Scrumtious: retailer gets into another gear.

• Author: Roush, Chris
• Position: SPORTS SECTION

A 1995 Inc. magazine article questioned whether Mike Moylan, CEO of Hills-borough-based soccer-equipment retailer Sports Endeavors Inc., had put his passion for the game above his stewardship of the business. The Fan Versus the Businessman detailed how Sports Endeavors which Moylan and other family members started in 1984, had ridden catalog and Internet sales to become the country's top soccer retailer. But it faced a threat from Durham-based TSI Soccer Corp., which Inc. hinted was being operated by a savvier business man, Evan Jones.

Inc. got the fan part right. Moylan is a fan and former player, good enough when he played at a Durham high school to be recruited as a college athlete before accepting an academic scholarship at Georgetown University, where he played while earning a business degree. And Sports Endeavors' lobby is a soccer shrine: It displays autographed jerseys from top players such as France's Zinedine Zidane, Great Britain's David Beckham and Brazil's Renaldo and a ball autographed by retired superstar Pele. Nearly all its employees still play the sport.

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But just because Moylan is a fan doesn't mean he isn't a businessman. As Paul Harvey would say, here is the rest of the story. TSI Soccer was acquired by New York-based retailer Delia's in 1997 for about $7 million--not a bad deal for Jones. In January 2001, Delia's decided to sell TSI. Sports Endeavors was a willing buyer--as long as Delia's kept the ailing retail soccer stores. "We acquired our largest competitor without meeting anyone," says Brendan Moylan, the company's chief operating officer and the CEO's younger brother. "It was all done by fax and voice mail." The Moylans won't say how much they paid, but Delia's eventually recorded a $5.8 million charge.

Bottom line: Sports Endeavors remains the nation's largest seller of soccer equipment, doing it Moylan's way, which mixes salesmanship with promotion of the sport. Moreover, that acquisition allowed Sports Endeavors to expand its team business, selling jerseys and equipment to youth soccer organizations such as Raleigh's Capital Area Soccer League. "TSI had been very successful in team sales, which we had not focused on," Brendan Moylan says.

So when it came time for their latest expansion--again into a niche sport--it made sense that the Moylans looked for a business run by a fanatic much like themselves. Last summer, Sports Endeavors acquired Birmingham, Ala.-based 365, which sells rugby...