When tennis player Andy Perry starred at Bloomington High School South in 1986, he kept breaking the strings of his racket. He’d walk across South Walnut Street to Nevada Bob’s Golf, Tennis and Billiards, exchanging a quick re-stringing of his mangled equipment with odd jobs: handing out magazines and other part-time work to keep playing daily.
When he’d rack up the records — the most wins at No. 1. singles and No. 1 doubles in Huntington College history — he’d look back fondly at the humble shop that made things possible, which kept the skinny teenager competing on a budget and taking home titles.
After graduating college in 1993, Perry became a full-time manager of the store alongside business partner Tammy May. They wished that the store, founded in 1985, would reach 30 years in business under their watch.
Nevada Bob’s Golf, Tennis & Billiards, formerly of 1960 S. Walnut St., packed up its bags and closed for business on Oct. 31. The national chain affiliate saw its best of times in the 1990s, when as many as 300 Nevada Bob’s locations fed the hungry golf boom inspired by Tiger Woods and general economic prosperity.
“In the last six years, the bad just started outshining the good,” Perry said.
In turn, the economic recession began to beat up on extracurricular and hobby shops.
Today, Perry says, there might be 30 Nevada Bob’s stores remaining. And that means there’s one fewer competitor for big-box athletic retailers such Dick’s Sporting Goods and Golfsmith.
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