Jim McIngvale
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Jim McIngvale (also known as 'Mattress Mac') is a Houston businessman and owner of Gallery Furniture, one of the largest retail stores in America. Mac is well known for his animated television advertising spots, which end with his yelling, in resounding cheer, "SAVE YOU MONEY!". His daughter is Elizabeth McIngvale, founder of Peace of Mind, a non-profit organization devoted to the research of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
In 2002, McIngvale co-authored the book Always Think Big with Thomas Duening and John Ivancevich. The book chronicles the ups and downs of McIngvale's entrepreneurial career and offers readers advice on how to effectively market and manage a business.
McIngvale is very active in the Houston community. He has worked with former president George Herbert Walker Bush to raise funds for the Houston Tsunami Relief Fund and the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. He has made sizable donations to local schools, colleges, and charitable efforts. He also has strong ties to the Houston sports teams -- the Houston Astros, Houston Rockets, Houston Texans and to professional tennis.
Contrary to popular belief, McIngvale was NOT a part of the 1969 University of Texas Longhorns national championship football team. That was George McIngvale.
Rather, Jim McIngvale played for the Mean Green of the University of North Texas in Denton, TX. McIngvale was a two-year letterman on the North Texas football team in 1972 and 1973, playing linebacker for coaches Rod Rust and Hayden Fry. He started 10 games in 1973, helping the Mean Green tie for a Missouri Valley Conference championship with a 5-1 league record.
In 2006 he appeared on MTV's "Blowin' Up"
McIngvale is such an icon in Houston that he has begun to spawn imitators. In recent years, Rick Hilton (not to be confused with Rick Hilton, father of socialite Paris) of Hilton Furniture & Mattress has produced commercials in the Mattress Mac vein. Hilton's somewhat overblown sales pitch involves him cutting a mattress in half with a chainsaw to demonstrate how he "cuts prices in half". His children often appear in the commercials with him (coincidentally, he has an infant daughter named Paris).
