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Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The Village Voice
Central Oklahoma, OK
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Richard Baptist knows his sports. The owner of Athletic Village in Norman since 1976, Baptist has sold sporting goods, equipment and team apparel for more than 30 years.
His new store is located at 1806 24th Ave. NW in Norman. There is also an Athletic Village in Edmond at 836 W. Danforth.
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My father started in the hardware sporting goods business in 1929 in Shawnee. I went into partnership with my brother in 1976 after going to OU. We opened the first Olympic Village on campus corner in 1976.
The United State Olympic Committee told us to change our name. We changed our name in September of 1989 to Athletic Village.
There were no national chains then, but there were a few others selling sporting goods in Norman. Then in 1982, our store burned down.
We signed a lease to go back in and then about the same time we had been looking at moving to West Main and we couldn’t pass up the location right in front of Target. The mall was out West and there were certain things that were more accessible to the younger crowd.
We ended up opening two stores and did that for 10 years. We closed the one in 1992 on Campus Corner.
I still wait on kids selling soccer shoes. Not a lot of 55 year-old owners do that anymore.
It’s amazing how we get young kids come in and then see you 30 years later. That makes me feel old. It’s fun, but it makes me feel old.
Certainly the national chains have come about and there’s the internet. Both have affected us. But as people are finding out, it is a hassle to return stuff on the internet a lot of times.
One thing that is unique to us is that we’re one of the few stores in the southwest that still do a lot of sportswear for women. NFL, NBA, baseball and OU stuff. We were also the first Under Armour dealer in the state.
We do team uniforms and we get our merchandise from the manufacturer instead of going through a distribution process. We can transfer stuff from store to store.
Soccer, baseball, football, basketball. We pretty much do it all.
We wouldn’t have opened up this new store if I was going to quit. I’m 55. This is what I do.
If you have questions about Athletic Village, call the Norman store at 364-5096 or the Edmond store at 341-5005.
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The Village Voice
My father started in the hardware sporting goods business in 1929 in Shawnee. I went into partnership with my brother...
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