Milwaukee Bucks Player and Team’s Part-Owner Invested in 400-Plus Restaurants
Junior Bridgeman, the former NBA player who became a billionaire entrepreneur, has died at 71.
During his 1980s playing days with the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association, Ulysses Lee “Junior” Bridgeman began amassing what would become a huge business portfolio with an investment in a Wendy’s. Bridgeman eventually owned some 450 restaurants around the United States: Chili’s, Fazoli’s and Golden Corral locations along with Wendy’s. His other holdings included a Coca-Cola bottling business, Ebony and Jet magazines, and a minority stake in the Bucks, The New York Times stated in his obituary.
The cause of Bridgeman’s March 11 death was a cardiac event. The billionaire was in Louisville, Ky., speaking with a TV reporter when he said he thought he was suffering a heart attack. Bridgeman later died at a hospital.
He was not an NBA star although his pro career had longevity. Bridgeman was with the Bucks for a decade and spent two seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers. The Times reported that his role was serving as a sixth-man strong bench player.
Interest in Franchises
Around the late 1970s, Bridgeman became interested in franchises. He took notice that Wayne Embry, the Bucks’ general manager and a former NBA player, owned McDonald’s franchises in Milwaukee. In 1984 Bridgeman invested in a Wendy’s in Chicago, and about three years after that, he partnered with former NBA player Paul Silas on a Brooklyn Wendy’s that lost money.
He retired from pro basketball in 1987. He considered playing longer, he told The Times in 2004, but “there was a part of me that wanted to go out and see what else I could do.” The food business tugged at him. “People were always going to eat,” he said. “So since I was looking to invest in something, I figured food would be the safest investment.”
After retiring, Bridgeman attended a Wendy’s training school to learn everything he could about running a franchise. In 1988 he invested about $750,000 to buy five Wendy’s in Milwaukee. Franchise Times said he became one of Wendy’s most successful franchisees.
Bridgeman encouraged other athletes to invest in franchises, but Franchise Times said he also cautioned them that there’s more to it than collecting a paycheck. You have to be hands-on with running your businesses, he advised – and Bridgeman practiced what he preached.
Working in His Wendy’s
“He’d be working in the restaurant like he was an hourly worker,” Bucks teammate Sidney Moncrief told ESPN in 2024, according to The New York Times. “I was thinking, ‘What the heck is he doing in there flipping burgers, washing dishes?’ And he had those work pants on.”
Franchise Times reported an amusing anecdote about those restaurant shifts: “My job was to make sure what you ordered was on your tray and to thank you for coming,” Bridgeman once told the Allied Athletes Group in Atlanta. “A woman came in and looked at me like she recognized me.” Then the following day, he heard a woman call into a local talk show and say, “I think it’s a shame. I was at the Wendy’s and I saw Junior Bridgeman working behind the counter … if that’s the best these ex-athletes can do…” Bridgeman said he laughed about it because the customer obviously didn’t know he owned that Wendy’s and several more.
In 2016 Bridgeman sold 120 Chili’s and 100 Wendy’s and invested in Coca-Cola territories in Illinois, Kansas and Missouri. He started a bottling company to produce and distribute beverages. In 2018, he added to his beverage holdings by investing in a joint venture that acquired Coca-Cola’s Canadian bottling and distribution business. Last September he became a 10% owner in the Bucks.
One of Three NBA Billionaires
Forbes evaluated his net worth at $1.4 billion in a February article, adding that Bridgeman, Magic Johnson and LeBron James are the only NBA players to reach 10-figure financial status. On social media following Bridgeman’s death, Johnson recalled that Bridgeman, a 6-foot-5 small forward, had “one of the sweetest jump shots in the NBA.” Johnson also credited Bridgeman with creating a blueprint for professional athletes to achieve financial success after their playing days end.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver also praised Bridgeman, calling him “the ultimate entrepreneur who built on his impactful 12-year NBA playing career by becoming a highly respected and successful business leader. He served as a mentor to generations of NBA players and athletes across sports who were eager to learn from him about what it takes to thrive in the business world.”
His business acumen led him to serve on the boards of PGA of America, Churchill Downs Inc., Fifth Third Bank, Jackson Hewitt, Governors Scholar Program, Crusade for Children Foundation, University of Louisville’s Board of Trustees and Louisville Arena Authority, among others, Ebony magazine reported.
Bridgeman’s Family
Junior Bridgeman, the son of steel mill worker Ulysses Lee Bridgeman Sr., was born Sept. 17, 1953, in East Chicago, Ind. He attended the University of Louisville on a basketball scholarship. During Bridgeman’s senior year, his team reached the Final Four of the 1975 NCAA’s March Madness tournament.
He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Doris; daughter, Eden Bridgeman Sklenar, CEO of Ebony and Jet; his sons, Ryan, the president of Manna, which owns the family’s remaining 240 Wendy’s outlets, Fazoli’s and Golden Corral restaurants, and Justin, executive director of Heartland Coca-Cola; his sister, April Bridgeman; his brothers, Darryl and Samuel; and six grandchildren.
