When John Schnatter graduated from Ball State University in 1984with a bachelor's degree in business administration, he beganselling pizza out of a broom closet that he knocked down in theback of his father's bar, Mick's Lounge. Schnatter had to sell his1972 Z28 Camaro to buy out his father's business partner andpurchase restaurant equipment.
In 1985, Schnatter turned Mick's Lounge into the first PapaJohn's restaurant. Today he is the president and chief executiveofficer of the Louisville, Ky.-based Papa John's International,which owns or franchises more than 3,000 Papa John's restaurants in49 states and 15 international markets. The company owns more than100 Pizza Perfect restaurants in the United Kingdom as well.
Schnatter will be inducted into the Miller College of BusinessHall of Fame at the first Miller College of Business Alumni AwardsDinner at 5:30 p.m. today at the Alumni Center. He is one of eightalumni who will be honored at the dinner.
The college used to have several award ceremonies throughout theyear but decided to combine all the alumni awards in one evening,Marc Ransford, media relations manager, said.
Having one event for all the award winners instead of severalseparate events throughout the year is easier to organize and abetter way to get all the alumni award winners together, he said.Combining all the events into one dinner also serves as a betterway to recognize the alumni.
"[We] decided to make it a more significant event and give thealumni a chance to come back to campus," said Tammy Estep, directorof external relations for the Miller College of Business. "We havequite a few successful and distinguished alumni, and we thought weshould honor their successes in a way that is equal to what theyhave achieved."
The Miller College of Business Alumni Board created a new awardthis year, the Distinguished Partner Award, in response to a $1million gift the university trustees accepted from H.H. Gregg in2003 to rename the Center for Professional Selling the H.H. GreggCenter for Professional Selling, Estep said.
The college will continue to give the award to an organizationthat makes a significant contribution to the college, she said.
Award winners previously did not have be Ball State graduates,but the current criteria states that each award recipient must bean alumnus, with the exception of the Distinguished PartnerAward.
Previous inductees into the Hall of Fame include Garfieldcreator Jim Davis, founder and first president of MarshSupermarkets Ermal Marsh and Chairman and CEO of UPS KentNelson.
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