Mark Montieth: Indy’s sports stars of yesteryear earned peanuts for endorsements

For the brightest stars in the sports world, salaries are like tips they collect from the team whose uniform they wear. The real money comes from the corporations who pay them for pitching products.

Peyton Manning and Caitlin Clark, who have teamed up in an advertisement for Ascension St. Vincent’s cardiac services, are the latest and greatest local examples. One can only imagine what this formidable pair—the quarterback who led the Colts to a Super Bowl victory and the point guard who immediately became the most popular player in the WNBA, if not all of basketball, a year ago—were paid for the 20 seconds they appear in the commercial.

It’s safe to assume it’s a stratosphere or two beyond what the local stars of yesteryear received for their humble endorsements.

In the money

As pursuits go, today’s ad game is more profitable than collecting baseball cards. Clark and Manning have earned millions for attaching their names and likenesses to products and services, with a long line of suitors waiting in the wings.

Manning established himself as an all-pro pitchman during his career with the Colts, first for local companies and then national as he honed both his quarterbacking craft and his deadpan brand of humor.

He shifted his focus to promotion even before he could get off the field following his final game in Denver’s 2016 Super Bowl victory. He leaned over and kissed—or at least air-kissed, hard to tell—Papa John’s founder and soon-to-be disgraced CEO John Schnatter moments after the game ended and then repeatedly said in postgame interviews that he planned to drink a lot of Budweiser to celebrate the victory. It so happened he had lucrative endorsement deals with both products. He sold his Papa John’s franchises a couple of years later but still pumps Budweiser. He appeared in a spot for Bud Light during this year’s Super Bowl, in fact.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Manning as of last month had an estimated net worth of $250 million. He is reported to have earned at least $10 million annually from endorsements since retiring.

Clark was depositing endorsement dollars while still in college, something perfectly legal and increasingly normal in today’s world of name, image and likeness deals. She reportedly was paid more than $3.5 million to endorse 11 products or services while at Iowa. Sportico, a “business of sports” website, estimates she was paid $11.1 million from her corporate affiliations in 2024. Her four-year, $338,000 contract with the Fever is chump change by comparison.

Larry Bird retired from his NBA playing career in 1992 but remains a star in the endorsement world. Graduating from local commercials in Boston and Indianapolis, he went national in the mid-1980s when he appeared with Magic Johnson and others in ads for Converse shoes. He also was paired with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for Lay’s potato chips in 1992 and with Michael Jordan for McDonald’s in 1993. He and Jordan returned in another McDonald’s commercial the following year, this time with Charles Barkley, as well.

Now 68, Bird remains in demand. He starred in an Allstate commercial last year, wrecking his home and bumping his head in pursuit of the “mayhem” character.

Retirement hasn’t kept former Pacer Reggie Miller from cashing in, either. He got his start in local commercials, such as for the Marsh supermarket chain, but soon went national. He appeared in spots for McDonald’s and Nike during the peak of his playing career in the 1990s. His network broadcasting career has kept him relevant nationally since he retired from playing in 2005, and he now can be seen endorsing State Farm (with Clark and NBA star Jimmy Butler), Miller beer (naturally), and in a series of ads for Wendy’s.

It wasn’t always so

Meanwhile, the local stars of yesteryear can only watch and begrudge their lack of timing. Their measly endorsement opportunities, while appreciated in the moment, merely provide grist for comedy material today.

◗ Jimmy Rayl

Jimmy Rayl was among the state’s most popular athletes during the 1960s. He was Indiana’s Mr. Basketball in 1959, earned all-America recognition at IU, where he still holds the school’s single-game scoring record (56 points, twice), and joined the Pacers in 1967 for their inaugural season.

His name recognition earned him the opportunity to endorse potato chips for Chesty, a Terre Haute-based company that had sponsored IU basketball games. A camera crew was sent to his home in Kokomo, where he sat on a couch with his wife, Nancy. She held their infant son, Jimmy Jr., a/k/a Jimbo, in her lap while Dad spoke on the virtues of Chesty’s products. They recorded a few takes, but Jimbo wiggled free from his mother’s arms and, as she reached for him, bumped his head on the coffee table in front of them.

“We couldn’t get Jimbo to quiet down,” Nancy recalled. “Of course, that’s the [take] they used.”

At least it gave Jimbo a lasting claim to fame.

“I’m telling you, that’s been brought up more to me than anything in my dad’s basketball career,” he said.

How were the Rayls compensated for their time and the threat to Jimbo’s skull? No more than $100, Nancy and Jimbo agree, and probably more like $50. Oh, and a box of Chesty products, as well.

◗ Bob Netolicky/Mel Daniels

Bob Netolicky also landed an endorsement opportunity during the Pacers’ first season. He filmed a television commercial for Indiana National Bank that he says aired for three years. He held open a door at a branch location for a lady as she walked through it and was paid a flat fee of $50.

“I don’t know how it came about,” he said. “Somebody from the Pacer office called me and said Indiana National Bank would like to do a commercial. I said, ‘Sure, why not?’

“There wasn’t anything called residuals back then.”

Even the national commercials paid poorly back in the day. Pacers center Mel Daniels, the two-time Most Valuable Player of the ABA, was hired to record one for Adidas after the company came out with its now-iconic leather shoe with three stripes. Daniels and fellow ABA player Julius Keye participated in a jump ball and guarded each other as if posting up for the cameras but were filmed below the knees. Their identities were unknown.

Daniels recalled receiving two gym bags and a pair of shoes for his efforts.

Shoe companies have long offered the greatest opportunity to athletes for side income. Nearly every NBA player is paid to wear a particular brand of shoe, and some receive millions. As Daniels proved, however, there was a time when a free pair of shoes was enough.

A rep for Adidas met with the Pacers when they were in Los Angeles for their championship series against the Stars in 1970. He offered them each two pairs of the company’s revolutionary new shoe, a suede model with three stripes in various colors, if they would wear them in the games. Most players accepted.

“We all thought we hit the lottery,” Netolicky said.

◗ Rick Mount

Rick Mount could have cashed one of those lottery tickets if he wanted. He was one of the biggest names in basketball after finishing his career at Purdue, where he had been a three-time all-American. A rep for the Pro Keds brand, which was trying to gain a foothold in the marketplace alongside Adidas and Converse, offered him $40,000 to wear the company’s new shoe. It had already signed two other all-Americans, Dan Issel and Pete Maravich, and wanted to add Mount to the roster.

He turned it down because he had worn Converse since his senior year of high school and thought an unfamiliar shoe might affect his play.

“I didn’t want to switch shoes, so I didn’t sign the deal,” Mount said. “Issel called me up and said, ‘Are you crazy?’

“I should have worn those Pro Keds. I didn’t get any money from Converse.”

◗ Billy Keller

As his pro career evolved, Billy Keller was the most called-upon Pacer for endorsements. The “home-grown Hoosier with the red-hot hand,” as the 45-rpm tribute song called him (“The Ballad of Billy Keller”), had been voted Indiana’s Mr. Basketball in 1965 after leading Washington High School to the state championship, and he added to his popularity as the point guard for the Purdue team that reached the championship game of the NCAA tournament in 1969 before becoming a contributor to all three Pacers ABA championship teams.

The opportunities were greater than the compensation, however.

Keller and George McGinnis, who also led Washington to a state championship and was voted Mr. Basketball (in 1969), appeared in newspaper advertisements for Gatorade, leaning against a giant bottle of the beverage. Keller isn’t sure about McGinnis, but he recalls his only compensation being free product, which he used at his summer basketball camps. Keller also appeared in newspaper advertisements for Raccoon Lake, B&B Trailer Sales and Jerry Alderman Ford. He didn’t receive cash for those but rather the use of a lake lot, trailer and automobile.

“That’s how it usually worked,” he said.

Keller’s biggest deal was with the American Dairy Association, a fitting affiliation given his all-American-boy image. He was paid $3,000 over three years for that one but was required to make 32 appearances throughout the state to speak on behalf of his sponsor.

He, like other Pacers, made other paid appearances, as well, but didn’t break the bank.

“There was no money to speak of,” he said. “It was $25 here and $25 there. I did quite a few of those.”

‘Don’t dwell on it’

At least they were paid. In the early years of the franchise, players were expected to lend their name and likeness to companies advertising in the game program. The result was Daniels sitting at a piano (that he couldn’t play), Mount posing in a tuxedo, Freddie Lewis holding a bank card, and photos of Netolicky in ads for paint and printing companies. A full-page ad for the Bonanza steakhouse showed Roger Brown, Netolicky and coach Slick Leonard standing in line at one of the restaurants.

They presumably got a free meal out of it.

The athletes of long ago could be excused for being bitter over their lack of opportunity to haul in life-changing income for endorsements, but most shrug it off. Timing is everything.

“Slick told me many years ago, ‘Don’t dwell on it, or it will drive you crazy,’” Keller said. “If we ABA guys focus on that stuff and get bogged down in it, you can lose your mind. We just have to be happy with what we got.”

Besides, not everybody got free shoes. Or even potato chips.•

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Montieth, an Indianapolis native, is a longtime newspaper reporter and freelance writer. He is the author of three books: “Passion Play: Coach Gene Keady and the Purdue Boilermakers,” “Reborn: The Pacers and the Return of Pro Basketball to Indianapolis,” and “Extra Innings: My Life in Baseball,” with former Indianapolis Indians President Max Schumacher.