By Greg Hoard, Photos by Ross Van Pelt

All day long the door swings back and forth. People coming in looking for help, looking for something they want, something their kids, their grandkids or their team needs. Some are coming for the first time, eyes opening in wonder at all that surrounds them, all that is offered.

Others have been coming through the door for decades, remembering the first time they came with their dad or grandfather, remembering how the floors used to creak and the smell of fine leather filled the place, and that sense, that knowing – full well – they would leave with something treasured.

They come seeking a new ball glove, not just a new one, but one that’s perfect – feels just right. They come looking for a new bat, one with good balance and the proper heft, and the cap that fits just right. They order uniforms here, just like the ones the pros wear. Pete Rose once called from Los Angeles to order basketball uniforms for his son’s team in California.

They buy professional jerseys from every sport. There on the wall and ready to go there’s a Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, Oscar Robertson, Rose, and Johnny Bench – every member of the Big Red Machine – Wilt Chamberlain, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and, of course, Carson Palmer and Chad Ochocinko.

They may be into soccer or softball, lacrosse or track, hockey or horseshoes, boxing or biking, wrestling or racquetball, but they know – or have learned – this place has everything – even skis. Koch’s is the Alice’s Restaurant of sporting goods stores. As Arlo Guthrie sang, “You can get anything you want….”

And, if on that rare occasion that a request is made and Koch’s doesn’t have the item on the showroom floor, one of five floors at 131 West Fourth, they will get it, and quickly.

“We pride ourselves on being a full-service sporting goods store,” says Greg Koch, who runs the business with his brother, Kris. “We’re here to help people and tell them the truth. If we say, ‘No, we don’t have that.’ How have we helped them? We haven’t, and that will stay with them in some corner of their mind. They may not come back or call again. That’s not acceptable. We want our customers to be happy and satisfied so they will come back and they will tell other people about what we do here. We want to earn the trust of everyone who walks through that front door.”

And no instance seems too extreme.

“Years ago my brother, Kris, was restoring a 1968 Firebird,” Koch says. “He had just ordered a new bumper for the car and we were here in the store talking about this very thing. I was telling the sales people, ‘I don’t care if someone calls and asks for a bumper to a ’68 Firebird, tell ’em we got it. Hell, if we can make a profit, we can buy Kris a new bumper and make some money while we’re at it. And, the guy on the phone is going to think: ‘What a place!’ The point is: if I don’t have it, I can get it and I will get it.”

Greg Koch has been working on the floor at the store for 39 years. He started when he was 14 years old, working under the eye and guidance of his father. Greg and Kris represent the fourth generation of this family business, which goes back to 1888, and every day they think about the principles and practices that have been handed down to them over the generations: from their great grandfather Edward Maximillian, who started the business; to their grandfather, Edward Victor; to their father, Edward Martin, who actually turned the family business into a full-service sporting goods company, catering to every school and team in the city including the Reds and Bengals.

Today there remains one telltale hint Koch’s history. It’s in the detail and craftsmanship, the attention to quality that exists on the showroom floor and in the workmanship that comes from the second-floor seamstress shop. “Take a look at that stitching,” Koch says, pulling a garment from a worktable. “Look at how fine it is, how close it is. That’s quality work. That’s what we have always done here.”

In the late 19^th Century and into the 20^th, Koch’s specialized in pleating and draperies. Sewing machines – a relatively new contraption invented in 1846 – clattered away finishing the work started by those who worked by hand with needle and thread. They made pleats in dresses and curtains. They constructed plush quilting for caskets. They made drapes for homes and theaters, which ultimately led them into the New York market, where their work caught the eyes of New York dressmakers working backstage on Broadway. Soon, those dressmakers were sending their work to Koch’s in Cincinnati, where they made belts of matching fabric and constructed buttonholes. Monogramming became a staple of their business. They monogrammed thousands upon thousands of items for local retailers. To this day, original, fragile patterns of intricate monograms hang proudly on a bulletin board on the second floor. “These are the original drawing by Frank Koch, my grandfather’s brother,” Greg says. “He was the artist in the family.”

Business was good and brisk, but the Koch family always kept an eye open for what was next, what was coming. Edward Victor noticed a soaring trend in Cincinnati, bowling. Alleys were popping up everywhere. Bowling was not only a sport – and highly competitive in some quarters – it was a social event. Edward Victor Koch recognized an opportunity.

“This town was filled with breweries – Hudepohl, Burger, Widemann, Schoenling, Bavarian, to name just a few – and they all sponsored bowling teams,” Greg Koch says. “Not just one but at several levels and they were always trying to outdo one another, be the best. They were out there drinking their beer and bowling every night somewhere in the city.”

Edward Victor Koch started making bowling shirts, marketing them throughout Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky and as far away as New York and Georgia. Eventually, the bowling shirt business reached into 13 states and included intricate designs and lettering. It reached a point when Koch’s was turning out 10,000 bowling shirts a year. Then, customers started asking for bowling shoes and other equipment.

Of course, the Koch family was not about to say they didn’t have a product or couldn’t get it. Instead, they would find a way to provide the service and please the client. “That’s what this business has always been about,” Greg Koch says.

When Edward Martin Koch returned from the Korean War, he went to work as a sheet metal worker, but the business was slow and inconsistent, and some times took him far away from home. His father’s health was not the best, so Edward Martin joined the family business, selling bowling shirts throughout the eastern part of the country.

“The trouble was, dad didn’t really like bowling,” Kris Koch says. “He decided if he was going to do this, he would do something he liked, which was sports, not just bowling.”

At about the same time and while attending meetings of the Catholic War Veterans of America, Ed Koch became acquainted with Red Grothaus. Grothaus was involved in youth sports at Holy Family Church on the Westside and convinced Ed Koch that the market for sports gear and attire in Cincinnati was enormous. Every grade school had teams and every high school. There were summer baseball leagues and softball leagues. With that nudge from Grothaus and with his roots in the embroidery business founded by his grandfather and father, Ed Koch began to transform the business. It grew and changed with the times, outlasting chains stores and outperforming competitors that came and went.

“We’ve survived because we do what no one else does,” says Greg Koch, “and we do it here. If we make a mistake on a jersey or a uniform – and we try never to do that – we can say, ‘Hang on. Give me a half-hour or an hour and I can get this fixed.’ We take it upstairs and it is fixed on the spot. We don’t have to send it back to the manufacturer. And, we’ve survived because we know what we are talking about. We know what’s in this store.

“We have a rule that I learned year’s ago from my dad, passed on from my grandfather and my great-grandfather: ‘Never lie or BS just to make a sale,’” Greg Koch says. “If you lie, if you try to fake it, if you BS, you will get caught and then what, you lose trust. If someone asks one of our salesmen a question and they don’t know the answer, they come and find me, or someone who does know the answer. That’s the way it is and has to be.”

Greg doesn’t have an office in the store and neither does Kris, though there is ample room for one or more. There are few chairs to sit down and ease back, even though all those hours can be hard on the back and legs. There is little time to sit and less to be gained from it.

“I don’t have an office,” Greg says, “because I need to be on the floor. I need to see what is going on and hearing what is going on all the time. It’s my responsibility.”

True, it’s his responsibility but he likes being on the floor, too, seeing the front door swing back and forth all day long, seeing new faces and the familiar ones. He likes it best when they leave with a smile. That’s when he knows he’s fulfilled the family tradition and that is what truly counts.