Wednesday, April 12, 2000 | 10:28 a.m.
Chet, 20, was a tile setter, Link, 19, a carpenter. Such work in the winter was brutal, so one morning at the breakfast table they told their mother, Emma, they wanted to go into the sporting-goods business.
"Mom just looked at us and said, The way you two guys are always fighting, you won't last 10 minutes," Chet Piazzo said.
This was one of the few times she was wrong.
In June 1938, Chet and Link Piazzo, the sons of Italian immigrants, opened The Sportsman at 358 N. Virginia St. The business is still going strong 62 years later at its current location on the corner of Fourth and Vine in Reno.
The Piazzo brothers, both in their 80s, are still going strong as well.
They have sold their interest in the store, although Link Piazzo, 81, has an office there, its walls covered with a half century of memorabilia. The items range from photographs of Hall of Fame baseball players such as Joe DiMaggio and Lefty Grove to war relics from his days as a bomber pilot during World War II.
The stores logo, featuring the familiar tiger stripes and drawings of Chet and Link, remains as much a part of the city's history as the Reno arch.
"Lew Hymers designed the logo for us," Chet Piazzo, 83, said. "He did it for free because we didn't have any money."
Both men maintain an active lifestyle, each going to the office every weekday.
"The mind controls the body," Link Piazzo said. "I don't know how many times friends of ours have come in and said I'm retiring, and then six months later they're dead. You have to keep doing something."
Both men have a deeply entrenched work ethic. They credit their parents, Santino and Emma, for teaching them the value of hard work.
"Our dad died when we were young; I was eight and Chet was 10, but he taught us about hard work," Link Piazzo said.
"Our mother was the same way," Chet Piazzo said. "She used to wash clothes on an old washboard. She was always working."
"When we could afford it, we bought her a washing machine and she didn't want to use it," Link Piazzo added.
The brothers built their business from scratch. Their mother loaned them $5,000 to get started. They bought $60 worth of knotty pine lumber and used it to build a counter, staircase, office and shelves.
Nearly all the rest of their money went for inventory. They sold hunting and fishing supplies and athletic equipment. They each drew a salary of $5 per week. They lived at home at 609 W. 10th St. and paid their mother $1 a week in rent.
"We didn't even know the difference between wholesale and retail," Chet Piazzo said. "One day a guy came in and said, Where's your business license? We didn't have a business license. We had to go buy one."
In 1938 a hunting license cost $1.50 and a fishing license 50 cents. A Louisville Slugger cost $3.95.
One month, their total earnings were $3.
Slowly but surely, they developed a clientele. They became known as hunting and fishing experts and had their own radio show, "Sportsman's Trails," on KOH. When television came to Reno in the form of KZTV, the show moved as well. "Talk about your captive audience," Link Piazzo said. "It was the only TV station in town."
The TV show was a northern Nevada favorite and kids growing up in the 1950s, 60s and 70s knew it well. The shows "theme music" was the sound of honking geese and the "mail bag" feature had fans from across northern Nevada sending in postcards for the chance to win prizes the brothers gave away.
The show usually included footage of hunting and fishing trips the two had taken to exotic locations around the world.
"We get more comments about it now than when we were on TV," Link Piazzo said.
Chet Piazzo still enjoys trips to the far-off reaches of the world, though he does his shooting exclusively with a video camera these days instead of a gun.
Being in the sporting-goods business, the brothers had a special relationship with children. Kids would come into the store to buy fish hooks, which were 10 cents a dozen. They would count out only a few since they didn't have a dime. The brothers would give them the even dozen.
One time, Link Piazzo recalled, twin brothers came in and were enamored by a model airplane engine on display in the store. They asked if they could pay 10 cents a week. Link Piazzo agreed and wrote their name on the back of the box. The twins diligently made their payments and when they paid $2, Piazzo let them take the plane.
"Last year, almost 60 years later, a guy comes into the office and asks me if I remembered him. He had this round face and I asked him if he had a twin. It was one of those brothers. He said they had done well in the computer business down in the Bay Area. And he said, I promised my brother that I would stop in here and thank you. We still have the airplane engine in the original box."
The brothers became involved in numerous local activities. Link was on the board of directors of the Reno Rodeo Association and Reno YMCA for many years. Chet taught hunters safety classes and helped with many other youth activities. They provided the skis for kids at Sky Tavern.
The scoreboards at Moana Stadium and other fields around the area carried their logo and they used to give a cash prize to any Reno Silver Sox player who could hit the scoreboard with a home run.
They were the face of sports in Reno for more than a half century.
Both men have been married 55 years, Link to Helen and Chet to Darlene. They are financially secure and have traveled all over the world. Yet neither could imagine living anywhere but Reno.
"It's the best place in the world to live," Chet Piazzo said.
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