LEFT: Alex Gatewood, owner of The Locker Room, started the business in 1964 and has seen it grow into one of the most well-known menswear shops in Tuscaloosa. BELOW: The Locker Room specializes in fine menswear, and part of that job entails proper measuring and tailoring.
to spend my life farming.” Gatewood played football and baseball at Millsaps College. He later transferred to Mississippi State University and studied retailing. Gatewood came to Tuscaloosa to attend graduate school at UA. During that time, he was interviewed by Don Davenport, the personnel director at Pizitz, a large department store based in Birmingham. Davenport hired Gatewood to participate in the store’s management training program. “I had a hard time convincing him I wanted to leave graduate school and go to work for Pizitz,” Gatewood said. “I learned a lot in the year and a half I was there.” In 1964, Gatewood returned to Tuscaloosa and opened his store. He borrowed $5,000 to start it, and his father had to co-sign the bank loan, he said. “I originally had a partner who had a store in Anniston, which was also called the Locker Room,” Gatewood said. “I ended up buying him out.” In 1966, another menswear store came to Tuscaloosa and opened just down the street from the Locker Room. “I thought they might run me out of business, but instead they ended up going out,” Gatewood said. He bought the unsuccessful store’s building — the house at 1218 University Blvd.
Gatewood opened other Locker Room stores in Mississippi but eventually closed those to concentrate on the Tuscaloosa Locker Room, he said. He also opened a store in Montgomery “because we had so many customers from there,” Gatewood said. “I had a manager here, George Wilder, and I sent him to Montgomery and let him be a partner,” he said. “After a while, I let him buy me out, and he’s still there today.” The Locker Room became known for its traditional business clothing for men, with tailored suits and conservative ties and shoes. But the store has changed with the times. “In the last 10 years, game-day wear has taken off,” Gatewood said. “I’m glad it happened — I’m just not sure how. Now, it accounts for about 40 percent of our sales.” While the store still carries time-honored brands like Samuelsohn, Cole Haan, Robert Talbott and Polo, Gatewood has attracted young customers with lines like Southern Proper, Southern Tide and State Traditions. “I’d never have thought that our No. 1 item would be baseball caps and our No. 2 would be T-shirts,” he said. Gatewood said two periods put a dent in his store’s sales. “The Vietnam War years were a struggle. People were wearing old overalls and torn-up blue jeans. And then we had the polyester suit era,” he said, shaking his head. Gatewood trademarked his store’s green-eyed elephant logo about 13 years ago, he said. The Locker Room also operates a thriving Internet business. “I fought having a website, but now, every day, we send merchandise all over the world,” he said. “At Christmastime, some days we’ll send 100 packages out.” Gatewood’s wife, Carol, helps with buying, invoices and accounts receivable, he said. His son, Mark Gatewood, owns Black Warrior Outdoor in Tuscaloosa. His daughter, Tracy Gatewood, is a Tuscaloosa Realtor. His stepchildren are Jimmy Tanara and Julie Hutchens. The Locker Room family includes manager Rush Crawford, who started there as a UA freshman in 2002, and Tom Hammond, whom Gatewood called “a store fixture.” “Over the years, we’ve employed 80-something University of Alabama students,” Gatewood said. “They either work here for two weeks or four years.” One current student employee is Williams Hayes of Muscle Shoals. Hayes, who is now a UA senior, said he has been working at the Locker Room since his freshman year. “Before I came in and interviewed, my brother had introduced me to the Locker Room. He told me this was the coolest place,” Hayes said. Gatewood is hosting a reunion for Locker Room employees Nov. 14. Appropriately enough considering his own history, the event will be during the weekend when Alabama plays Mississippi State. 79
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