Sports Connection

Sports Connection is a sporting goods store in Emporia, KS, carrying a wide variety of sports equipment and sports clothing for teams across many disciplines, including baseball, softball, soccer, tennis, football, basketball, hockey, gymnastics, pickleball, volleyball, track and field, cross country, wrestling, swimming, cheerleading, golf, and disc golf. The store also handles corporate and business promotional materials such as personalized shirts, hats, and bags, along with screen printing, embroidery, customized trophies, plaques, medals, ribbons, name plates, letterman jackets, and booster club fundraising. The business holds a 4.20 rating based on customer reviews.

The company was founded in 1980 in Salina, Kansas, by Larry Houdek, a former All-American athlete from Kansas Wesleyan University. Through coaching connections, Houdek joined forces with Mike Shane, a former coach and teacher at Emporia High School who had established his own trophy shop in 1978 and later expanded into Mike's Sporting Goods. Together with USA Inc in 1985, the partners owned stores across Garden City, Bartlesville, Salina, and two Emporia locations. Road salesmen traveled the Midwest to make sure coaches and players had the best sporting equipment available. Eric Hirsch, who had worked alongside Mike Shane for over twenty years, bought the company in 2017, and the original owners eventually retired, consolidating operations to the single Emporia location. Sports Connection also offers dedicated team stores, school programs with shared logos and branding standards, and corporate accounts with direct delivery, digital coupons, and reward options.

The store sits on West 15th Avenue, about a tenth of a mile from Industrial Road, the Flint Hills Learning Center, and Flint Hills Mall, with Emporia Fire Department Station 2, a government office, and Village Elementary School all within roughly a third of a mile.

Customer service has been the constant thread through the company's history, and the current Emporia team continues to provide face-to-face sporting goods sales in a digital age.