Old Academy.

Academy Sports & Outdoors traces its beginning to 1938 when founder Max Gochman opened the Academy Tire Shop in San Antonio, Texas. After a few years, Max began selling military surplus in his shop.
In 1956, he moved his business, then called Academy Super Surplus, to Austin, Texas and expanded the operation to four stores.

In 1973, Max's son, Arthur Gochman, began developing similar stores in Houston, Texas. Arthur opened six Academy Super Surplus stores, and the business continued to grow.

In the early 1980's, Academy added sports and outdoors items to its assortment of products and evolved into a full line sporting goods store. By 1990, Academy Sports & Outdoors grew to include 28 stores across Texas and became a leader in the sporting goods industry.

TomCat said:

Does anyone know where the first Academy store was/is?

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The story on the website is a little off. My dad's buddy was the accountant for Max Gouchman back in the day. He actually gave his son permission to use the name to open locations elswhere but he wasn't allowed to open any in SA to compete with the original. This didn't change until the late 80's or early 90's when SA finally got their first "real" Academy.The rest is history!

Lucky said:

Here it is...
TX CHICKEN pulled the information off of the site as I did the pic. I was wondering how he knew that.

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