George Worthington Sporting Goods

[mikesglove]

George Worthington was born and raised in New York state and in 1829 at the age of 16 began working for a hardware store in Utica. He was an enterprising lad and traveled to Cleveland, OH. to assess the work being done on the digging of the Ohio-Erie canal. At the time, Cleveland was a Village of about 600 people. He found the workers lacking in proper tools and arranged for equipment to be sent from Utica. He made a handsome profit on the transaction and moved permanently to Cleveland in 1835 where he opened his own hardware store. He printed his first mail order catalog in 1870 and engaged in wholesale distribution. The catalog below is from the 1930's


In addition to hardware and general purpose merchandise, the catalog also featured sporting goods. This circa 1935 "Roxie Lawson" model featured the 100th anniversary stamp. Lawson was a local Cleveland Indian pitcher. the glove looks to be Denkert made.




1951 Worthington catalog pages below featuring both Hutch and Worthington Brand,



Two gloves below are from the same era as the catalog. First is a "Lou Boudreau" model

A "Bill Dickey" model below with a great looking logo stamp in the pocket.


George Worthington was quite an entrepreneur and business man. He established a bank, insurance co. and mining operation in addition to his hardware enterprise. The end of WWll brought intense competition to his hardware co. with discount businesses sprouting up in response to the housing boom. Worthington Co. was still able to stay open for 40 more years but finally closed doors for good in 1991. The beautiful looking 1882 Worthington building below was restored in 1996 as loft apartments.

[Mike**Mize]

Great to have a dedicated historian in our midst. Thanks for all your hard work.

[okdoak]

Second that. Great stuff, Mike!