The Dale Jr. Download - 500 - Johnny Morris - The Bass Pro Shops Experience

Episode Date: October 18, 2023

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and special co-host Kelley Earnhardt Miller are joined by Johnny Morris, the founder and CEO of longtime racing sponsor and sporting goods empire Bass Pro Shops. The interview illustrates how Johnny rose from humble beginnings in the Ozarks of Missouri to creating a brand that not only revolutionized the outdoors industry but the consumer experience as a whole. Johnny recalls the family legend of first selling fishing lures out of his father’s Brown Derby liquor store in Springfield. Soon after, he developed his first catalog which helped the business rapidly grow. He then realized he needed a destination store to help attract his customers to Missouri, and the first Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World was born.The interview also covers how Johnny became involved with NASCAR after first being exposed to auto racing at the Springfield Fairgrounds. A chance meeting with Richard Childress and Dale Earnhardt at Charlotte Motor Speedway led to a collaboration between Bass Pro Shops and Richard Childress Racing. The merchandise produced to support the deal generated millions of dollars in revenue, which was donated to conservation efforts. Johnny explains that conservation is a major pillar of the Bass Pro Shops brand, and how passing along the outdoors tradition to future generations is essential for the prosperity of nature. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Calling is a production of Dirtymo Media. There he is. Come on in here, buddy. Have a seat. Hey, everybody. Glad you tuned in. It's time for another episode of the Dale Jr. download. Mike Davis, Dellenhart Jr.

The Bojangl Studio. Got a great guest today. Well, how you doing, Rhiz? I'm doing fine right now. This is every week, okay, Bob? Uncle it. You died on that hill. Your career died on that hill and you were hardheaded.

I'm a bigger idiot. I didn't even think about it. You thought about it and didn't ask it. That makes me the bigger idiot. I think so. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. It is our Wednesday show in the Bojangles studio with me again. Today is my sister Kelly.

How you doing, Kelly? I'm doing great. Thanks for being here today. Absolutely. Had a lot of fun yesterday. some fun conversation. Today, we got a great guest coming in here, a definite ally for episode 500.

It's Johnny Morris, the owner of Bass Pro Shops. Johnny has obviously been a huge supporter with his Bass Pro Shops brand in NASCAR, working with that initially years ago. He helps us here at Junior Motorsports, has sponsored Noah Gregson, Josh Berry, I'm driving the Bass Pro Shop car this weekend at Homestead. He also sponsors our late model stock program with Carson Quoppel and also Wyatt.

That's right. Miller. Yeah, so Wyatt the thriller, Miller, racing the dirt tracks around the country. So anyways, I'm excited to talk to Johnny. I know you are too. You have a great relationship with him already. I speak to him a lot from time to time. I think you know him just a little bit better than I do, but due to your, you know, having to talk to him about the business of motorsports.

Yeah, I'm super excited to hear from him. Just, you know, he's had a, he's certainly had a history in this career, a history with our family. Business-wise, I've got to experience, you know, a lot of the different things and places. And so, yeah, it's, I'm going to be anxious to hear about just, you know, his vision, how it all come together. I know. It's just so massive.

He's built this iconic brand and it's always fun to talk to people about, like, how small it used to be, you know, where, what is the origins of Bass Pro Shop, and I think people will be entertained to hear exactly how it did start. Yeah. And, you know, he just, you know, he just is a fun guy,

really incredibly genuine, nice, polite, soft-spoken man. Yeah. But he certainly knows what the hell he wants, right? Like behind all of that. And he gets done what he wants. Yeah, behind all of that, he's very effective. Yeah, he's very driven.

you know, in the way he operates. So it's going to be a lot of fun to talk to him. Can't wait to get started. So let's bring him into the room. Get Johnny Morris on the Dale Jr. Download. What's up, buddy? Hot seat. Okay, sir.

So Johnny Morris is on the Dale Jr. Download today. Johnny is the owner of Bass Pro Shops and a great friend of everybody. I mean, you're a friend of buyers and a friend of everybody else in the industry. You've been involved in NASCAR in so many ways over the years. We'll cover that today. Thanks for coming. Thanks for giving us some time. I know you're busy. It's an honor. I've been so looking forward to this and just going through old scrapbooks of memories, pictures, or your dad, you just and fun times, you know.

And the impact, you Dale and your dad, Kelly, your family has had not only on our family, but helping us build our brand past pro shops and the outdoors and conservation and just fun, happy times. It's inspiration for everybody in our company for many years. Well, let me ask you. So I want to understand how you ended up building this brand. But what was your childhood like? My childhood, I was kind of blessed because very blessed my mom and dad. Just like, you know, your family had passion for something. And we live in a country where we can be free to pursue our passions.

and my mom and dad, they grew up in a little town, Willard, Missouri. They were both born in 1911. They didn't have much. My mom was one of ten kids that grew up in a two-bedroom house. My dad was raised by his great aunt. But to them, they were rich because they woke up every day, and they could hunt and fish, and they raised me and my sisters. There's an area called, there in those arcs that's referred to as a float fishing capital world,

just beautiful streams. And so I grew up fishing. loving to fish on the rivers. And then when I was 10, they built Table Rock Lake. And I went to open house from my grandpa. He was pretty upset because it flooded his best fishing holes. I can't repeat what I said. But he was not happy. But what we didn't understand, it created habitat. And then the fishing became great. So when I was like 21, I fished in the first national bass tournament. And I met fishermen from all over the country. And I just knew I wanted to be around the sport of fishing and try to be in the fishing business if I could.

Yeah. My dad had a liquor store on the way to Lake, so eventually I went, there was a Gibson Gibson discount store there in Springfield, and they had a good selection of gear. I kept going in that manager. I was a good customer. He said, John, I can't get permission from the home office to carry all these lures, like Bill Dance and all these fishermen were using. So then I talked my dad in to put Tackle in the store, and we just called it Bass Pro Shop.

So the first Bass Pro Shop was a liquor store with Tackle. Yep. And where was it? It was in Springfield, Missouri, on South Camel. And that store was about the size of the lobby, like in Concord. It was 1,500 square feet. And that's our only store for the first 13 years we're in business. 13 years, that was the store.

Yep. So when the first week, right, what do you got? Just like a rack of lures that your dad gave you this little corner over here, or what? Yeah, pretty much. So I had this buddy mine, Steve Reed, with fishing bedding. He worked at a convenience store. So I talked Steve into coming to work with me. My dad is interesting.

He didn't loan me the money, but he co-signed my note at the bank because he wanted me to know the obligation, the responsibility. So we got $10,000 and I got a U-Haul trader. We went over to Tulsa. There's a little shop, Oaky bug, and they wholesale out of the back door. So we fill that up and put a padlock on it, went out on town honky-talking. We came back. The trailer is still there. because somebody if that trader that would have been the end of the company before it started yeah so anyway

everything worked out so we just like I said we called it bass pro because it was real descriptive of we wanted just be specialist in bass fishing gear okay okay and so you brought all that stuff back to the liquor store yep and how much room did you initially have in the in the store what was your footprint we had two gondolas it I don't know it's probably half the size of this room is that. And I love this room, by the way, in the podcast, it's a very friendly place here. Yeah, thank you.

All right. So, yeah, so was it like day to day? You just in there selling fish and lures in the back of the store? Yeah, because you're in your 20s, right? Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, and every time we run tackle on sale or lures, and he'd sell some more beer,

but we kept pushing this beer over and putting more bait in there. That's what I'll say after 13 years, how much space did you have? Yeah. Well, we started a catalog a couple years later, and that's how our business really started. to go was more cataloged and still just had that one shop yeah in the 70s starting to when when what was the moment when the when the alcohol left the building it never did really yeah yeah I mean we moved down the street right and opened up we it was kind of ironic

dale because that gibson's discount store many years later it came up for sale and so we bought that it was 80,000 square feet we had her moved our warehouse in there we had to had a store that was 20,000 feet. And then we had a big window. Customers could see their orders being filled in the back and had our offices, everything. So that's where our headquarters or headquarters store where you've been, you guys, before us. That's where it is today.

We just added on to it over the years. Okay. What's become of the original building? It's still down there. And we took part of it and recreated a little replica museum of the original store. And every time there's some important meeting in their company, I love to go in there and just stand behind the counter. It stirs a lot of emotion, like where did we come from and how important it is to listen to customers, whether you want to or not, and for your people. So it's still there as part of our little museum.

Yep. How do you, you know, you know bass fishing, you know lures, you're imagining in the first handful of years, you felt confident in and around all of those things. but eventually your store footprint grows, you're bringing in other brands, you're offering other services and products, hunting products, and just continuing to grow as a business, right? I mean, how do you, you know, I guess how do you manage that and not make, you know, I guess you make mistakes, but how do you manage it and succeed with, without, failing, you know, because that could have, it could have went any way, right?

Where there's some moments, I guess, when things were touch and go? Lots of them. And so I come here and I see you have your family here, right? It's your personal family and your work family. And that's to say how important that is. And I'm sitting across from you, Kelly, I wish I would have invited my sister Susie because I had three, have three sisters, two of them were involved with a business. long time and like my youngest sister susy she's real sharp like every time we'd get report cards for

years i'd always tell my parents well wait till she gets in the third grade wait till she gets in the fifth grade all the way she's real smart she came in one day and we had all of her mailing list was on this old machine called the dressagraph these little labels and they're just falling out of boxes all over the floor she's john if you're going to be serious about this these are your customers you're just losing her name you've got to get your inventory on a computer and your customer list on a computer. So I said, okay, you do it. So she came to work and helped us in some of her systems she put in place, still service and mother says. So a lot of family involvement and you can't beat it. Some days it's like this, you know, but it's it's the best. When you come down,

where's the loyalty? It's like your family and you ask Dale about how's our company grow. It's like a work family and just, you know, just the blessing of having a lot of people with a shared passion, whether it's here at racing. us with the outdoors, that's about everything. Yeah. What was it, what was, uh,

the opening up the second location, a big intimidating, I mean, there's moments when, there's moments when you got to basically reinvest, right? You take money you're making in your brand and your company and you have to turn around and, and if you're going to get somewhere,

you got to put it all right back in, right? Um, and so imagine, you know, opening another store or growing your business, there were some moments where you had to reenver, invest big capital into your brand, um,

is, were those moments, uh, intimidating at all? Oh, yes, but I mean, there's,

it's like racing. There's a time. You got to go for it, you know, and so, uh, our second store was in Atlanta. And I got a call from a realtor.

And there was a, a concept grocery store called Fresh Festival. And it had gone out of business. And man, I thought, man, it was a great location on I 85. And,

but it was just a box. It was like in our main headquarters where you've been in Springfield, we had invested in a lot of attractions, you know, like waterfalls, aquariums, indoor archery ranges, things that take better care of the customers. We call that store outdoor world. Well, we are going to Atlanta. We debated, okay, do we do like Sam Walton and just go to smaller markets, not so intense competition. But for Bass Pro at the time, our cataloged customers,

Atlanta was like a hotbed of fishing in the southeast, you know, and it was, we knew that as a hub, so we just figured, hey, let's go for it, because if we win, we could win really big. We'll just see how we fare there. And we didn't have the money to do, to make that store like Springfield. I didn't want to disappoint customers, so we'd call that store Bass Pro Shop Sportsman's Warehouse. We had murals and we had some mounts, but it wasn't quite the same, but as our headquarters, but we had the gear. You know, a good people.

And I felt like the biggest challenge would be the people. You know, like, because we'd been operating this store for like in our headquarters over 20 years. And we built a great team. So how do you have people behind the counter that are knowledgeable when it comes to fishing or hunting or anything to do with what we're around our business and taking care of customers? And really surprising that people, we attracted people because of their passion.

That's the kind of people you want, you know, from managers all the way up and down the troops. So that kind of, and we transferred some people that have been with us for a long time, but our ability to track fellow sportsmen to come and serve other people that love the outdoors, that was surprising how many good people we could get. The success of the Atlanta store gives you all this confidence to continue to go into new markets. Yes, sir. You know, most people, when they're setting out in the retail business, it's like the square footage and how much sales you can make out of the square footage

and they want to just turn and rotate everything. You built these Bass Pro shops and you said the Atlanta store didn't mimic the Springfield store at what point and how did you decipher and know that it was going to work to build destinations for your shoppers that are outside of that retail dollar, you know, because when you go in a Bass Pro Shop,

you can have all kinds of fun without ever spending a dime. Well, thank you. Thank you for being customers, too. So that's a very good question. My sister, Susie, I mentioned earlier. We heard about this store in Freeport, Maine, L.L. Bean. So we take a field trip there, and I couldn't believe it. And it was mainly, it was a big giant store.

And all these people, they were getting several million people a year to come through this store. And that's what really inspired me. Like, if they can draw that many people to Freeport, Maine, we can draw a lot of our catalog customers to Springfield, Missouri, relatively small town. but we had our catalog sales were good and we built up some a good healthy balance sheet so we didn't have to go the bank and just say what's the payback on this aquarium what's a pay we just wanted a store to be a daydream store for our customers you know and just a fun place and so in 1988 we had this event called the world fishing fair and had all the pro anglers and like you guys came

to the similar event. But, man, we had like 250,000 people come in three days, and they paid actually $10 to get in the store. But we gave it all to conservation. But anyway, that put that store on the map for sure. And investing in the fun aspects of the store has been very popular. I think a uniqueness that we have that our customers enjoy. And part of it's educational, you know, for kids.

conservation messages and just a fun place. So just recently I had Hank Parker, senior, on the show, who was a professional bass fisherman, and you fished professionally as well for five years. Yes, sir. Obviously, starting that business takes a lot of your time. You got to commit. You quit fishing professionally and, you know, made the right decision, right?

You're sitting here in front of us with a successful business in bass pro shops. but how difficult was it to I mean there's a competitiveness that you probably missed fishing competitive you know competitively and trying to go out there and be the best bass fisherman you could be so what was your experience like and and how easy or hard was it to really kind of like stop doing something that you really love to do that's a very good question those without question the happiest days in my life get my truck pull my boat drive around see America you know driving around fly over things now too much but just that was great but also the competition and it's just like you're racing

for automotive and and making advancing equipment it put me right in the forefront of all what was happening and race got that started these tournaments the founder of BASS he was a great promoter and marketing marketer and he was building heroes just like your dad others legends and racing yourself heroes were emerging and I would go to these tournaments I'd take a little Kodak camera or something I'd get a picture who ever won and I'd go to the vendor and say let's have a special so we put out little tabloids or bulletins to our customers right like a tournament bulletin so man here's the hottest gear here's what you need here's a great price on it and you know the other buyers at Walmart or wherever it might be it might be months before they even know about this or you know

Like it gave us, by going those tournaments, kept us real close to our customers and close to the developing gear. Yeah, that was a real competitive advantage. Yeah, it was a lot of fun, too. That opens up some curiosities for me. So what is changing, take us back to, you know, the late 70s and early 80s, what is changing about lures? What is change, how, how, in the same vein of how technology and racing changes, right? what was really, really good last month is obsolete six months from now. How are y'all improving success for your customers

and how are lures themselves evolving? You always got to have the latest, greatest. So, always guys got to get new gear. Girls got to get new gear. One thing that's a constant that is amazing is like the importance of conservation, And how can kids, like especially kids, go catch fish? Yeah. And that was, they all just want to stop and thank you for being the honorary chairman and

spokesperson for national hunting and fishing today. And you had your daughter, Ila, on there. And that was classic. Catching the fish. Yeah, and just catching fish, because that's bigger than a trophy or anything. I mean, that was the best. That was just the best. She's grin at ear and you being her dad.

And fishing's all about memories. and pounding it's more than the trophies that was a very special day we um i remember going and when me and kelly went to live at dad's house um we moved in with him he lived on the lake norman i remember immediately uh you know digging in uh a styrofoam cup for worms uh to to fish off the pier and the boat slip and catching brim after brim after bram and just having a blast right as a little you know, eight, nine, 10 year old boy. And I was, I was, I don't know, it just dawned on me when I was like, I can go do that right now with my daughter.

Why don't I just do that? I can go do that right this minute. And I remember that was a great experience for me and I bet she will think this is pretty interesting, you know, and her reaction, I was like, please, some, you know, some brim, please bite this hook, please, you know, we put it down in there and she's sitting there and she's like, what are we doing? What is this? What is happening? And I'm like, just wait. Just be patient. And then the barber starts moving. I'm like, watch that, Bobber. Watch it. Look at it. And she's just starting to figure it out, right? We pull that fish out of the water. She could

not believe there's a fish, a real fish on the end of that line. Right after you did that, we hosted the national, or the bass fishing hall of fame dinner up there in Springfield. And so I played that little film. And then I had another film clip of my granddaughter. I call her nickname we're angel fish but she was out fishing with the dad same thing little perch like this she puts it and that said dad i want to take this home and feed everybody yeah i think me and i'll be fishing for quite a while now but uh so my dad uh was was always into fishing and always you know trying different lures and had a he had an affinity for topwater lures uh for whatever reason um when you you know, of all the products that you are aware of and have been involved in and have put in your stores,

like if you are going to, if you're going to, I'm going to give you a rod and reel and I'm going to give you one lower. What lower are you picking off the shelf? Yeah, that's hard to be a good old spinner bait. Yeah. And I love those frogs too, scum frogs. And like, depending on where you fish, you know, if they're up shallow, I like spinners and scum frogs, wopper, ploppers. Whopper plopper. Are you talking about your dad?

Just a minute. I was thinking about this, my favorite quote about fishing from Ernest Timingway. Ernest Timingway. And he said, years ago, he said, in a lifetime spent fishing, I've come to realize it's not the big fish that you catch, but the people that you meet and the friends that you make along the way that matter the most. And it's memories outdoors and just along my journey to meet your dad. and I was rereading the beautiful tribute you wrote about your father

after he passed and calluses on his hands and what friendships meant to him. It was so beautiful. And just to be, I've been blessed my life to be around a lot of people, influential people and presidents, a lot of folks through fishing. Your dad, I can just tell you, I don't have to tell you, but he was, I just, my admiration for him was so, so deep and respect. And what an inquisitive mind.

I mean, he, he, I'd see him probe people and you have to like 100 times. Like, you could be the chairman of Purdue Foods and he'd be having him scratching his head about wisely raising chickens this way or me. I didn't think I knew anything about sporting goods. He just was so inquisitive and so genuine. And I, and it's just on my mind coming here like, I remember one time he came up. He was supposed to visit at headquarters, stopped by for an hour.

He ends up going to Warehouse. He spent all afternoon just he wouldn't leave until he was nice to everybody. And I've seen, you know, I think about this. I'm drifting off from your questions, but I just got to say, you know, I've seen you too. It's not easy. I wouldn't imagine being in a footsteps of such a famous, American hero, you know, and how you guys wear that, how you handle that from ever since I've known you from your father's passing, like how you carry on and hold yourself and make everybody

proud to carry on a sport you love. But I'm stuttering for words, but I just not really thank you too, your company, your work family. It, it means so much to the whole country many ways and just to be around your dad and and just gain admiration for him. So how did you get introduced to dad and RCR in that relationship? Because that was kind of your foray into racing, right? Yeah. Yeah. And so yeah, I brought you a little gift because I know you just had a birth not too long ago, right? Yeah. A couple days ago. Yeah. So here you go. This was our first this was, I just found this out coming down here. It's checked on. It was 25 years ago.

Oh, man. So we sponsored that. The gold car. Yeah. And another die cast for the table. And then, I got to tell everybody, you introduced us to Martin Trix Jr. And that was 20 years ago. And so this, and that works out pretty keen.

So all this. But, yeah, so I met your dad and Richard at Charlotte, best I remember the first time. and like they sent this sales guy Bill Patterson was up on our calling on us at Bass Pro in Springfield like the next week and he walks in and he says Johnny Dale and Richard they enjoyed meeting you and they love the outdoors they both love to hunt and fish and they want to they're making you this deal I can't even believe it you've probably heard me say this before but there's a chance to put a little decal on the bee post of your dad's car

and so so what's the bee post well I found that out of a little decal this big and I said man what's that going to cost and he told me and I just about threw up and then he said this is a beautiful thing he said Johnny Dale and Richard they want to put basperemlam on the hood of this car for the all-star race and they will donate all their royalties that they normally get and you guys pick will donate it all to conservation and so I'm pretty not I was totally naive but that's what really got us into NASCAR in like 30 days that That was many years ago. They sold over $10 million worth of, of course, Earnhardt's.

Yeah, that sold a lot of stuff. But like so much money for conservation, but also told all of us, you know, our customers like that like to hunt and fish, they also like NASCAR, huge. And so we look at this as a long term like brand building or affiliation with NASCAR. And besides that's a lot of fun, everybody in a company, I get five. fired up about it. Yeah. So was this the first? Yeah. This was the first race car and sponsorship. What was, what did you know about NASCAR before this? Well, I used to go to the Springfield Fairgrounds and there was a guy named Larry Phillips.

I asked your dad, he knew him, but he was like the equivalent. He's a legend. Yeah, he was great. And he'd just go, I'd go there with my grandpa and he'd, and that Larry Phillips, he was in Rusty Wallace race there and, uh, uh, quite a few guys. Ken's race race. Anyway, but that was my first time being around NASCAR, but it was a half-mile asphalt traffic like you do through historical tracks. The partnership between you and Dad was perfect in many ways. You know, y'all definitely created a friendship and an admiration for each other. But Dad, his passion for fishing and hunting,

I know you probably spend your life around, you know, people that do that professionally and that every every day they wake up but uh for the every man you know dad was as is as die hard as it gets a great connection and a great i guess a great spokesman for your brand uh because of his uh he grew up on lakes around canapolis and and taking took to you know going when hunting season started he was gone yeah he was gone and people know that customer's like you're right because like who's your ambassador you could win every race you're and hack off half your customers, you know. Yeah.

But not with, you know, somebody is so genuine. Same with Martin yourself. Like, just love it. Yeah. Customers know that. I agree. I've tried to, you know, Martin, to me is, you know, such a perfect match for Bass Pro Shop.

Because he's as dedicated as dad ever was to deer hunting. Loves to fish as well. I mean, they're kind of, if anybody was dad's equal, in my eyes in terms of being an outdoorsman, Martin was the perfect, you know, person for Bass Pro Shop. You know, you talk about how that matters to your customers, and you talked about conservation being an important trigger for getting you guys involved in dad's relationship, but since that, like you've been involved in NASCAR for decades now, right? How do y'all value your involvement?

How does it have to make sense, right? I think it's long-term brand building, and Dale, you asked me a question. A lot of our fishermen, when we first started in the NASCAR, this is Johnny, we could be sponsoring more fishing tournaments. I said, we need to cross-pollinate here, and how can we bring more people into fishing and hunting? And so if kids watch NASCAR, they're around the track or on TV,

and they see Dale Jr.'s got a big bass pro in them at fishing school at Dale. then it's cool with me. I want to try this. So I think it cultivates for the whole sport, but also our brand. And our brands are really every for long term, like short term, the money we invest in NASCAR,

we could print more catalogs or do something else, and we'd see short-term gain. But our brands are real important to us, and it's a way to put our brand out there in front of a lot of people and a lot of people that are passionate about outdoors. It just don't on me. I don't know why I didn't make this connection because I thought that you guys were,

involved a lot longer, but really just three short years with dad from 98 till the time of his passing. What, you know, what was your relationship like? You got a favorite memory. You got a funny story that something you guys did together or whatnot. Well, remember one time he came over we went fish. I loved to fish for these giant bluefin tunas and your dad came over and we went tuna fishing and we had a couple of blowups but we never got a fish, but we had good. We had good times and I remember your dad would we were staying this little fish camp and I had some bicycles and I look up and he's riding his bicycle around backwards all the time and he said oh come on I'll race you you can go forward I'll go backwards he still beat me I um you know the conservation

part is very important you mentioned that in the story of of with your grandfather and the lake that was built around your home and um how you learned about how that, you know, was beneficial to the environment and wildlife around that area. And you've made conservation sort of like the key mission for you in your life. Every time I've been around you, you mentioned it in every speech, in every conversation. Try to help people that are listening understand why that is so important to you and why it's so critical to our future. Thank you.

So, yeah, I feel so blessed my life to be around the outdoor industry. It all comes around the quality of fishing and hunting. One aspect, we benefited from it, so it's our obligation to give back. One thing is an oblig, but also it's a shared passion. A lot of people in our company realize this. And you came up to the Fish and Wildlife Museum. One of the main missions there, and I think we have, is to share the story of the role that sportsmen and women play in conservation.

since the days of Roosevelt and Audubon, they were hunters, they were outdoorsmen and through being connected to nature, being in the field or on a stream, they understood the importance more of habitat, of regulations to ensure healthy populations of fish and wildlife. A lot of people aren't aware of this, but over 80% of the funding

for all the state fishing and wildlife agencies come from sportsmen and women. They are derived from the sale of hunting and fishing license, but also most people aren't aware of this, and I'm proud to just share their bodies to listen to this podcast. There's a 10% federal excise tax that sportsmen and women lobbied for that's collected on the sale of all fishing equipment. Firearms, ammunition, most hunting supplies, 10 to 11%

it's collected at the federal level and it's remitted back to the states based on a formula. So between licenses and that federal tax, sportsmen and women are paying a huge amount of the funding for conservation in America. And it impacts, you know, all of North America in many instances beyond that. So I just think, and it's what I call common sense conservation and not just extreme things. And so anyway, those are, I think, passions we share where we came from. Last year was our 50th anniversary, and we shared in our catalog for the first time. The last decade, we've averaged giving back 10% of our earnings back to conservation. That's something that all of us in the company are very proud of.

But I think we look at it, too, like NASCAR, it's an investment for our business, for the future, for the future of the sports we love, but also for the future of our company. I've had the chance to see a lot of the conservation, the work that you've done. And I would encourage anybody listening to check it out, look it up. And we don't have the opportunity to talk about every single thing. But I've been to Big Cedar Lodge. I've been to Dogwood Canyon National Park, which is just amazing. And just, you know, big Cedars there at Table Rock Lake.

if people were to just go there and just see the massiveness of what you have preserved and kept and the museum there. I mean, it's just incredible. You have that big mammoth while, woolly, was it a woolly mammoth? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And just, I mean, it's just absolutely incredible when you go there. And that's when I knew could see it for the importance of all of that. It's just crazy.

So the story I heard You were building You have this resort Yeah I want to get I want to talk about that That so you have this resort that you're building Is it true that you discovered Some fossils While building the golf

Building some portion of this resort There was some discovery That you were like Oh stop everything Let's get the experts in here And sort this out Let's let this this has got a This is all has a process

that has to play through. Am I telling this story correctly? Well, so we had a little irrigation lake on a golf course. It's a little place top of the rock. It's a beautiful view in the Ozarks overlooks Stable Rock Lake. There's a number three flag. It's been there. Flies every day.

Yeah. So anyway, this irrigation lake, it drains out. So in Missouri we have pretty, it's called karst topography or a lot of limestone. Missouri is also referred to as a cave state. So I'm nuts about spielunking going in caves and looking around. So where this little irrigation was, I go out there one morning, is just gone. And there was a little sinkhole in the lake flushed out. It was maybe just a couple acres.

But it flushed out this cave that we found about 15 years before. So, man, I know these places are connected. So we start digging to try to find out where is this sinkhole does it lead into this cave. We found the water when it flushed out to the other caves. They've got to be connected, whether it's through a little foxhole corridor or giant cavern. So we started digging about seven years ago, and we're still digging. You're still digging. But it's amazing.

We call it the cathedral in nature today. But it's like geologist said it was formed like 320 million years ago. The walls were about 250 feet deep now. And we've got to figure out a tour how we get people down in there. But it's really beautiful. And don't you also have means where. people are out looking for other relics and fossils and whatnot. Don't out in that area?

Am I right? No, not necessarily. I thought some of the things from the museum were things that were from that area. Yeah, they're from that. So to me about that little museum, it's in a lot of Native American artifacts. That's not a little museum. But anyway, it's to pass on the heritage. Yeah.

It's a way of life. And part of it's hunting. Like, I have a great reverence for, like, Native Americans and they lived off the land. They had to practice some conservation, right? And to be just have a little handmade airhead and a stick and they got to survive with us, you know, like. Yeah, it's incredible.

That museum, so what's the square footage of the museum? Well, there's one that's down there atop the rock. It's probably, I don't know, three or four thousand feet. It's not giant, but then the one in Springfield is very large. It's like a half a million or so. Right. So you opened this up a handful of years ago to big fanfare. We were lucky enough to be able to go through it.

Incredible, museum. Just insane. What was the, all right, I know the reason why you built this, but the pure cost of putting something like that together and the monumental task of maintenance and upkeep, and just the whole process. I mean, I mean, it must have been a dream. It must have been thrilled to take it on, right,

to create this vision for the museum. But it must have been daunting and overwhelming at the same time because there's nothing like it, I don't think, in the country. For people that are, you know, that are interested in hunting and fishing and conservation, but also a bit of a history lesson on, on our land and our country. I felt the timing was really right, Dale and Kelly, because we have these partners, our conservation partners, these groups,

Ducks Unlimited, Wild Turkey Federation, all these groups, on and on, Audubon, so to have these relationships where they could help us create the storylines. What are the messages, what are the success stories that we've had in America in conservation, and also what are the alarm signals or what do we need to be watching? So we hope this, especially for young people, you've got to bring Island or little sister sometime back. But it's like passing on this hunting and fishing heritage

and current up-to-speed messages about conservation. So we had the conservation partners, and then a group of very talented people that help us with dioramas and the visual display in our stores and other talented people that we work with that are just freelance. So we had this nucleus of people. And I felt like, man, we got to tell this story. And so it's all in a foundation.

And we chipped in on it pretty heavy and other donors. But I just felt like, man, one thing we could do is pass on our heritage where we came from. Is it serving that purpose? Well, I think so. We've been having attendance over a million people a year, just over a million for Springfield. And so, you know, we have a classroom there for fifth graders called the Wolf School, and it's all year long, but they do broadcast there. And they go pretty much across the United States and some degree around the world.

And our conservation partners have messages, and it goes out into classrooms. So kids can learn about, you know, environment and, you know, and all kinds of animals and fish. That's awesome. Yeah, if you haven't been to the museum in Springfield, it's a must-see experience. Yeah, it's incredible. Yeah.

I want to ask you, too, the store, the model of the typical Bass Pro store is not your, you know, it's not your Sporting's good store from the 80s or the 90s, of the 90s. It's an experience.

You know, you talked about the archery range and Concord, the giant, I mean, every one of them has a giant aquarium. What, how did that vision evolve over time to be able to get to where, like I can walk in a Bass Pro shop and be entertained, learn about products, find something that I don't have that I want, find what I'm looking for but I mean you literally have to force yourself to leave

except at some places where you have hotels yeah but I mean it's you you re-invisioned the shoppers experience in those stores and y'all continue like to add more bells and whistles right whose idea where did that idea where did that idea come from outside I mean

why not just you know here's your lures here's your ammo your firearms here's your here's your camo here's some rods and reels on the wall on the back what made you get to the point to where you were really kind of wanting to change the experience for the shopper well it goes back that field trip to l.L. Bean seeing them attract people I spent two years and many times my sister Susie go but we traveled at every sporting good store we could hear of around the country. I went to Germany, Sweden, Europe, looking at sporting goods stores to get ideas and other grocery store. But then, too, over the years, we've tried to make each store a tribute to the region or the area like our artist. We have in-house artists. We have our own

fab shop that does metal work for chandeliers, for just craftsmen, you know, to make cases out of wood, log fabrication. And our team, before we open the store, they'll go out and they'll study nature features of an area and the history. We try to engage customers, and sometimes they'll donate mounts or memorabilia things from the region, try to make each store a little bit unique and celebrate the history of a region and not just be a cookie cutter. That's funny.

You talk about the mounts because I had a buddy of mine, a friend that I hadn't seen in about five or ten years. I mean, I literally, just a buddy from Moresville that he used to drink beer with years ago, call me up and goes, my dad,

his dad had just passed away a year or two ago, and he's like, my dad passed away, and he's donated a mount to the Bass Pro Shops in Concord. He's wondering if he could get it back, and they were nice. They were like,

yeah, yeah, come get it. But I didn't, that, so those are. Yeah, they all have signs in them donated by such and such. Yeah, yeah. So it's kind of fun. So our first inspiration for aquariums,

we got in my dad's liquor, door. We got an eight foot diameter underground gas storage tank. We cut a four-foot window in it. We asked our customers, okay, bring in big bass or big croppy. And it worked out great for the bass, but the croppy, the bass ate them all. Oh, yeah. Guys that bring, but anyway, it's just said that people were fascinated to see fish in an aquarium. And now we have, you know, giant aquariums. Yeah, and like fishing instruction in them and thing. What is, what is next? What is what is what is what what do you want in a store that you don't have? Um, this more fun stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. You know, we, we travel around with Wyatt, my son. And usually, I mean, if there's a bass pro shop there, we go there for the whole experience. Yeah. L. Dub wants to walk around and look for, you know, the next item. Oh, man.

But why it runs through there and goes to the archery place or whatever. It's an interesting point too because every, I mean, we've been in many stores around the country and they don't all feel the same. No. They all have that local vibe to them. Hey, now, you mention White. Now, he's, I get chills. And the company meetings, I replay a race you sent me, or LW, a Wyatt starting in a back

and great racing against men and just blowing her, here, this flashback of his uncle and his grandpa, you know, it's unbelievable. Yeah, and I think we wanted to kind of talk about just your, effect in our sport, you know, we did talk about there briefly with your relationship with dad and then moving on to Martin Truex and sponsoring him, but, you know, Austin Dillon up at RCR. You have, and then, you know, recently here with Noah Gragson when he ran for junior motorsports and supporting him and you've continued to support us with Josh Barry and now he's moving on to the Cup series. And we have a young racer named Carson Quaple in our late model car

who's pretty much a willman and my son Wyatt. So you've had a hand in a lot of relationships in this sport and young drivers. How does that make you feel? It's a lot of fun. And it reminds me of fishing, really. The quality of the people in the racing community and how, for most part, you get all characters in every sport. But, I mean, compared to many other athletes, I'd say,

or something like the personalities of the racing community, it reminds me of the personalities and the genuineness of people in the fishing community. Yeah. Yeah. I would agree. I think that not only have you, you know, not only have you been a big supporter at the highest level and helped a lot of people like, you know,

dad and Martin and other people achieve their dreams and successes on the racetrack, but your involvement in grassroots racing and other levels of NASCAR and allowing people to kind of continue their journeys has been equally as impressive to me. And I admire people that understand how important the roots of the tree are. And so I wanted to ask you, you're, You know, you go, I know that you have a lot of opportunity throughout the year to hunt, to fish. You see incredible places, beautiful parts of our country and the rest of the world. You've had amazing experiences along the way.

What is your favorite piece of land to go white-tailed deer hunting? Home in Missouri. Home in Missouri. No hesitation. No hesitation. to come a visit. No place like home, huh? Yeah.

I love those arcs where I grew up and my parents grew up and I just, I love it there. Is it all family-owned land that you still have? Yes. Yeah. I mean, where we spend most of our time, we've got a farm. It's old Peabody strip mine pits. Yep. So it was all scarred by man, but it's healed up in nature's way and we try to help it out.

But so in these old strip pits turned into some good fishing holes. Is that the same answer for, if you're going to go fishing for a couple hours, where are you going to go? Yep. I'd say either right there or table rock at home or up north where our farm is.

Yeah. Take grandkids. So we've got grandkids now. My son, J.P., told me to tell you hi. Yep. And he's, him and his... Got another one on the way, right? Yeah.

Just told us a couple of weeks ago they're expecting a little baby boys. So exciting. So exciting. Yep. Grandkids, six. How many grandkids you got? Eight.

Eight. Eight coming. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, kidding. That's a big. big family man all right man well so i guess you know what's next like what what what's the uh what's the future involvement for you and nascar just status quo continue you know martin is getting you know

martin's going to give us another year right he continues to we i want martin to race for a really long time but he keeps dragging us on uh year by year by year right but i mean you know your involvement in the sport has been has been there you know been there for a long time i imagine that you're going to continue to find ways to integrate your brand into NASCAR and continue that, you know, that crossover, cross-pollination that you're talking about. I hope so. It provides a lot of energy and a lot of fun for everybody in our company and our customers and, like I said, building our brand and having fun along the way. How many employees do you have overall because you have tracker boats, you have haderous, big seater. You also started, which we didn't get to touch on the tracker.

off road. So purchasing from, who is that, bad boy buggies? In Textron. And Textron, right. Yeah. It's a partnership. I mean, employees in total, everything. We have, and this astounded as me where we came from, we have a little over 40,000 team members today, plus our independent boat dealers that are kind of like a part, they are part of our family, you know, and many of them are exclusive with our brands and our boats, most of them are built in the Ozarks. and a lot of now generations of people working in these plants that put a lot of, have so much pride in what they do.

Makes me really proud of everybody. That made me think when you were talking about the Bass Pro Shops and having that local, you know, that local flare to wherever you are, I imagine that also creates the relationship with the employees because they appreciate that right. And the employees that work in those stores, is that helpful to, because it's really hard, especially in the last several years,

just to get that dedicated employee, you know. So I imagine that also helps. We'd like to think so. Let's talk about the pyramid store. That was pretty ambitious. This was a, there's a pyramid. It was where the basketball team played in Memphis. Yeah, Memphis.

And it was a sports arena. I mean, this is a giant space, even for Bass Pro standards. Apparently, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the story goes that you were you were fishing in the shadow of that pyramid, all right, with Bill Dance and Jack Emmett. Is that true? That's totally true. And you said, they challenged you.

They said, if we're going to catch a 30-pound fish, you're going to buy the pyramid and put a bass pro shop in there. Well, here's those, so the city on this building, right, a big space. And it's kind of scary deal. Like, bet the farm on this. And like, not only that, the city on the building, they came to, they had a commission to study.

And the consultants recommend maybe talk to Bass Pro, put a store in there. So I go down there with my boy, J.P. And this is hot, sunny, you know, summer day. We're hiking all the way up to the top on these stairs. But, man, for a daydreamer, like, is a big box. I mean, what a space. 52 million cubic feet in all the space. And so we started thinking, what could we do with this?

And we thought, man, we'll just create like the Delta Flyway, big Cypress trees and put like some hotel rooms like the Hopri Land Hotel with balcony's looking out. So it comes down to it and we struck this deal with the city. We either got to go for it or not. And man, I was real emotional about it. So Bill Dancer, buddy. you know he said johnny come down school catfishing another guy jack emitt was our first

fishing manager we ever had the three of us were in a boat and i just that day i said guys look we got to make the president of our company at the time he's called me so johnny the press is coming we ought to announce today are we doing this or not i just told jack and bill i said if we catch a catfish over 30 pounds is it you know sometimes you can flip a coin or you just call a fish so like instead of flipping the coin if we catch a catfish over 30 pounds is it you know sometimes you can flip a coin over 30 pounds this is meant to be we'll do it so jim or president he calls me he said johnny are we doing this or not he calls me at 10 in the morning cause i kept putting him off finally about one o'clock in the afternoon he said john this ridiculous people are coming at three are we doing

this or not and i'm stuttering around you know and about that time old jack's half asleep in the back and his rod starts banging i said jim i don't know but it's looking real promising i'll call you right now that's a true story so help me and uh because i was really torn to do it or not Jack caught that fish and we did it and it's worked out great for the city and for us. But that's a true story about catching that fish. That is cool. So you caught a 34-pound fish and that was it.

And that was it. You mentioned JP being there with you when you went through that building. I often see him by your side in a lot of the moments that we've met and when I even went to see you at a store or what have you. How involved is he

in helping you with some of the more personal decisions that you have to make on this journey of creating this business? Him and his sisters are very important. John is like our number one ambassador to stand up for our customers. And we have a lot of sharp people, backgrounds come in to the company from different walks, a lot of different skill sets. few, if any, have the passion and the knowledge firsthand to relate directly to our customers because they're so involved in fishing and John's case hunting.

So I think he's an advocate. I know he's a strong voice for our customers. And so he's involved quite a bit in that. He's passionate to get, I just spend hours like working on a catalog page. He said, Dad, no, we got to go online. We got to, like you have in your podcast. There's different ways to communicate with people, but he's my buddy. I was showing LW before we came in here, my screensaver on my phone's a photo of me and John out in the woods with two turkeys that we took during the, when the virus hit and thought the world was coming to an end.

Our whole family was just staying in this little cabin. My wife, Jeannie, John, his wife, Kelly now, sister, her husband, the kids, grandkids, I mean, some of the grandkids. It was during turkey season that April, and John guides me, and we got these two turkeys, and he put his camera up on a stump and took a with a timer, took a selfie of us. And a few months later, I said, John, let me borrow your phone.

And he handed me his phone, and it was that picture of us, and that he had picked that out for his sake. I said, can you put that on your dad's phone tape? I mean, he's my best buddy in outdoors and sharing life. I remember walking through the music, museum and he has you know he he he's in he's in there right you know he's a lot of the

mounts and a lot of the lot of the experiences that that he's been able to you know enjoy we're over a parent and that was a lot of fun I admire y'all's relationship and I admire your ability to raise a really sharp man but at the same time be his friend because that's a tough balance as a parent, right? Trying to have a friendship, but that respect always still being there. And y'all have done that perfectly. Well, I'm very proud of my family, my son. I did listen to Hank Parker's podcast when he was here.

And it was very powerful, beautiful. And he shared in there openly like sometimes your dad and just being able to share his love for you guys. and I was reminded because I think I told you this maybe years ago, Dale, but I told your dad. So I'm sitting around. My dad came from a pretty rough way, you know, as far as not having much, but I was, it was not until after I was 21. He was just, it was old school, you know, strict. And we never used to love work. I mean, it was there, but he didn't never say.

Yeah. I mean, he just wasn't, he didn't say, we didn't say love you to each other. that was there, but I mean, so this one night, after I was 21, he never would let me drink in front of him. But we weren't drunk, but we just had a drink by a campfire. Maybe I was sometime after I turned 21. And my dad, that evening around the campfire, he chose to share with me, not looking for sympathy,

but he just wanted me to know more about himself, like where he'd come from. And he shared me things I never knew. I knew he was in the Army, but I didn't know how rough. And he told me about going off and being in the Battle of the Bulls from World War II. and he looked at it through me to me through the smoke, you know, and he said, son, your dad's lucky to be here, cross the fire from you. And I said, what do you mean? He started telling

about all the young people that didn't fare as well as he did. So anyway, he shared with me several things that were, he had a rough time, cutting firewood all winter and some son of a gun. I cleaned that up, stole it and just little things, big things, but just more about his life. He wanted to pass on. And we got it from that fire, and I looked at my dad, and I said, a dad that said i sure do love you he looked me right back he never hesitated and he said son you won't know the true meaning of the word love until unless you're lucky enough you have your own kids and that when john paul was born like i don't know how many years later but quite the first it came rushing back to me i know you boys you both get to enjoy that being parents and what a special thing that is and

to me today here this is about more than anything it's about family traditions you know like like whether it's racing, fishing, outdoors, and just hugging each other. That's pretty powerful. Man, what a great moment. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that with us. Yeah, he told you that he loved you and more with those eloquent words. Yeah.

Pretty amazing. And then, you know, that's kind of cool because then he gave you this gift when you became a parent. Yeah. The memory comes back. I, yeah, I don't know how to top that one. I you know I really appreciate you giving us some time today it's been pretty amazing to get to know you over all these years you know I've always appreciated you for you know being genuine and being accessible

we have a lot of people that get involved in our in our industry and a lot of businesses and organizations that invest and we're very thankful for all of them. But your ability to be within arm's length at all times as an individual in front of your brand is so nice. To be able to call you in, I mean, you've got, you talked about the 40,000 people that you're managing their livelihoods, you know, and, risking your business every single day to give us a few hours to come in here and sit down means a lot to me and Kelly.

Your relationship with our dad, the fact that that three flag flies on the top of that mountain and that's important to you, I can't tell you what that means to me, and I'm sure Kelly feels exactly the same way. You're, you know, all these years later, you always kind of worry about your, you're father's impact on the industry or his impact on others will be soon forgotten. Just time has a way of melting away, yeah, that forest that he was. And you're one of the, you know, you're one of those people out there that are that are telling his story today and continuing to fly that flag on that mountain is just a very, very cool thing.

So I appreciate that. Feel blessed I got to know your dad. He's a heck of a man. He's brazed for fine kids. I was never so proud to walk into the Daytona Bass Pro shop many years ago and see the picture of bad there, you know, fishing. And I mean, just all of those kinds of things. Very relational.

Yeah. You're very down-to-earth, humble, relational. That's right. Person. Relationships. Yeah. So we want to say thanks. Thanks for coming and talking to us a little bit.

Thank you. Love to have you come back. Yeah. It's very special to get to be here with you guys today. Very special. Thank you so much. Same here. Thank you.

Thank you, Johnny. Johnny Morris on the Dale Junior Download. Man, I'm really excited to have Ally help us bring the guest segment every week. It's one of my favorite parts of the download. We get to talk to so many different people in racing, outside of racing. But everybody that comes in here, I want them to have had a good time. I want them to want to come back. I want them to feel like an ally to Dirty Mo Media.

Thank you, Ally, for your continued support of the download and the entire Dirty Mo Media team. Look at Dirty Mo Media. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.