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I used to play street hockey with Overton Pratt mentioned in the article. Last I heard he retired up north, Idaho I think. Pratt owned Pratt Sporting Goods in Redlands in the 80s, famous for the tennis court on top of the building.
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RIVERSIDE SKI AND SPORT CLOSING -- ONS-matthews column -- 05feb09
Inland Empire sporting goods store icon closing after 63 years in business
By JIM MATTHEWS Outdoor News Service
Riverside Ski and Sport, one of the last individually-owned, multi-faceted sporting goods stores in Southern California, will be closing its doors at the end of March. The store hasn't fallen on hard times or become a victim of the declining economy, its owners Bob and Leslie Slamal are simply going to retire.
"The crying's over,"said Bob Slamal this week. "The part I'm going to miss is the daily reactions with people."
Ski and Sport has been in business in the Inland Empire since 1946, when Bob's dad Tom Slamal, who will be 90 in March, partnered up with Overton Pratt to open a store in San Bernardino. Pratt, a familiar name in the sporting goods business, was bought out by the Slamals in the late 1960s. Bob partnered with his father about this time, and he and Leslie opened the Riverside Ski and Sport store shortly after in 1970. This was followed by the Ski and Sport Marine stores in the 1980s, which operated in both San Bernardino and Riverside as adjuncts to the main sporting goods stores.
Ski and Sport was a place where you could go get a baseball bat for your Little Leaguer, hiking boots for a trek up San Gorgonio, Panther Martins for a trout fishing adventure at Big Bear Lake, a Penn Gold International for a long-range fishing trip out of San Diego, skis for a trip to Snow Summit, or waterfowl ammunition and shotguns for a goose hunt at the Salton Sea. It had everything sporting.
Slamal said the stores were always on the leading edge of outdoor developments, and whole generations can say they bought their first product in the latest outdoor fad at Ski and Sport because it was the only place it was available.
The Riverside store became the first real backpacking shop in the region when that craze was first taking off, well before there was an REI, providing everything from USGS maps to backpacks to hiking boots to instruction on gear use for hikers from all over the region.
Both the San Bernardino and Riverside stores catered to fly-fishing anglers before the movie "A River Runs Through It" exploded the popularity of the sport and led to dozens of specialty stores in region. It was carrying "belly boats" when they were all being made by one guy in his garage out of canvas and truck tire inner tubes.
The marine stores were opened during the recreational and water skiing boating boom, providing not only a place where customers could shop for boats, skis, and boating supplies but also get them serviced. Interestingly, the San Bernardino store carried Mercury motors for anglers from its initial opening in 1946. When the marine store was sold 1991, Ski and Sport was the oldest continuous Mercury dealer in the country.
When skateboards first came on the scene, Ski and Sport began stocking a wide selection and became a kid hangout. As the kids matured, another trend kicked off. For the last five years, Riverside Ski and Sport has been the single largest one-store snowboarding shop in the Southern California and probably the country.
All of the stores always had something else that you can't find very many places today: a place to sit down and just visit.
"You want people in the store -- you don't want to chase them away. And we always had couches," said Slamal, who always welcomed the kids to hang out in his store.
And my recollection is that there was always someone behind the counter who knew the activity and gave good advice. The staff participated. It seems like the store always attracted the best young advocates in all the different sports to work in sales, which was as much a teaching job as a selling job. The Slamals rubbed off on their staff.
Bob and Leslie are avid skiers and have owned boats since they were first married 40 years ago this year. Bob is an extraordinary fisherman, specializing in fly-fishing, but equally at home behind a spinning rod or baitcaster of jig stick. He's fished everywhere in the West, fresh and saltwater, and travels to New Zealand once a year. He's competed in the famous One Fly competition in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, setting a one-day record that no one has come close to beating. He guides fly-fishermen at Lake Skinner and Diamond Valley, locally, and on the Green River in Wyoming. He's owned Labrador Retrievers for the 25-plus years I've known him and loves bird hunting, and he played all the "ball" sports when he was a young man. He's a Hemmingway sportsman, doing it all, and Ski and Sport is one of the last do-it-all sporting goods stores.
"I won't have any trouble finding things to do when I'm retired," laughed Slamal.
But there will be several generations of sporting advocates who will miss Ski and Sport and the Slamals. The store is not being sold to new ownership and the inventory is being liquidated (starting this Saturday). The digs will have new occupants later this year. Bob and Leslie will be heading to Kansas in May to visit the family farm (since 1852) on the first of many retirement road trips.
I went out into my garage after talking with Slamal this week and dug through some rod cases and found an old Fenwick HMG graphite fly rod. It was the first commercial graphite rod made, and I bought mine from Slamal, who managed to get some of the first ones off the production line. If I remember correctly, I also bought a topographic map and some wool hiking socks that day. Holding the rod, I was happy for Bob and Leslie, but I realized this is the end of an era.
==============================================================
RIVERSIDE SKI AND SPORT CLOSING -- ONS-matthews column -- 05feb09
Inland Empire sporting goods store icon closing after 63 years in business
By JIM MATTHEWS Outdoor News Service
Riverside Ski and Sport, one of the last individually-owned, multi-faceted sporting goods stores in Southern California, will be closing its doors at the end of March. The store hasn't fallen on hard times or become a victim of the declining economy, its owners Bob and Leslie Slamal are simply going to retire.
"The crying's over,"said Bob Slamal this week. "The part I'm going to miss is the daily reactions with people."
Ski and Sport has been in business in the Inland Empire since 1946, when Bob's dad Tom Slamal, who will be 90 in March, partnered up with Overton Pratt to open a store in San Bernardino. Pratt, a familiar name in the sporting goods business, was bought out by the Slamals in the late 1960s. Bob partnered with his father about this time, and he and Leslie opened the Riverside Ski and Sport store shortly after in 1970. This was followed by the Ski and Sport Marine stores in the 1980s, which operated in both San Bernardino and Riverside as adjuncts to the main sporting goods stores.
Ski and Sport was a place where you could go get a baseball bat for your Little Leaguer, hiking boots for a trek up San Gorgonio, Panther Martins for a trout fishing adventure at Big Bear Lake, a Penn Gold International for a long-range fishing trip out of San Diego, skis for a trip to Snow Summit, or waterfowl ammunition and shotguns for a goose hunt at the Salton Sea. It had everything sporting.
Slamal said the stores were always on the leading edge of outdoor developments, and whole generations can say they bought their first product in the latest outdoor fad at Ski and Sport because it was the only place it was available.
The Riverside store became the first real backpacking shop in the region when that craze was first taking off, well before there was an REI, providing everything from USGS maps to backpacks to hiking boots to instruction on gear use for hikers from all over the region.
Both the San Bernardino and Riverside stores catered to fly-fishing anglers before the movie "A River Runs Through It" exploded the popularity of the sport and led to dozens of specialty stores in region. It was carrying "belly boats" when they were all being made by one guy in his garage out of canvas and truck tire inner tubes.
The marine stores were opened during the recreational and water skiing boating boom, providing not only a place where customers could shop for boats, skis, and boating supplies but also get them serviced. Interestingly, the San Bernardino store carried Mercury motors for anglers from its initial opening in 1946. When the marine store was sold 1991, Ski and Sport was the oldest continuous Mercury dealer in the country.
When skateboards first came on the scene, Ski and Sport began stocking a wide selection and became a kid hangout. As the kids matured, another trend kicked off. For the last five years, Riverside Ski and Sport has been the single largest one-store snowboarding shop in the Southern California and probably the country.
All of the stores always had something else that you can't find very many places today: a place to sit down and just visit.
"You want people in the store -- you don't want to chase them away. And we always had couches," said Slamal, who always welcomed the kids to hang out in his store.
And my recollection is that there was always someone behind the counter who knew the activity and gave good advice. The staff participated. It seems like the store always attracted the best young advocates in all the different sports to work in sales, which was as much a teaching job as a selling job. The Slamals rubbed off on their staff.
Bob and Leslie are avid skiers and have owned boats since they were first married 40 years ago this year. Bob is an extraordinary fisherman, specializing in fly-fishing, but equally at home behind a spinning rod or baitcaster of jig stick. He's fished everywhere in the West, fresh and saltwater, and travels to New Zealand once a year. He's competed in the famous One Fly competition in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, setting a one-day record that no one has come close to beating. He guides fly-fishermen at Lake Skinner and Diamond Valley, locally, and on the Green River in Wyoming. He's owned Labrador Retrievers for the 25-plus years I've known him and loves bird hunting, and he played all the "ball" sports when he was a young man. He's a Hemmingway sportsman, doing it all, and Ski and Sport is one of the last do-it-all sporting goods stores.
"I won't have any trouble finding things to do when I'm retired," laughed Slamal.
But there will be several generations of sporting advocates who will miss Ski and Sport and the Slamals. The store is not being sold to new ownership and the inventory is being liquidated (starting this Saturday). The digs will have new occupants later this year. Bob and Leslie will be heading to Kansas in May to visit the family farm (since 1852) on the first of many retirement road trips.
I went out into my garage after talking with Slamal this week and dug through some rod cases and found an old Fenwick HMG graphite fly rod. It was the first commercial graphite rod made, and I bought mine from Slamal, who managed to get some of the first ones off the production line. If I remember correctly, I also bought a topographic map and some wool hiking socks that day. Holding the rod, I was happy for Bob and Leslie, but I realized this is the end of an era.
