July 21, 2014 a new series MACRO from the editors of

Early on, Bridgeman did just that— says. “It was an unbelievable education.” risk didn’t make a lot of sense,” he says, Pro-Files and proving to be a better student, initially, From there, though, the learning “but at that you have to make it than he was a student athlete. “There curve got steeper. The NBA in Bridge- work anyway. Failure was not an option.” was nothing growing up in my life man’s era was light years away from to- The first step for the burgeoning FRA NCHISE PL AYER through that time that indicated I’d day’s age of big money. Non-superstars franchisee was to reject the notion that WHEN IT COMES TO FAST-FOOD RESTAURANTS, FORMER NBA “SUPER-SUB” get a scholarship,” he says. like him didn’t get rich from player Wendy’s burgers would sell themselves: But by his senior year at Washington salaries and endorsements. So during It was up to people to sell them. So he JUNIOR BRIDGEMAN MAY BE THE ULTIMATE STARTER. By Andrew Lawrence High, Bridgeman was helping to lead the off-season, he sold insurance at a hired better workers and empowered his school to a 29–0 season and the local firm and worked the front desk them. “What I tried to do was to get 1971 Indiana state championship. The at a Howard Johnson. “It was a major everybody to understand that we were University of Louisville offered him a adjustment,” he says, “to have to be a team,” he says. “We worked together scholarship, and he grabbed it, helping somewhere all day with a shirt and tie as a team, we win as a team, and we to bring that team to a berth in the 1975 on, filling out forms or answering the lose as a team. Once everybody bought Final Four his senior year. Off the court, in and believed that we could be suc- Bridgeman kept to his books, studying cessful, it was amazing how quickly for the LSAT and completing a degree He was listening to a things started to improve.” in psychology. But when the Lakers local radio talk show Today those restaurants, which bring selected him with the eighth pick in the when a caller broke in more than $1.5 million of annual sales draft, plans for everything else fell away. apiece, are at the heart of a 195-store A week later the Lakers shipped in: “I was at Wendy’s portfolio—making Bridgeman’s private Bridgeman and three other players to and saw Junior company, Bridgeman Foods, America’s Milwaukee in exchange for Kareem Bridgeman working second-largest Wendy’s franchise owner. Abdul-Jabbar, by then a four-time behind the counter.” (Bridgeman won’t discuss his profits.) reigning MVP. The loss of Kareem (and He also owns 125 Chili’s restaurants, the retirement of the Bucks’ All-Star 45 Fannie May Chocolate stores, and ) didn’t open a spot for phone or checking people in.” scads of other retail franchises, most of the newcomer in the starting lineup, The hours didn’t get any easier after them clustered in the upper Midwest, however. Instead, Bridgeman settled Bridgeman began working for himself, between corporate headquarters in in as the sixth man on the Milwaukee after retiring at age 33 in 1987. Seizing Milwaukee and Louisville. His employee roster—eventually posting 13.6 points on a love of hamburgers, Bridgeman roster numbers 9,000 people. Estimates over an average 25 minutes of court bought five Milwaukee-area Wendy’s of his net worth range from $250 mil- time. “Junior knew what his role was as franchises. He insisted on working in lion to $400 million. soon as he stepped into the game,” re- every facet of the business, from flip- Bridgeman, meanwhile, has been calls , a teammate on ping burgers to mopping the floors—to an eager mentor to NBA players who the Bucks and, later, the Clippers. “He the point where it was often hard for express interest in putting some skin provided offense, moved the ball, got a an outsider to tell who was the boss. in a totally new game—teaming up last few rebounds, got a few assists.” Once while working the line at a year, for example, with Pistons guard He was equally adept in his role as an restaurant, he could feel a woman re- Chauncey Billups to buy 30 more Wen- officer and then president of the NBA garding him quizzically, as if trying to dy’s restaurants in the St. Louis area. Players Association, where the small figure out where she knew him from. For every player like Billups, though, The first time Ulysses “Junior” Bridgeman learned how the Bridgeman at a Louisville he’d grown up with. In his forward/ got his first real The next day, Bridgeman was listening there are several more who end up Wendy’s—one of 195 he owns smart money thinks was over breakfast at the Hyatt Regency in hometown of East Chicago, taste of the business world. In meetings to a local radio talk show when a caller going broke within five years of retire- Oakland with former owner Jim Fitzgerald. Ind., the country’s largest there would be heated debates about broke in: “I was at Wendy’s, and I saw ment—tales that break Bridgeman’s It was the early 1980s, and Bridgeman was then the team’s something in the business steel mill was the dominant salaries and travel per diems—“the most Junior Bridgeman working behind the heart. “Unless you grew up in a family super sixth man—a clutch sub who rarely started but who world,” he recalls—to which industry, occupying much important thing in the world to us play- counter,” the woman groused. “If that’s where someone owned a business or would eventually play in more games for the Bucks (711) than Fitzgerald replied, “If you of the Lake Michigan coast. ers,” he says—but the owners, it seemed the best these ex-athletes can do…” you sat around the kitchen table talking any other player in history. Bridgeman was scanning the sports get involved with business, Two generations of Bridge- to Bridgeman, were far more concerned The truth was, even as the owner, about the business page—which 99.9% section in the local paper as Fitzgerald, sitting across from you only have two problems: mans had worked there, but with their business deals outside the Bridgeman was doing only modestly. of the players didn’t—you have no idea him, pored over stock tables in the Wall Street Journal. Casu- people and money.” Junior’s father, Ulysses, was NBA. The years he spent haggling with His best store brought in $800,000 what $10,000 or $100,000 can do or ally the 6-foot-5 athlete revealed his desire to “get involved in Bridgeman, now 60, determined that his second- them turned out to be more valuable a year in sales; his worst, about how long it really lasts,” he says. didn’t quite get the punch born (and namesake) would than a stint in B-school. “Just watching $400,000. The baseline for a Wendy’s After some 27 years in business, line at the time. That type of keep his nose in his books the owners’ thought processes—they in the Milwaukee area was then about Junior Bridgeman can safely say he humor just wasn’t the sort and find a life beyond steel. were two or three questions ahead,” he $850,000. “A lot of people may say the knows the answer to both. For more great business stories in our Pro-Files series, check out both Fortune.com and SI.com.

FORTUNE.COM photograph by ANDREW HANCOCK FORTUNE.COM 18 19