Howard's handoff

For Dave Howard, one of the best parts of growing up around his father's athletics goods store was Saturday mornings.

On those mornings that are now decades past, Howard would watch the local sports figures -- coaches, former players and a few Monday-morning quarterbacks -- gather in the store on Broadway and have what he described as "a good old-fashioned bull session."

Some of those people are now icons of local sports lore. One was legendary Central High School coach Lou Muegge. Another was Kenneth Knox, a former Southeast Missouri State University football coach and athletic director and charter member of the school's hall of fame.

"They'd talk all about the games that went on that week," Howard said. "I'd come in and listen, and it was fascinating. It's one of the things I remember best."

Howard is spending more time looking back these days as the store that eventually became his -- Howard's Athletic Goods -- turns 60 this year. Another reason for his sentimentality is that he plans to turn the store over to longtime employee Terry Slattery, also an athlete who played football at Southeast.

"I have a lot of fond memories of lots of people coming in the store," he said. "If people were involved in sports, they came in here. I remember people coming in here and paying $1 a week for a baseball mitt until they paid it off. In those days, we hadn't heard anything about interest."

Howard's, which has been at 900 Broadway since day one, is one of Cape Girardeau's most enduring stores -- right up there with Shivelbine's Music Store and Lang's Jewelers.

The store was founded by B.I. Howard and opened on Aug. 1, 1945. It was then known as the Howard and Swan Store, because Howard had a partner, Beryl Swan.

In the 1960s, after Howard and Swan opened a store in Springfield, Swan took sole ownership of the store in Springfield and Howard opted to stay in Cape Girardeau.

Walter "Doc" Ford was a high-school athlete and teammate of Dave Howard.

"I knew Dave's dad very well," Ford said. "When I was young, my dad shopped there for me. He bought all my athletic equipment there -- mitts, spikes, sweat shirts. It was the headquarters for stuff like that. There wasn't anywhere else you could get it."

Ford also remembers walking into some of those Saturday-morning bull sessions.

"There would be maybe a dozen of them in there," he said. "They were bragging and cussing and snorting. B.I. was a good man. They ran a good store, and everybody liked them."

So when Ford had boys of his own, he bought their athletic gear there. Now, even his grandson, who plays college baseball, has sports equipment purchased for him there.

In the 1970s, Dave Howard and his brother, Bob, took over the store from their father. They expanded the store then, adding an area upstairs dedicated to men's and women's clothing.

"We had the finest men's store in Cape and one of the finest women's stores in Cape," Howard said. "We sold everything from socks to suits."

Later, Dave Howard was the sole owner of the store when his brother was killed in a boating accident.

Tom Schulte, who now is district office director for U.S. Sen. Kit Bond's office, was manager of the men's clothing department at Howard's in the early 1970s.

"They had a real fine ladies section," Schulte recalled. "It was a very attractive store. But it really was a magnet to anybody involved with athletics. You'd see young players come in all the time from various high schools looking for everything."

In the early 1990s, the store closed its clothing department.

"The chains ran us out of these areas," Dave Howard said. "So we're back to what we do best -- selling quality sporting goods and giving personal service to everyone that walks in the door."

Howard gives his employees the credit for the reason for the store's success. Without them, he said, "the business would have ceased to exist a long time ago."

Now, Howard is 69 and pretty much lets Slattery run the business. He said he still writes a few checks, stops by in the morning and runs a few errands.

"But I'm giving it to Terry," he said. "He already does pretty much everything. He's a good, honest, easy-going person. It's what you need in this type of business."

Slattery was a wide receiver, a member of Southeast's special and return teams from 1972 to 1976. When he graduated, he built houses for five years, but the bottom fell out of the market so he wanted to get a job close to his heart in a sports-related field.

"I've always enjoyed athletics," he said. "It's a natural fit and there was a job opening so it worked out."

There's no date set in stone for when Slattery, who has worked at the store for 20 years, to take over. But when he does, Slattery said the name won't change.

"It was Howard's when I shopped here and it always will be," he said. "It's been that way for 60 years and I wouldn't change it."

Slattery said he loves watching youngsters come in when they first get involved with sports.

"Seeing the kids the first time he comes in to buy his first bat, basketball or soccer ball," he said. "That look on their face. You get a warm feeling."

Even after Slattery owns the business, don't be surprised to see Howard in the store on a regular basis.

"I'm going to come in here as long as I'm walking," he said.

Howard said it's been a wonderful business to be in.

"It means more that all these people came here rather than go to a chain store," he said. "We've always prided ourselves in personal service and great employees. We know most of the people who come through that door by name. What big chain can say that?"

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137