Button Sunday

It’s funny how trying to figure out the way a button came into my collection leads me to all kinds of information on the Internet. Virtual detecting!

I’m sure I just liked what this one said: “I’ve been to REALITY,” so I grabbed it, probably from a desk or office I inherited in the distant past. Research has led me to believe it’s a promotional button for a business simulation software based on Mark H. McCormack’s 1987 book What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School. I researched McCormack and learned that he was the first to realize the large sums of money athletes could make from endorsements; he founded International Management Group (now IMG). From Wikipedia:

In 1960, after realizing the potential of sports in the television age, McCormack…signed golfer Arnold Palmer as IMG’s first client. Palmer, who had become golf’s dominant superstar, was soon followed to IMG by rising stars Jack Nicklaus and then Gary Player. McCormack aggressively promoted the so-called Big Three of golf during the 1960s, raising their incomes dramatically, while building IMG’s business.

Some of McCormack’s later clients included Björn Borg, Chris Evert, Pete Sampras, Michael Schumacher, Derek Jeter, Charles Barkley, Kate Moss, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pope John Paul II, and Tiger Woods. By the time McCormack died in 2003, IMG had branched not only into other areas of celebrity management, but into venues, events, and media. You can read a fascinating account of how a little boy with an injury that kept him out of contact sports became a Forbes-listed millionaire, prolific author, and sports/entertainment industry titan here.

Damn. McCormack, IMG, and client Tyra Banks made a ton of money, and all I got was this lousy button.