driving there on their time, taking time away from their family, and helping us get that center open. Yeah, so it just they bend over backwards to him because he treats them well and he's been toward a lot of them.
Speaker 2:The one motto I have is don't ask your employer to do anything that you wouldn't do. Sure, when I was with the sounds, I told them I'll do everything you do. When I became 50 or so, I did say I'm'm gonna put one exception in there.
Speaker 2:I'm not pulling the tarp anymore because I'm not physically able to keep up with you, young guys, when you start running with that tarp. So and I tell our managers don't, don't, don't tell somebody go clean up a messy restroom. You go clean it up, then the next time you can do that.
Speaker 1:But you've done it too.
Speaker 3:That's right, that's right and lead by example, and I'll talk about one job that he didn't take that I kind of wish he had. As you might know, being a vandy fan, it's not always the easiest, especially football season, but something I just learned a few years ago is he was offered the georgia head baseball job. And tell him what happened on the way back why you didn't take that job. I could have been a Georgia fan my whole life. And they've done pretty well in football.
Speaker 1:I think that would have been easier.
Speaker 2:Well, that's a long time ago. But they had a great tennis program and I asked them about lights and they said, well, a tennis program will have to come first. So driving back, even before I got Chad there, I said, man, I've been playing second fiddle to football and basketball all these years. Dang, if I'm going to be playing second fiddle to a tennis program. So I said that job's not for me. It worked out great. Yeah, I wouldn't have done the sounds if I, if I'd done that, sure well, everything happens the way it's supposed to happen yeah that doesn't mean we can be complacent or just sit back but, um, that's well and I get it it.
Speaker 1:We're always looking for clues as to whether we're supposed to do something or not supposed to do something, and that one said no yeah that's good steve. I like that. Um, how big, how big a uh part has maintaining your health been through throughout this?
Speaker 2:well, I've been fortunate. I guess I got good genes. My, my dad, lived to be to be 93 and he had a. He's a disabled veteran had a hole in his lung.
Speaker 2:I've always tried to watch my weight. I've tried to stay active. I've heard of so many people that was active and quit being active and they're dead within a year. And so I've never wanted to just sit around and do nothing. I used to play golf, but I don't do it anymore. I don't garden, I don it anymore. I don't garden, I don't fish, I don't hunt. So my hobby is work and I don't even regard that as work. Uh, I back up to take my paycheck. So, uh, and you know, I just think I think you gotta be active, you gotta be, have a reason to get up, and I've always jokingly tell my employees I don't want you to work but a half a day and I don't really care which 12 hours you work. So I don't work 12 hours anymore, but I enjoy what I do. If I weren't doing that, I would be doing something else that I enjoy, whether it be a greeter at Walmart or something that I enjoyed that I was around people.
Speaker 1:Well, and I hear stories about you all the time, and in fact we were, we were at a meeting yesterday and, uh, they were talking about, uh, you guys talking at the old timers, uh, baseball banquet, and that spurred all kinds of stories, and so I've heard I've heard some good ones that other people have of you. But, uh, what is it? What is maybe one of the most fun things that you ever did, or maybe a story that you like to tell?
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't have enough time to tell all my favorite stories, but yeah, you know, some of my most fun days was when I was coaching summer ball and having great teams and going to World Series not getting many money for that, but just enjoying watching some super athletes developed into professional athletes or college athletes. And my favorite game at Vanderbilt was I always wanted to beat ut and if I was going against ut I was charged up. My players were charged up and they beat me real bad. The first year I first year I was there. I went there in february and didn't have any scholarship guys. So I always said I'll get you back. And a couple years later I got them back.
Speaker 2:I beat them about 13 or 14 runs, but they had a good team and we had a good team. And so our first 1973, they got us whipped 8-4. And they take their starting pitcher out and the ninth inning comes up and we get a couple of guys on base. Then we get a couple more guys on base, we get one run in and then a little non-scholarship player at Vanderbilt comes to bat named Tom Powell and hits a grand slam up on top of the gym that we win nine to eight and parcells even wrote a poem to put in the vanderbilt newspaper about that. And then we played tennessee three more times that year and they were still feeling the effects of that. We swept them. That's probably my most favorite game. Yeah, that that we had were the sounds. I like to tell this story about how things must change. I used to give a lot of speeches and I tell them my favorite hero is ted giannullis. Do you know who he?
Speaker 2:is I don't never heard of him, huh no well you should. You know him. Ted giannullis lived in San Diego and he was working for a radio station and a new owner came in and wanted a mascot, so they advertised for the mascot. Ted Giannullis got the job because he fit the uniform and he became the chicken.
Speaker 1:Yep San Diego chicken.
Speaker 2:So Ted Giannullis became the famous san diego chicken and he was a great entertainer. Uh, he always wanted to come out at the top of bottom of the second in a golf cart waving a flag. So we're playing a and it's nothing to nothing, and Ted is down at the gate to come in the left field gate and all of a sudden not all of a sudden, but a little bit later we're behind 12 to nothing. He hadn't come out yet. So he comes out and he changes his whole routine to fit in. Y'all done, lost this game. Now I'm here to entertain everybody. So I used to tell my audience ted genotas makes over three million dollars a year being a chicken, and if you can be a chicken and make three million dollars a year, there's absolutely nothing you can't do I love.
Speaker 1:I love that so well, so I will tell you and I think I'm right when I say 1982. Um, and maybe that was around that time, I don't know, but I'm I'm almost certain that my first recollection of baseball was watching the sounds and the San Diego chip, and the next year I wanted to play T-ball. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I booked that little bird 92 times with all the different teams. I had major league. He also did hockey, so we owned a hockey team for a little while and so, uh, he's just entertainer. I think he's still doing some.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think he had 92 different assistants. He was tough to work for.
Speaker 1:He was very demanding.
Speaker 2:I believe it.
Speaker 3:Because he was a pro Sure so he wanted to always make sure he put on a great show yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, he's risking his reputation every time.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, just the other day. Well, yesterday I got a message from Innsworth, the private school, and they want me to come out for their banquet and that'll be. I agreed to do that one, just to come out there, because my favorite teacher, the one that inspired me to become a leader and all those things is the dean there, and I think that's the only unpaid event that I've agreed to in probably 15 years. And it's because I risk my reputation every time and, knock on wood, I've never missed a shot live. So every time I've been in front of a live crowd.
Speaker 1:whatever it was I was trying to do, I made it happen, but I get that to some degree Now. I try not to be difficult to work with. Happen, but I get that to some degree now.
Speaker 3:I try not to be difficult to work with, but I definitely turn some things down. I think Ensworth might be able to afford to pay you, but that's good of you to do it. That's a beautiful campus. Oh, it's nice for most colleges.
Speaker 1:Oh, it is.
Speaker 2:I mean, the first time I walked onto that campus I was just blown away. I didn't got an ex-major leaguer coaching their baseball team. I think he's athletic director now, maxwell I think so.
Speaker 1:And then y'all just missed, do y'all know, virgil herring? Oh yeah, so virgil was here just right before y'all got here, he can play. Yeah, yeah, so he used to be the uh, the golf coach. Okay, who's the dean?
Speaker 3:uh, kate mcglasson. Okay, yeah, I know ricky bowers kind of got them going when they started the high school. Yep, that's a legendary coach around here.
Speaker 1:Well, just the way that that whole thing came together, you know they did a lot of research before they broke ground to make sure that it was set up for success and to be a world-class facility. But yeah, a lot of college places wish they had that kind of campus.
Speaker 1:But yeah, a lot of college places wish they had that kind of campus. So one of the things that we do that's a little bit of fun, can be a little controversial is things we think but do not say. And so for me a lot of times it's keeping score and how we've kind of watered down generations by giving everybody a participation trophy.
Speaker 2:What's something you can think of that you think just needs to be said that's been one of my faults.
Speaker 3:Usually if I think it I just say it, so you know.
Speaker 2:everybody knows where I stand and. I respect their belief. I agree with you that an? Emphasis should be placed on excellence. Not everybody can be excellent. It's all right to be good. It's all right to be bad at things. Nobody's good, great good or excellent at everything that's right, uh, my, my big pet peeve is the phoniness of certain people. I just uh. I don't usually say that guy's a phony, I just ignore he exists or she exists.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you just don't have time for that person.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh, I do think as I get older, and I think I think a lot of people uh do this, but I think the more gray hair I get, the less likely I am to put up with BS. Yeah, that's a good motto. Some people could say I'm getting grumpier, but it's just. If somebody's not authentic, if somebody knows that they're not telling the truth, there's no reason for me to waste any more time with them. There's too many good people in the world to spend time with with them.
Speaker 3:There's too many good people in the world to spend time with. Um. I think one of dad's favorite sayings which probably drives my older brother, ron, that runs the company with dad, and then Phillip Cox who does everything for us is if it's not broke, don't fix it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, um and we, and we didn't tee this up before Um, so I don't know how deep we want to go with it. Tee this up before um, so I don't know how deep we want to go with it. But how big a deal is communication with your? I mean, I've had a team of 500. I know how uh strenuous that can be. Um, you predominantly share it with the leaders, the gms, and then it's up to them to broadcast the message, or how are you doing that currently?
Speaker 2:well, it is communication, but ours are a little different than maybe a company that is all the same. I know bolero has bought all these centers, 350 centers, and won't ever center to run exactly the same. A center in california to run the same as for center in clarksville t Tennessee, that's impossible. Our centers are different too. The ones up north are totally different than the one in the south, like our center right below Cincinnati. That's the beer drinkingest group I've ever seen in the world at erlanger and, uh, they have tremendous leagues.
Speaker 2:Their leagues are totally different than 90 of our leagues in tennessee okay they're serious, a little bit more serious than a good time league, but it's not life or death, right, and the questions you get asked is about beer, not the shot.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And so some of your listeners may not know what we're talking about. We're talking about a shot. All is placed on those lanes and there's a certain criteria that the united states bowling congress puts out to make it a legal shot or a tough shot. Most league bowlers I tell my mechanics, it's not what you want, it's what the majority of the league bowlers want, it's not what one bowler wants, the majority. Sure, I've had disputes come up and when I do, I get some of the best bowlers, some of the worst bowlers, the middle bowlers, to come in and we put shot after shot after shot down and say whenever you all come up with a majority, that's it, yeah at the shot down and say, whenever y'all come up with a majority, that's it, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so most bowlers want a shot that's just barely legal, that they can score the highest. Some other people will say I want a tough shot, so we can sometimes put in the pro shot. And when we first put in Hendersonvilleville I noticed a young man. He's a lawyer. He was getting out of his mercedes that night and I said, uh, how you doing that pro shot, lee? Oh, it's good, but I'm not gonna do it again. Why is that? He said I'm averaging 190. I said it's very good yeah he said I'd rather bowl 220.
Speaker 2:So you know he wasn't just so serious that he wanted to go on a pro tour. Sure, uh? And so you know it's, it's, it's the communication one. I used to do this myself. I'd go into every center at least once a week during league bowling. I can't do it anymore because of my wife's health and mine too. Ronnie how old is is in those doing mine. I still go once a month or once every two weeks to communicate with the general manager and the other people that's there. Talk to them, maybe not as a group, but just say hey, steve, you're doing a good job. You know, like that smile you got, you know.
Speaker 2:Hey, uh, mr mechanic, we really appreciate the work you put in that's right, uh, so it's a again going back to team element that you, as an executive, that you go in and translate to whoever.
Speaker 1:Right and all your centers are within. What about five, six?
Speaker 2:hours. Our farthest one away is Cincinnati, which is four and a half five hours. Okay, gotcha, I've tried to get him on the beach, but he keeps turning it down.
Speaker 3:I said I'll be happy to relocate, that's right and keep an eye on it, but for some the beach. But he keeps turning it down. I said I'll be happy to relocate, that's right and keeping on it, but some reason he just he thinks I just drink coffee and don't spend any money.
Speaker 1:he's worried the sand will get on the line. Yeah, that's something to do, that's right.
Speaker 2:Um, and you said 500 plus employees, right, yeah, some of those are temporary or part-time, but they're still very important, especially weekend people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how big a focus is youth bowling for your centers?
Speaker 2:Probably not as much as it used to be. Our leagues are. When I first got into it, you'd have a youth league that's bowling 24, 25 weeks. Kids not going to do that, no more. Yeah, so we have the youth leagues we, but most of them are 10 or 12 weeks. If you like it, take two weeks off and come back again, so we'll put them. We put a tremendous emphasis on high school bowling.
Speaker 1:Okay, I love that.
Speaker 2:We've got every high school bowling in the city pretty much bowls at our centers, and so a lot of our managers whether it be Mark Hubbard at Hermitage or Tracy or Chris Law, are coaching some of those high school. And then we also are employing some of those high school bowlers to work part-time, being a lane attendant or whatever. So we're very, very involved in high school bowling, which is a fast-growing sport throughout the United States.
Speaker 1:It is, and you know a lot of people are new to it or don't know that their school might even have one. And then a lot of people don't realize how many different types of jobs there are in bowling, whether it's at the center itself or whether the marketing for a center, the business aspect of a center, the inventory management of a center, the food and beverage, the hospitality side or, you know, in manufacturing itself. You know there's marketing jobs, there's design jobs. You know there's a lot of that.
Speaker 2:Well, we also. You know we're not known for that, but we have 15 restaurants, yeah, we have 15 bars, yep. So you got to know food costs. You got to know how we're not known for that, but we have 15 restaurants, we have 15 bars. So you've got to know food costs. You've got to know how to cook or how to serve a drink and the bars are not a big part but you need bars. But you know, people have tried it without alcohol. I understand the people that the church people say you shouldn't serve alcohol, you don't have to drink it. That's right. We don't push it, we don't have specials, but we have a bar. If you want a beer, you get a beer. That's on a mixed drink, you get a mixed drink. If you want to watch football game, we got, I think it. I think it's a good idea. For instance, we've got like 40 TVs. You know you've got to entertain, yeah, and you've got to have some rules and regulations.
Speaker 3:I'd love to know not that it's because of us, but how many high schoolers have come through our centers that have gone on to Bowling College and what they've been able to do with that. Even if they didn't use it, they have that money that's in their smart account. That's right. I wish they had bowling 30 something years ago when I was in high school. Not that I'm a good bowler, but hopefully I could at least been a fifth man on the team.
Speaker 1:It would have brought more interest, and you know one of the things. Well, let me ask this Do you think that, if there was, do you think funding is an issue in youth bowling, or is it interest, or is it the majority of the places get? Their leagues are too long.
Speaker 2:What do you think it is? I think it's a total time element. You hear, you know why are leagues, full-time leagues, declining? Used to as over 10 million registered league bowlers, now there's a little over a million. You know, some people say the owners chased them off. Well, or it got too expensive time, chased them off.
Speaker 2:you know it's more things for people to do there's a lot more competition instead of saying I'm going to tie up 32 consecutive thursdays, that's right to go. I want to do other things. You know I love bowling, so most of your leagues that you start now are 12, 14, 16-week leagues. Take a couple weeks off at Christmas If you really love it. We have another 14-team league. So if you start a new league league, say we got a new league and we're gonna bowl 35 weeks, you'll have like two teams yeah, you're not gonna get new bowls yeah, uh, well, I'll tell you at, specifically at hendersonville.
Speaker 1:Um, uh, john and megan henderson, I've bowled with them a couple times. They bowled on Sunday nights and they love bowling there and, uh, I've subbed with them a couple of times and the other night, uh, megan decided to throw a ball backwards. She got a strike. Uh, she did fantastic. But, uh, you know, um, I do think that people get passionate about their center and and the people that, uh, that are employed there and and and serve, serve the drink or serve. You know, uh, get the lane ready or, you know, it becomes more like family.
Speaker 1:And so thank you for for building places and maintaining places. It obviously would be easy to just sell out to Bolero, uh, and there'd be, they'd be trying to cookie-cutter the next 17, 18 locations. But I appreciate you being who you are and the integrity that you bring to the business and, obviously, taking care of your employees. And you know, I can't believe, it's been 25 years already.
Speaker 2:Well, we appreciate the bowlers, we appreciate the people like you are dedicated to it. I tell anybody. If you have an idea, a complaint, my cell number is 615-294-8500. You can call me between 8 and 1030 at night. I'll listen to your complaint. If we did something wrong, we'll make it good. If we didn't do something wrong, I'm going to tell you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is a rule for everybody, not just you, that's right, that's right and and really a lot of people need that, that, that reality check. A lot of people get kind of caught up in themselves and really it's. You know, you've said this. You know probably 10 different ways since we started talking, but it's about other people. Yeah, yeah, it just is and it's kind of corny.
Speaker 3:I mean, bowling brings a lot of different people together. I mean I'm I don't even want to say what my average was we're bowling league, but you know from your scratch bowler, I was working in tuscaloosa a couple nights and these two brothers kept coming in. I'm like y'all need to join a league yeah they didn't, they only joined the league.
Speaker 3:they ended up working for us and one of them runs our Donaldson Center now. So it's just such a great activity. Me and my two brothers bowled a league Sunday night at Tuscaloosa. Ron was way more competitive than me and Brother Mike and he'd get mad at us for walking around socializing too much and not winning. Everybody's giving us 200 pins every time we bowl because we're so bad. But it's great, it's handicapped and it's you know. You can bowl against somebody like yourself and get all those and it's just competitive, brings out competitive juices in you.
Speaker 2:So it's just a great game. And I will give one last thing before we close this, to the people that say bowling is not a sport come out and try it. That's right, and I'll put you with a league bowler and if you think it's really easy to bowl 200, we'll see how long it takes you yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1:Um, well, the last. I got two last things for you, so this one's fun. So if you were to put together a celebrity bowling challenge and we're going to raise some money for a particular charity out there, who would be on your team? Could be anybody throughout history, whether you knew them, didn't know them alive or otherwise.
Speaker 2:I've got a four-person team.
Speaker 1:You and four others.
Speaker 2:Well, I'd have to bring in my boyhood idol, mickey Mantle. Well, I'd have to bring in my boyhood idol, mickey Mantle. I'd have to bring in my old buddy, bill Parcells, where he could chew them all out. My other bowler would have to be Jerry Reed. Other bowler would have to be cherry read. Well, yeah, that would be a good one here, conway. And my most important bowler will be bringing in would be my wife of 65 years, shirley smitho, who can't bowl a lick, but she has her own ball.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 3:And she's going to be fun. That's right, she just retired last year, so the work ethic's in the genes a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. Now does she enjoy bowling?
Speaker 2:With the grandkids. Yes, my wife is. You know anything I've ever done, she'd been a hundred percent for me. When I told her I was going to get into bowling, she kind of turned her nose up to it, because she grew up in a time like I did that bowling was a place where old white guys hung out smoking cigars, telling nasty jokes and drinking beer. That is true to some extent, but really not anymore, right. So once she learned what bowling was really like, she just jumped right back in to be involved. She was involved in baseball. She's involved in every team I ever coached, so she's always been involved. Yeah, always been supportive. She's your partner, yep.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. Well, big shout out to Miss Shirley out there and thank you for being a part of bowling, even by proxy, by letting him follow his dreams.
Speaker 2:Well, we planned on being in it a long time.
Speaker 1:I love that Last thing. Have you put any thought into how you want to be remembered?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just want to. I would like to be remembered as a guy was a decent guy that treated people right and always kept his words and didn't let things get him down. He just got knocked down, he just got back up, he just got back up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. Well, larry Steve. Thank you guys for coming in.
Speaker 2:My pleasure.
Speaker 1:It's been a fantastic time hanging out with you guys and again, larry, you know a lot of people did not like the way that I bowled. A lot of people turned their nose up at that and you would not have been wrong for being any other way than they were, but you took an opportunity to be nice to me and it really helped me along the way, so I appreciate that Well congratulations on all your success.
Speaker 2:You're the chicken of bowling, main money out of bowling.
Speaker 3:so, uh, maybe it didn't get the same rights fee that the old chicken got, but we're proud for your success he probably owes you some royalties because he's gotten a lot of mileage out of that story like that whenever we travel in all the different bowling worlds. He's got a lot of mileage out of, out of your story so well, it's fun for you it.
Speaker 1:you know, I appreciate it. One of the uh I when I used to get periodically kicked out of a place. Um, I was bowling with a friend of mine. We were in south haven, mississippi, and we had been at tunica and he was losing money too fast and I said we'll go bowling like let's, let's go away from the casino for a little bit. And I had been used to that. Look when, when the manager was headed over to usher me out of there and this guy comes over and, uh, he in a stern voice, you, jim Cripps, yes, sir, come with me. And you know, I don't know if he's walking me out of there or what and I was, like you know, told my buddy, I said grab my bag, if you know I'm out of here. And he walks me back to the office and he pulls my picture off the wall and he goes.
Speaker 1:you mind signing that, and I thought you know hadn't been hadn't been treated like that since, uh, since Larry put me on TV, so, but I tell a lot of people that story and uh, in fact, um, um, rudy and I were talking about that just last year. So, um, again, I appreciate all that you did with Kimball. I did not, okay, um. So when I was on Jimmy Kimmel, uh, I bowled against his aunt.
Speaker 2:Okay, he makes fun with her all the time, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:And she just about lost it.
Speaker 1:I was surprised they didn't have to beat some words out, because they actually it's the only time I have thrown a game forward and it's because they did not want her to know who I was. They said look, you've got to blend in. I said I don't bowl forward, and they go. We've hired these four actors to act like they're your best friends. We're drawing you randomly out of the crowd, and so I bowled a whole game forward. I shot 112.
Speaker 3:And then they randomly picked me and I shot 210 against her on TV. You weren't nervous at all.
Speaker 1:Well, you know that one just worked out. I was able to shake the nerves and, partly because you know whether it was at your center or anywhere else, I drew a crowd and you were either going to get tough skin or you were going to get used to you know the stress and, um, you know, for a while, usbc hired me to bowl with bob learn and, uh, carmen sorvino and a few others to do trick shot shows, and, and that was a whole new level of stress.
Speaker 1:In fact, my pinnacle moment was 2009 and, uh, we were doing a trick shot show in between the first round and the or the last round in the, the, the TV show for the masters, uh, or the open, and so everybody in bowling who earns their money bowling was watching and they're watching me, you know you know I'm who earns their money.
Speaker 1:Bowling was watching and they're watching me. You know, you know I'm. I'm the guy that doesn't fit. I don't have a pro card, yeah, um, but it. It inspired me to go get my pba card, because every kid that got an autograph you want to know you're pro. You're pro no, so so 2011?
Speaker 2:uh, I got my pba card, yeah we brought parker boy in, we opened Hillwood. He sent one of our employees on that barstool right in front of the pens and threw three straight strikes right through the legs of that barstool.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, well, probably the biggest honor I ever got was 2012, when they opened the first Disney bowling alley, johnny Petraglia and I were both hired to do all the TV shows and so we were on 75 channels just back to back to back. They just swapped them out and you went as fast as you could and of course every one of them wanted to strike Uh. But we did a couple of trick shots and you know they loved it.
Speaker 3:And uh, you know it's amazing where bowling's take, or just on a whim you threw it backwards and where it's taking you from that.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 3:That's a great story, the relationships.
Speaker 1:I mean we wouldn't be sitting here, Honestly, I wouldn't be here in this podcast studio. So the reason that I met Nick Heider was when I shot 300, randy Huth, who was the little league coach well, he used to run the Pinnacle and so he's the reason that I was able to start bowling. Backwards and he called and he said look, you got to, you got to do a hiders podcast. So I jumped on the podcast with him and then he found out about all the business stuff that I'd done and he goes well, you need your own podcast. So indirectly, bowling kind of has changed the direction of my life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure Good.
Speaker 2:Well, speaking of bowling, if we're through, I've got to go to work. Yeah, he's getting anxious, he's getting anxious.
Speaker 3:That's good. We go on two family reunions every year and you can just see him crawling out of his skin sitting over there.
Speaker 2:Ready to get back to it.
Speaker 3:He likes his routine. I love it. He's pretty good at it.
Speaker 1:Well, I love it. He's pretty good at it. Well, larry and Steve, thanks so much for coming in. Thank you To everybody watching the podcast today. I just want to say thank you. Thank you for checking this one out. Hopefully, some of the things that you heard today whether it be the integrity piece, whether it be the mentors along the way, the coaching, how you treat your team members, how you treat your customers all those many things there's a lot to learn from Mr Schmidto and what he has done, both in sports, for Nashville and for bowling.
Speaker 1:Until next time, I'm Jim Cripps with the Charge Forward Podcast. Thanks so much to the team here at HitLab Studios and our partners at Sense Customer Development and Charge Forward Solutions. We'll see you later. Team is Jim Cripps here with the Charge Forward Podcast. I just want to tell you I love you. I appreciate you listening, I appreciate you for subscribing and sharing the Charge Forward Podcast with people you know and you love, because that's what we're here for. We are here to share the amazing stories, the things that people have been through, the ways that they were able to improve their life, so that you can take little nuggets from theirs and help improve your story and be better tomorrow than you were today. I hope that this is the tool you needed at the right time and that you find value in the amazing guests that we bring each and every week. Thanks so much and don't forget new episodes drop every Thursday.