Super Bowl: Small Businesses Behind the Big Game

GILMAN GEAR

Measuring first downs and more

To measure first downs during this game, which the Saints lost, 31 to 21, chain crews used 10-yard chains made by Gilman Gear of Gilman, Connecticut. The company, which also supplies the Saints with tackling dummies, down markers, and other field equipment, was founded in 1929 by Marty Gilman, who assembled his own blocking dummy while playing offensive guard at the University of Connecticut. After graduating, Gilman drove his Buick to colleges and high schools around the country to demonstrate his dummies, which he hauled in a trailer. "My father was a one-man sales and marketing operation," says Marty's son, Neil Gilman, who has been president of the company since 1985, six years after his father died. Today, the 42-person business generates more than $5 million in annual sales and manufactures equipment in two Connecticut factories for a variety of sports; one of the factories is in a town renamed for the Gilman family. Customers include 32 NFL teams, 600 colleges, and 9,000 high schools in the U.S.