Legends of the Game opens on Abrams Road. Photo by Sam Gillespie.
Legends of the Game, a frame shop with sports and entertainment memorabilia, will soon open in Lakewood.
The new locally owned business has finished remodeling the old Paciugo space at 2115 Abrams Road and is scheduled to open in October.
Seattle-area owner Tom Sutherland made a career in quality carpentry and began collecting sports and entertainment memorabilia as a hobby with his wife, Amy. Combining his carpentry skills with his passion for designing and building memorabilia, Tom finds himself building knockout game rooms for his customers. His friends and neighbors would ask him to make shadow boxes for their photos, balls and jerseys.
Deciding to pursue their part-time hobby as a business full-time, Tom and Amy moved to Las Vegas in 2008 and opened a shop off the street. Through his network of memorabilia collectors, though it was tough in the midst of the recession, Tom partnered with clients who had large inventories of collectibles that acted as catalysts for their success in combining memorabilia with custom framing. Our relationships with casino operators have led to referrals to sports executives and professional athletes.
Photo by Sam Gillespie.
“It really gave me the ability to challenge myself, be creative, make mistakes, learn and find that gift,” Tom said of this crucial time.
The Sutherland family returned to the Northwest in 2014 and purchased a home in Tacoma. Tom opened his two pop-up his stores in his local shopping mall and put on a show of sports memorabilia. As Amy entered a turning point in her career, they decided to bet everything on another store in a location with warmer temperatures, a growing economy, and more fans of professional sports. Ironically, Amy’s first scouting trip to Dallas was during his historic February 2021 freeze.
Tom and Amy moved to Forney in the summer of 2021 and began looking for a suitable location for Legends of the Game.
“We were looking to bring something special and different to the community,” said Tom.
They saw some places they liked but always seemed to miss. When we arrived, the manager suggested we take a look at the old Paciugo location, which had recently appeared with a ‘For Rent’ sign.
“If you want to play it safe, just do a standard frame shop,” said Tom. “But I love sports memorabilia and entertainment. I can’t demonstrate.I do what I love and swing.