Introduction

History

Back in 1948, Dick Stack, who was 18 years of age, was working at an Army surplus store in Binghamton, New York. The owner asked if he could put together a list of products because he knew that Dick was a fishing enthusiast. The list were products that could be sold in the store if they were to expand into the fishing tackle business. Once Dick was done with his list, the owner told him he was “just a dumb kid and had no idea what he was doing.” Dick was so mad that he quit soon after. 

He went to his grandmother’s house. After telling her what had happened, he told her how much it would cost for him to build a similar store himself. Dick estimated about $300. His grandmother gave him the $300 and told him to “do it yourself.” Taking her advice, he opened up his very own bait and tackle shop in Binghamton, New York. By the year 1958, he was able to expand his line of products to sports merchandise in general, much like what Dick’s Sporting Goods is today.

Currently, Edward “Eddie” Stack, who is the son of Dick Stack, is the CEO and chairman of Dick’s Sporting Goods. Ed Stack and his siblings bought their fathers store from him and have now expanded it to over 500 stores.

They even extended the company by buying Golf Galaxy, Inc. a specialty golf store on February 13, 2007. It enhanced there company with another 82 Golf Galaxy stores in 30 states.