Industry | Restaurants |
---|---|
Founded | June 29, 1983 |
Headquarters | Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, U.S. |
Key people | Vince Schmuhl, Founder & President |
Products | Pizza |
Number of employees | 800 (estimated) |
Website | www |
Blackjack Pizza is a Colorado-based pizza delivery chain founded in 1983 by a former Domino's Pizza employee, Vince Schmuhl, because Domino's Pizza was the only major pizza delivery company in the Rocky Mountain region [1] and he thought customers would appreciate an alternative. The pizza chain is the largest in Colorado with 800 employees, some of whom work part-time. [2] On January 1, 2013, Blackjack Pizza was acquired by Askar Brands.
While a University of Northern Colorado college student, Vince Schmuhl was a delivery driver for Domino's Pizza. [3] After receiving a business degree in 1981, there were few jobs available, and Schmuhl wanted to provide another option to the major pizza companies. [3] In exchange for equity, his parents, Jim and Wilma Schmuhl, gave him $10,000 to start Blackjack Pizza. [3] Schmuhl named the pizza restaurant after the blackjack game to indicate it was fast food. [3] Both blackjack and dominoes are games, so he wanted to indicate that Blackjack Pizza was an alternative to Domino's Pizza. [3] The company's slogan was "Finally, there's a new game in town." [3] The first Blackjack Pizza store opened on June 29, 1983, in Federal Heights with a second store opening in Greeley by February 1984. [1] By 1986, Blackjack had grown to six corporate stores and one franchisee. [4] The company headquarters, by 1999, was in what was then the Castlewood census-designated place in unincorporated Arapahoe County, Colorado, near Englewood. [5] [6] The territory became a part of Centennial, [7] which incorporated in 2001 with all of the territory of the Castlewood CDP. [8]
In 1988, Blackjack became a franchisor with the sale of several corporate stores to franchisees. As of 2018 [update] Blackjack Pizza operated 45 stores in five states. [9] Blackjack's tagline is "Better Pizza, Better Price." [10]
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the high school seniors who committed the 1999 Columbine High School massacre worked at the Blackjack Pizza store in Littleton, Colorado, and Harris eventually became shift manager. [11] At this pizza parlor, the two teens made important acquaintances who were inadvertently connected to the attack at Columbine High School. [12] The two teens were able to meet Mark Manes, the man who sold them the TEC-9 that they used in the attack, through the connection of Philip Duran, a fellow employee at the Blackjack Pizza store where they worked. [13] [14] [15]
Denver Broncos wide receiver Rod Smith frequently appeared in Blackjack commercials until October 2008 when Blackjack rolled out a new ad campaign featuring the cast of Impulse Theater. [16] Smith's slogan for Blackjack Pizza ads was "Stick with the home team." [17] [18]
Blackjack Pizza has donated money to several organizations. In 2005, Blackjack donated $8,842.40 to the Bonfils Blood Center Foundation, which Blackjack Pizza selected to be the winner of the "80 Cent Pizza Promotion". [9] [19] The pizzeria also sponsored a Future Farmers of America program in Fort Morgan, Colorado. [20] In 2006, the franchise offered a deal to customers: every time they ordered the "Children's Hospital Special", the franchise would give a dollar to the Children's Hospital in Aurora, Colorado. [21]
On January 1, 2013, Blackjack Pizza was acquired by Askar Brands, a Michigan-based company. [22]
Denver is the central city of a conurbation region in the U.S. state of Colorado. The conurbation includes one continuous region consisting of the six central counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson. The Denver region is part of the Front Range Urban Corridor.
Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 582,910, making it the fourth-most populous county in Colorado. The county seat is Golden, and the most populous city's Lakewood.
Castlewood is a neighborhood in the City of Centennial, Colorado. A former census-designated place (CDP), the population was 25,567 at the 2000 census. It has been a part of the City of Centennial since the city's incorporation in 2001.
Eric David Harris and Dylan Bennet Klebold were American high school seniors who perpetrated the Columbine High School massacre at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999 in Columbine, Colorado. Harris and Klebold killed 12 students, one teacher, and wounded 24 others. After killing most of their victims in the school's library, they died by self-inflicted gunshot wounds. At the time, it was the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history.
Rachel Joy Scott was an American student who was the first fatality of the Columbine High School massacre, in which 11 other students and a teacher were also murdered by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who then committed suicide.
Columbine High School (CHS) is a public high school in Columbine, Colorado, United States, in the Denver metropolitan area. It is part of the Jefferson County Public Schools district.
The region that is today the U.S. State of Colorado has been inhabited by Native Americans and their Paleoamerican ancestors for at least 13,500 years and possibly more than 37,000 years. The eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains was a major migration route that was important to the spread of early peoples throughout the Americas. The Lindenmeier site in Larimer County contains artifacts dating from approximately 8720 BCE.
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Where the Columbines Grow is one of the two official state songs of the U.S. state of Colorado. It was written and composed by Dr. Arthur John Fynn in 1911, and was adopted on May 8, 1915. In the early to mid-2000s, there was debate over replacing Where the Columbines Grow with John Denver's Rocky Mountain High or Merle Haggard's rare song Colorado. In 2007, the Colorado legislature named Rocky Mountain High as Colorado's second official state song, paired with Where the Columbines Grow.
The Denver Post is a daily newspaper and website published in the Denver metropolitan area. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 million page views, according to comScore.
Qdoba is a chain of fast casual restaurants in the United States and Canada serving Mexican-style cuisine. After 15 years as a wholly owned subsidiary of Jack in the Box, the company was sold to a consortium of funds led by Apollo Global Management in March 2018. In October 2022, Qdoba was acquired by Butterfly Equity. At the time of the acquisition, Qdoba had nearly 750 locations across North America. It is the No.2 player and No.1 franchisor of Mexican fast-casual dining in North America.
Super Columbine Massacre RPG! is a role-playing video game created by Danny Ledonne and released in April 2005. The game recreates the 1999 Columbine High School shootings in Columbine, Colorado. Players assume the roles of gunmen Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and act out the massacre, with flashbacks relating parts of Harris and Klebold's past experiences. The game begins on the day of the shootings and follows Harris and Klebold after their suicides to fictional adventures in perdition.
Lakewood is the home rule municipality that is the most populous municipality in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 155,984 at the 2020 U.S. Census, making Lakewood the fifth most populous city in Colorado and the 167th most populous city in the United States. Lakewood is a suburb of Denver and is a principal city of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and a major city of the Front Range Urban Corridor.
Legacy High School is a high school located in Broomfield, Colorado that opened in 2000. It is within the Adams 12 Five Star Schools District. The school had 2,406 students for the 2018/2019 school year.
The Front Range Urban Corridor is an oblong region of urban population located along the eastern face of the Southern Rocky Mountains, encompassing 18 counties in the US states of Colorado and Wyoming. The corridor derives its name from the Front Range, the mountain range that defines the western boundary of the corridor which serves as a gateway to the Rocky Mountains. The region comprises the northern portion of the Southern Rocky Mountain Front geographic area, which in turn comprises the southern portion of the Rocky Mountain Front geographic area of Canada and the United States. The Front Range Urban Corridor had a population of 5,055,344 at the 2020 Census, an increase of +16.65% since the 2010 Census.
Helen Gilmer Bonfils was an American heiress, actress, theatrical producer, newspaper executive, and philanthropist. She acted in local theatre in Denver, Colorado, and on Broadway, and also co-produced plays in Denver, New York City, and London. She succeeded her father, Frederick Gilmer Bonfils, as manager of The Denver Post in 1933, and eventually became president of the company. Lacking heirs, she invested her fortune into providing for the city of Denver and the state of Colorado, supporting the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank, the Bonfils Memorial Theatre, the University of Denver, the Denver Zoo, the Dumb Friends League, churches, and synagogues. Her estate endowed the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. She was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Colorado Performing Arts Hall of Fame in 1999.
Merle Catherine Chambers is an American lawyer, business executive, and philanthropist. She founded and served as CEO of Axem Resources, a private oil and gas exploration and production company, from 1980 to 1997, and since 1997 is the president and CEO of Leith Ventures, a private investment firm. She chairs the Merle Chambers Fund, which supports equity, democracy and women's economic security. She is also an active political contributor in Colorado, focusing on Democratic and women candidates. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2004, the Rocky Mountain Oil & Gas Hall of Fame in 2009, and the Colorado Business Hall of Fame in 2010.
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Stephen Austin Eubanks was an American motivational speaker on addiction and recovery. He was one of the most well-known survivors of the Columbine High School massacre, both in its immediate aftermath and in post-event commentary. During the shooting, Eubanks' best friend, 17-year-old Corey DePooter, was killed and Eubanks was shot in his hand and knee. Eubanks struggled with opioid addiction and later heroin use for years after the shooting. He was the chief operations officer for the Foundry Treatment Center. Eubanks died of a heroin overdose in 2019.
Eric and Dylan started at Blackjack in the spring of their sophomore year, cooking pizzas for $5.15 an hour.
Duran, meanwhile, was working with Klebold and Harris at a Blackjack Pizza shop. He introduced them to Manes at a gun show in Denver because they wanted to buy his TEC-DC9.
For most of his 13 years in town, Smith said he wasn't very interested in doing commercials, feeling they might be a distraction from his main task - playing football. He recently relented, though, doing some spots for Blackjack Pizza.
Blackjack Pizza presented Bonfils Blood Center Foundation with a check for $8,842.40. Blackjack Pizza franchisees selected Bonfils as the beneficiary of the locally based 80 Cent Pizza Promotion in 2005.
Columbine Massacre perpetrators used to work here.