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STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — Stan Clark has been Oklahoma's minister of fun for more than four decades.
In 1975, there weren't many folks, including the regulars at Eskimo Joe's, who could have imagined today's Eskimo Joe's.
"There was my buddy Steve File and me behind the bar, and that was it," Clark said.
A beer was 30 cents. A longneck bottle of beer was 45 cents, and a pitcher was $1.35.
"And, no, there's no way we could have ever dreamed all of this would happen," Clark said.
The Tulsa World (http://bit.ly/2ajNW9G ) reports that it was the new bar on Elm Street, an area dominated by the much larger and more popular Gray Fox just east of the Oklahoma State campus.
But, Eskimo Joe's survived and grew into a powerhouse entertainment/restaurant/bar/T-shirt/caterer/ad specialty company.
What started as an idea hatched by File, Clark's lifelong friend who he met in the fifth grade at Key Elementary in Tulsa, has become arguably one of the most famous college bars in the world.
The annual Eskimo Joe's anniversary party, which is celebrated every July and has drawn crowds upward of 65,000, is this week.
And it leaves a question: What came first? The bar or the T-shirt?
"Well, all we had was cold beer and some T-shirts," Clark said. "We figured the beer better be cold and the place better be fun or no one would want one of our T-shirts." Clark now estimates he's sold "tens of millions of T-shirts" over the past 41 years.
File, who was bought out by Clark after about three years, had the idea to open a bar, and Clark found the two-story rock building. File came up with the name "Eskimo Joe's" and Bill Thompson, a freshman commercial art student, drew the famous logo with a magic marker.
It opened on July 21, 1975. On day one, the only things available at Eskimo Joe's were beer, music and 72 T-shirts. The T-shirts sold out in a week.
"Two weeks after graduation, I told my folks thanks for the education and now I'm going to open a bar," Clark said with a laugh.
Now, Eskimo Joe's is an international brand. Those T-shirts can be seen on people around the world, and "Stillwater's Jumpin' Little Juke Joint" remains one of Oklahoma's most iconic attractions.
On any given day, a quick survey of folks in Eskimo Joe's will reveal visitors from across the country and overseas.
Go to Eskimo Joe's on any football Saturday, when the Cowboys are playing at home, and the crowd at Eskimo Joe's is packed with folks not wearing orange and loaded down with bags full of T-shirts.
The cheese fries, which became a specialty when the bar added food in 1983, have been praised by a U.S. president. And, people come from all over the country to try the Fowl Thing, Eskimo Joe's trademarked chicken sandwich.
"I think it's a tribute to the thousands of kids who have worked here over the years," Clark said. "That's something I learned from my father. Your business is how you treat customers, the team (other employees) and suppliers.
"You have that one interaction to make an impression."
That's why every employee in Stan Clark's companies goes through a class called "Smiles 101."
His employees learn the lessons of business taught to Clark by his father, who ran Distribution Construction in Tulsa. The company built gas lines around the country.
"My father believed everyone in the company had to be all-in every time they dealt with customers, other team members and suppliers," said Clark, a 1971 Memorial High School graduate. "He always told me that your business is only as good as the people in the business.
"So much of what we've done are core beliefs I learned from my father, including my entrepreneurial spirit."
The first stop for many OSU athletic recruits and prospective students is not the campus. It's almost always Eskimo Joe's.
Why? It's fun.
It is said a business often reflects the style and personality of its founder/owner. That is definitely the case at Eskimo Joe's. It is hard to find a time when Clark isn't either smiling or laughing. Even when his beloved Cowboys lose a football game, Clark will be the guy in orange smiling and talking with everyone around him.
And his energy appears to have no end. One Tuesday, he drove to Tulsa for an early morning television appearance. Then, he drove to Oklahoma City for a noon TV interview. After that, it was back to Stillwater to meet with a Tulsa World writer and photographer. That was followed by a "Smiles 101" meeting with new employees and then 41st anniversary duties at night.
"We have about 80 full-time employees and about 500 total at any given time," Clark said. "We hold these for the new employees, but many of our longtime employees (three have been with Clark for more than 32 years) still come to the meetings. Everybody has to be all-in.
"That's one of the great things about being in a college town. We've had thousands of really bright, young employees who enjoy working for this company. That is why I love college kids. They're happy, and that comes across when they work for us and greet the public."
The late Jack Mildren, the former Oklahoma lieutenant governor and star quarterback of the University of Oklahoma Sooners, often referred to Clark as the state's "ambassador of fun." That's hard to argue.
If you think Eskimo Joe's is fun, you should spend a day with Clark. It's a nonstop conversation laced with laughter and pure joy.
"Who doesn't want to smile and laugh and enjoy what they do?" Clark said.
He's just fun. That's why he goes to great lengths to make sure his bar/restaurants — Eskimo Joe's, Mexico Joe's and Mojo's Rock N' Bowl Grill — are staffed by fun-loving OSU students.
It's also why he's resisted the urge over the years to expand his empire to other cities — especially Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Fayetteville, Arkansas — as was often rumored.
Clark grew up in Tulsa, but he's now a 100 percent Stillwater guy. He understands the city, campus and state as well as any entrepreneur in Oklahoma.
"We're just such a big part of this community, and it has been so good to us," he said. "I just never felt like we could replicate this anywhere else. It's fun here."
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Information from: Tulsa World, http://www.tulsaworld.com
An AP Member Exchange shared by The Tulsa World
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