Academy Sports + Outdoors history

The first Academy store opened as a tire shop in San Antonio in 1938.

1939 - Academy Tire Shop begins selling military surplus.

1945 - Max changes store name to “Academy Super Surplus.”

1956 - Max moves his business to Austin, Texas and expands to four stores.

Academy Sports & Outdoors came into existence in 1970, when Arthur Gochman and his business partner purchased Southern Sales, a Houston-based army-navy surplus chain comprised of six stores that were by that year no longer making any profit.

Gochman bought out his partner in 1973 and changed the company's business name from Southern Sales to Academy Corp.

In 1978, the younger Gochman gave up his law practice and moved to Houston to assume active control of the company and complete the overhaul of its basic merchandising policies.

1980 - Sports and outdoor items including fishing, camping, and sporting goods are introduced to the product assortment.

1983 - Academy runs its first multi-page newspaper ad during the holiday season.

1984 - Athletic brands Nike and Adidas are added to the product assortment.

Max Gochman died in 1985, and Arthur Gochman took over his father's four Austin stores, refurbishing them in Academy's new image as sporting goods megastores.

Starting in 1986, Academy also adopted an EDLP (EveryDay Low Pricing) sales philosophy, rejecting the widely used deep discounting of select items to attract customers.

1990 - With 28 stores, Academy relocates its corporate office and distribution center to Katy, TX.

1991 - Academy exits military surplus business.

It opened its first store outside Texas in Edmond, Oklahoma in June 1994, then added a store in Lafayette, Louisiana the following November, thus ending the company's exclusive Texas identity.

By 1990 Academy had grown to 18 stores. It also began a period of more rapid expansion, jumping to 34 stores by 1995, the year after it first moved into two adjoining states.