SPORTS
Photos by Glenn Triest
Tennis-and-fitness maven
Seymour Brode always
has been something of a
recreation business visionary.
Mr. Brode with grandchildren, Robby Trager, 11; Ryan Trager, 10; Jamie Trager, 8; Andrew Garon, 4; and
Bradley Ga ron, 2.
PA PA SEE
RICHARD PEARL
Special to The Jewish News
C
!Seymour with grandkid Ryan Trager, 10.
harles Matler
shouldn't have
worried.
"Only my daugh-
ter," he would groan, "would
marry a man who works half-
days — from 9 to 9."
"Only my daughter would
marry a man who would
build swimming pools in
Michigan."
If only Dee Matler's father
could have known the nick-
name son-in-law Seymour
Brode would earn one day
from grandson Robby Trager.
When toddler Robby had
trouble pronouncing Grandpa
Seymour's name, he simply
called him "Papa See."
A more appropriate nick-
name would be hard to find,
because during the past 34
years, Seymour Brode has
been particularly sharp-eyed
in visualizing others'
recreational needs and seeing
to it those needs are met, in
Detroit and in Israel.
Beginning with an in-
ground swimming pool busi-
ness founded in the late
1950s, when post-war De-
troiters wanted the finer
things in life and had the
cash for them, Brode has
parlayed an instinct for
innovation, a strong sense of
direction and a fondness for
people into a successful
career in the recreational
field.
Besides being owner-
operator of Franklin Fitness
and Racquet Club of South-
field and Centaur of West
Bloomfield, Brode also is
president of Israel Tennis
Centers, Inc., and the Michi-
gan Jewish Sports Hall of
Fame, which this year will
host its first Hank Greenberg
Memorial Invitational Golf
Tournament.
Franklin itself is an impres-
sive facility: with over 6,000
members, 200 employees and
250,000 square feet of space,
it is the largest combination
indoor racquet sports-and-fit-
ness center in Michigan.
The key to Brode's success
has been his being able to see
things before they happen
and make a success of doing
them.
"If I think it's right, I'll go
into it and do it," he says.
That sense of rightness led
him to create, despite his
father-in-law's dire predic-
tions ("You'll die, you'll
starve."), a company called
Starlite Pools, which became
the biggest swimming pool
builder in Michigan. It also
led him to his first Israel
Tennis Centers fund-raiser
some years back, and more
recently to plunge into the
newest market — youth fit-
ness and recreation — with
Kidsports Fun and Fitness
Clubs at Franklin and other
Detroit locations.
Not surprisingly, the hus-
ky, 6-foot-plus Brode, a tennis
buff and nature-lover with a
dulcet voice and easy man-
ner, has many admirers.
"He's got a great personali-
ty — a good leader, a take-
charge guy," says longtime
friend, neighbor and former
Franklin partner Phil Min-
kin.
"He's always on the go. His
mind is always working,"
says his uncle, Dickie
Schram.
"He's an Aquarian," notes
wife Dee about her husband
of 41 years. "He always does
things others wouldn't do."
Brode says simply he likes
to make people happy, but
admits that has often meant
changing with the times.
One such change — when
Brode sold Starlite Pools in
1970 to concentrate on the
then two-year-old Franklin
Racquet Club — definitely
made the rest of Michigan's
pool builders happy.
"All the rest of us in Michi-
gan were saying 'Thank
goodness he went into the
tennis business,' " recalls
Paddock Pool's (Starlite's
greatest competitor) Chuck
Robertson.
Starting from scratch in
1957, out of a garage at 10
Mile and Northwestern with
partners • Harold Brode (a
cousin) and friend Seymour
Joffe, Starlite went from 20
in-ground installations the
first year to over 300 a year
the next 12 years. Starlite
Seymour with Bradley Garon,
grandson, age 2.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
59