Interviewed by Mike Gallucci, Dir. Marketing
SportsMemorabilia.comMG: Hi Roy, I’m glad we are able to chat about your
site, BearsHistory.com. Let’s start with your background and what inspired you
guys to launch this site?
RT: Hi Mike, thanks for wanting to talk to
me. My undergraduate degree is in public relations/communications. Way back in
college, I enjoyed writing and designing newsletters, way before the Internet.
I often dreamed of creating some sort of Chicago Bears publication, but that
was really something out of my reach. A few years later the Internet came
along, and I enrolled in some tech classes, eventually earning a master's
degree in IT. One of my classes was in web development, and my first little
Bears History class project eventually became Bearshistory.com.
MG: What do you feel is your point of
differentiation from other competing blogs and/or sites?
RT: Well it's pretty crazy. The site started
as that little class project, and I didn't do it to attract attention, increase
my page rank or to try to lure advertisers to make money. I just loved writing
about Chicago Bears History, and I still do. In the eight years I've been doing
the site, I know of only one other guy that created a history site for his
favorite team. I try to search for historical data on other teams and just
don't find much information. And I will dare say that my site offers a much
more complete array of Chicago Bears historical information than the Bears' own
website does. And I'm pretty proud of that fact-that I did all of this on my
own, not sponsored by anyone. And the information helps a lot of people with
similar interests in the Bears to mine. That's the American spirit of
entrepreneurship. Except my own entrepreneurial efforts don't make me any
money. Oh well, everyone is blessed with being good at something, and this is
my blessing.
MG: You’ve obviously put a great deal of time
and effort into this informative Bears site and made it look really clean and
easy to navigate; how do you see your site evolving in a few years down the
road? Are there any features you would like to implement which you haven't
already?
RT: This doesn't sound very entrepreneurial,
but honestly unless I win the lottery and can retire in my 30's, hiring
developers to revamp the site this time, I don't know what changes the next
five years will bring. It's always been important to be able to say I built the
site from the ground up, technically and content-wise. When I started
BearsHistory.com, I didn't have any kids and my real work was less challenging
than it is now. And now I have two kids. I used to have hours and hours more
time to spend learning new technologies, and was continuing to learn them via
my education, which is over for now. I'd have to hire people to bring more
technical functionality to the site, and since I mentioned I don't make any
money that's out of the question. So let's hope I do retire wealthy in my 30's,
then it would be my dream to devote eight hours a day putting every ounce of
Chicago Bears history out there for the world. But it's not going to happen.
MG: So do you collect any Bears memorabilia?
Can you tell us about some of your favorite pieces? If you had to chose one
piece of Bears memorabilia from SportsMemorabilia.com which would it be?
RT: I really owned nothing as far as Bears
memorabilia 10 years ago, but started purchasing things at the Bears fan
convention and on E-Bay. I also was pretty good at holding on to things I
collected from the Bears' heyday in the 1980's. Now everything has a home in my
Bears History Bar in my basement; 800 square feet of Bears History. Pictures of
the place can be found on my site or Googling "Chicago Bears Bar" (I'm the
first search result). If I bought anything from sportsmemorabilia.com it would
have to be something from Ditka, Payton, etc. I was never an autograph hound as
a kid and I'm not now-so I regret I don't have anything signed by Walter
Payton. Tried to get Vince Evans' autograph outside of training camp in 1980,
but he took my pen and signed someone else's hat and walked away. Guess that
may have soured me to the whole thing.
MG: Well, buyer beware on EBay, an alarming
number of pieces are in fact fraudulent. I have checked out some of your
tailgating photos on your site, looks like you guys have a nice little set up
there. Do you guys have any tailgating traditions?
RT: I have been an avid tailgater for about
ten years now. My friends and I don't throw the fanciest parties, but we'll
match anyone as far as getting down there early, usually by 6:30 a.m. whether
it's a noon, 3 p.m. or night game. That's what it's all about--relaxing,
talking football, and spending time with friends that are fellow Bears fans.
MG: I agree with that. There is nothing like
a day of tailgating during the fall. Sounds good Roy. Thanks for taking the
time to discuss your site with me. Good luck with the future happenings and any
new ventures of bearshistory.com! Thanks Roy!
RT: Thanks Mike, best of luck with your site.
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