NFL and Packers great Don Hutson is seen today in an advertising promotional photo from 1945, taken at his Green Bay bowling alley. From the Los Angeles Times, in 1989: “His financial acumen — as exhibited in contract negotiations early on, and at the gin table later — was apparently inborn. ‘I can't remember when I didn't want to be a businessman,’ he said. As an Alabama student, with a partner, he had operated the Captain Kidd Cleaners in Tuscaloosa. Talking about those days, he said: ‘At the university, I was the only athlete in the business school. The only reason I wanted to play pro sports was to get a stake.’ He got it rather early in his pro career at Green Bay and opened a bowling alley there, the two-story Packer Playdium. Next, he formed the Hutson Motor Car Co. and began selling automobiles to sports fans, ‘and, of course, anybody else.’ As a football player, mixing business with civic responsibilities, he headed the county Red Cross drive, ran the Community Chest appeal one year, and joined the Elks, Eagles and Lions, serving a year as president of the Green Bay Lions Club.” Read more about Hutson and his Packers Playdium here.
