When Gonzaga Bulldogs athletic director Mike Roth arrived at the school in the summer of 1997, 95 percent of sales of Gonzaga Bulldogs licensed merchandise was generated by the modest campus bookstore.
"There was a really limited selection," Roth said. "If you wanted something with our logo on it, you'd have to buy it at the bookstore. You really couldn't get it anywhere else. You couldn't even find it in town."
Twenty years later, Gonzaga is commonly seen in sporting goods stores across the country, its gear as accessible to retailers as other big Nike basketball schools like Duke and Michigan.