Your Jokari site brought back some great memories. I worked for Jokari in Dallas TX from 1975 to 1980, right out of college. I was responsible for the national tournaments and worked closely with Kyle Rote Junior promoting the product line including Kikari ….the soccer equivalent. I ended up as the Operations VP and sourcing all the products out of Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

Sam Ligon, a bright Harvard MBA entrepreneur was the president and was supported by three other investors who made up the Texas Group. Sam sold the company and went on to build several others successfully. I still consider him my business mentor today. I have several marketing pieces and commercial articles I would be happy to give to you. If you send me your address I would happy to include them as part of your collection.

I owe Sam and Jokari a great deal. As a result of Sam’s teaching, coaching and encouragement, I went on to a successful career in High Tech starting with Apple in 1980 and retiring as a VP for Dell Computer in 2002.

Kind regards,

Jim Brown

[redacted]@austin.rr.com

BTW:

• The Gatorade product was never realized. We printed the labels to pitch them as a tournament partner…they declined.
• Goodway Corporation was the Taiwanese trading company who supplied the majority of our product
• Joakri Champ model was the number 1 profit producer for Sears sporting goods for 2 years
• The boy on the Champ box is Sam’s son David…the man is Lindsay Spivey, one of the Texas group who recently died.
• Hot Tennis was a huge failure for us. A great game that we couldn’t position properly.
• At the height of Racket ball without the Walls, Jokari was the US number one importer of racket ball rackets.
• The Champ game set cost of goods was $4.10. landed
• We never got sued.