This Crack Team Proves Worth Its Salt : Stars From Various Sports Are Brought Together as a Promotional Tool

What sports team has the most talent? Is it the New York Mets? Or maybe the New York Giants, or possibly the Lakers?

It’s none of the above. The team with the most sports stars is Team Nabisco. A good many of the sports figures employed by RJR Nabisco, Inc. are here this week for the $500,000 Dinah Shore Invitational, one of the biggest sponsored events.

The list of athletes on hand for the Pro-Am, a celebrity tennis tournament staged at Mission Hills Country Club in conjunction with the premier golf event, or for other Nabisco activities, reads like a Who’s Who of sports.

They include hockey’s Bobby Orr, tennis’ Rod Laver, the only two-time Grand Slam champion and football greats O.J. Simpson, Frank Gifford, Don Meredith and Alex Webster.

PGA stars Jack Nicklaus, Raymond Floyd and Ben Crenshaw, all part of Team Nabisco, interrupted preparations for next week’s Masters long enough to slip into town to do a TV public service message.

Of course, three of the stars are playing in the 72-hole tournament. They are Nancy Lopez, Pat Bradley and Judy Dickinson, whose husband, Gardner is also a member of the team.

The newest addition to the team is not here. Don Mattingly is busy with the New York Yankees getting ready to start the baseball season.

Among some of the other stars are Lionel and Jay Hebert, Al Balding, Tucker Fredrickson, Bob Goalby and Toney Penna.

The sports concept, which is being emulated by other companies, is the brainchild of H. Ross Johnson, president and chief executive of the company. He is a longtime jock who has a 10 handicap in golf.

“It must have been 1977 when Ross came to me,” said Michael M. Masterpool, a senior vice president in public relations, “and said, ‘I’m putting Frank Gifford on the payroll.’ I said, ‘Where are you putting him, in accounting?’ Of course, when Ross tells you he wants something done, you don’t argue.

“About the same time we hired Jay Hebert, a former PGA champion, and Orr. They weren’t just hired for the name value, although Gifford, with “Monday Night Football” is highly visible. Hebert teaches employees, customers and suppliers golf. Gifford makes sales videos that have proved invaluable. Orr mades videos to help youngsters learn how to play hockey. We have a big company in Canada where Orr is still tremendously popular.”

When he also hired Reggie Jackson, many people ridiculed the international conglomerate for hiring the athletes.

“The pioneers get all the arrows,” Johnson said. “We can handle it.”

Nabisco feels the athletes have made a large contribution to the organization’s rapidly increasing sales. Other companies must agree because the idea is becoming popular.

Jackson is no longer with the company, apparently he didn’t have the time Nabisco expects from the athletes they hire.

“We named a candy bar, the Reggie Bar,” Masterpool said. “We distributed a bar to every fan who attended one game at Yankee Stadium. When Reggie came to bat, someone tossed a Reggie Bar onto the field. Everyone started doing it and cheering Reggie. Pretty soon there were 20,000 candy bars on the field, Reggie was dancing around and it was almost half an hour before he stepped up to the plate.”

The company sponsors tennis’ Grand Prix, which consists of 82 tournaments around the world. The company also sponsors a tennis academy in India with the idea of producing Davis Cup players for the country. Vijay and Anand Amritrage, are instructors for the youngsters. Laver also spends time there.

Through a subsidiary, Don Ohlmeyer Communications, the Skins Game was conceived. The event had the highest rating of any golf show on television last year. Now, Ohlmeyer is producing a Senior Skins Game. If he’s interested, Arnold Palmer, will be invited to play in them both.

The company is concentrated mostly on golf and tennis. The reason is that the 30-45 age group for tennis people and the 45-60 for golf are the people most likely to buy Nabisco products.

The climax of Nabisco’s sport year comes at San Antonio Oct. 28-31, when the Nabisco Grand Prix of golf will be held. The 30 top players on the PGA Tour will vie for a top prize of $500,000 and the team he represents will get $500,000 for its favorite charities. Teams represent the various PGA tournaments held during the year.

“Not only will it be exciting for a player to get half a million,” Masterpool said, “but half a million to one charity is something, too. It is a grand finish to our year.”