NOTE: The 5th in a series of tracking down lost or forgotten sports venues, trophies and artifacts in the Old Pueblo.
From the 1890s through the 1920s there were two main “sporting goods” stores in downtown with one mainly dealing in bicycle repair, tennis equipment and even car parts and the other with much of the same but also football uniforms and safety gear.
The K.L. Hart Store started out as a gun shop in the 1800s and morphed into more options such and golf clubs and tennis equipment under the name “Smith Sporting Goods Company” and then S. F. Bauman in the 1910s in a store that included camera equipment. This was located on 17. E. Congress, which is now an alley, used by the Nook restaurant.
At the same time, around 1908, the Reid Sporting Goods Co. was located on 44 N. Stone. W. L. Reid would give up his business to run a toy store and the Tucson Auction Company around 1920. His store was swallowed up by Montgomery Ward. Now called the “Roy Place Building,” it is used by the University of Arizona and Startup Tucson. This was the first store to have actual athletic equipment available like shoulder pads by Spalding.
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Andy Morales was recognized by the AIA as the top high school reporter in 2014, he was awarded the Ray McNally Award in 2017, a 2019 AZ Education News award winner and he has been a youth, high school and college coach for over 30 years. He was the first in Arizona to write about high school beach volleyball and high school girls wrestling. His own children have won multiple state high school championships and were named to all-state teams. Competing in hockey, basketball, baseball and track & field in high school, his unique perspective can only be found here and on AZPreps365.com. Andy is the Southern Arizona voting member of the Ed Doherty Award, recognizing the top football player in Arizona, and he was named a Local Hero by the Tucson Weekly for 2016. Andy was named an Honorary Flowing Wells Caballero in 2019, became a member of the Sunnyside Los Mezquites Cross Country Hall of Fame in 2021 and he was a member of the Amphi COVID-19 Blue Ribbon Committee and he earned a Distinguished Service Award from Amphitheater. Contact Andy Morales at amoralesmytucson@yahoo.com
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