How John built the fortune
John L. Morris, known almost universally as Johnny, started Bass Pro Shops in 1972 with a few square feet of space inside one of his father's Brown Derby liquor stores in Springfield, Missouri. An avid bass fisherman, he had noticed that the lures and gear used on the professional tournament circuit were hard to find in the Ozarks, so he drove around buying stock and resold it to local anglers. A mail order catalog followed within a few years and gave the business a national customer base long before e-commerce existed.
The decisive step came in 1981, when Morris opened a large showroom in Springfield that blended retail with entertainment: aquariums, mounted wildlife, waterfalls and demonstration areas. The format, later branded Outdoor World, made the stores tourist destinations and allowed Bass Pro to sign favourable deals with cities eager to attract visitors. The chain expanded across the United States and into Canada over the following decades.
In 2017 Bass Pro completed its acquisition of Cabela's, its largest competitor, with financial backing from a private equity partner. The deal combined the two best known names in American hunting and fishing retail under a company that Morris still controls privately.
Much of the chain's success has come from treating stores as regional attractions rather than simple shops. New locations often open in partnership with local governments, which see the large showrooms as a way to bring in visitors from hundreds of miles away. Morris has personally overseen store design, including the fish tanks, log cabin interiors and taxidermy displays that became the brand's signature.
Companies and holdings
Morris remains founder and chief executive of Bass Pro Shops, which is privately held. Around the retail chain he has built a cluster of related businesses:
- Tracker Marine, a boat maker whose origin was a ready-to-fish boat, motor and trailer package first sold in 1978
- Big Cedar Lodge, a wilderness resort near Branson, Missouri, with golf courses designed by well known architects
- Top of the Rock and Dogwood Canyon Nature Park, attractions in the Ozarks
- Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium in Springfield, opened in 2017 next to the original store
These ventures feed one another: the resorts and museum draw visitors to the region, and the boat business supplies one of the chain's most important product lines.
Early life and career
Morris was born in 1948 and raised in Springfield, where his father ran a small chain of liquor stores. He grew up fishing the lakes and rivers of southwest Missouri and spent much of his youth on the water, an interest that shaped everything he later built. He studied business at what is now Missouri State University in his home town.
In his early twenties he fished on the professional bass tournament circuit, which was then gaining popularity. That exposure to specialised tackle and serious anglers gave him the idea for the store, and he started it while still in his twenties with little capital beyond the inventory he could carry in his car. He has stayed in Springfield ever since, and the company's headquarters remain beside the flagship showroom.
Friends and employees describe him as deeply involved in product details and store layouts even after decades at the top. That attention to the customer experience, combined with his own credibility as a serious angler, helped the business win the loyalty of hunters and fishermen at a time when general retailers were also competing for outdoor spending.
Philanthropy and public life
Conservation is the main theme of Morris's public work. Bass Pro and its founder have funded habitat restoration, fisheries research and youth outdoor programmes, and the company regularly invites customers to round up purchases for conservation causes. The Wonders of Wildlife museum operates as a nonprofit and presents hunting and fishing as part of a broader conservation story. Morris has also protected large tracts of Ozark land through Dogwood Canyon and other properties.
He has received several conservation awards from wildlife organisations and is a familiar figure in Missouri civic life, though he gives relatively few personal interviews and keeps attention focused on the company and its causes.
Morris has also used his resorts and attractions to promote outdoor recreation to families and children who might not otherwise fish or hunt, a cause he frames as essential to the long-term support of conservation funding in the United States.