Jim McIngvale's rise to Houston celebrity status, starting from his humble beginnings as a failed entrepreneur in Dallas.
James McIngvale is born Feb. 11, 1951, to George and Angela McIngvale in Starkville, Mississippi. His family moves to Dallas where he will spend his early adulthood.McIngvale attends Bishop Lynch High School where he plays football and baseball all four years, and secures a scholarship to play at the University of Texas. He later transfers to the University of North Texas but never completes his degree. Decades later, he is awarded an honorary degree from UNT.
McIngvale would later say that both he and the BBB shared blame for the episode. Gallery rejoined the BBB in 2013 and held an A+ rating; currently, Gallery is not accredited.McIngvale offers to build a training center for the Houston Rockets at his Westside Tennis Club in 1996. The Westside facility comes with designer weight rooms, locker rooms and lounges. The players and their families are invited to use the club's restaurant, tennis courts and nursery.
Later that year, he opens his showroom to people fleeing the wreckage of Hurricane Katrina. He chairs a local relief fund launched by former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and delivers furniture to 5,000 people who sought refuge following Katrina. McIngvale, flanked by surgeons O.H. "Bud" Frazier, left, and Hari R. Mallidi at St. Luke's Hospital, donated $2.1 million to the Texas Heart Institute to bring Australian inventor Daniel Timms and his revolutionary artificial heart to Houston.McIngvale places his first huge sports bet linked to customers at his store. He offers a full refund on up to $6,000 of furniture if the Seattle Seahawks win the Super Bowl. The Seahawks beat Denver, 43-8. The bet costs him $7 million.
“I want to leave a legacy for myself and my wife, and not just be a couple of people who made a lot of money," McIngvale tells the Houston Chronicle. Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale holds his betting slips after betting $2 million on the Cowboys to beat the 49ers in the NFL playoffs on Jan. 22, 2023. McIngvale lost his bet.McIngvale is sued on charges he ripped off an immersive art business, The FOMO Factory in the Galleria, by using the same artist FOMO hired to create installations aimed at attracting customers to his stores. The lawsuit says that McIngvale stole ideas copyrighted by FOMO founder Rachel Youens.
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