Hillerich & Bradsby is typical of many American golf club manufacturing companies in that for many years it was extremely prosperous in another endeavor before entering the golf club market. Founded before the Civil War, the product with which the company has been associated for over a century is the baseball bat although their golf business recently saw its 75th anniversary.

J. Michael Hillerich (pronounce the old German way: "Hillerick") emigrated from Baden-Baden, Germany to the United States in 1842 first landing in Baltimore and later resettling in Louisville. His son, J. Frederic, adopted the elder Hillerich's trade and by 1859 had opened his own cooperage business. Obtaining lathes, he branched into turning work like roller skids, bed posts, handrails eventually producing his first sporting goods: bowling pins and wooden bowling balls.

Eighteen year old John A. "Bud" Hillerich established the family sporting goods presence in 1884 when he turned the company's first baseball bat for a famous local diamond star Pete "The Old Gladiator" Browning. That bat was known as the "Falls City Slugger" for a couple years before the company began using the now infamous name "Louisville Slugger."

New blood and marketing ideas entered the company in 1912 when Frank Bradsby, a sporting goods buyer from the Simmons Hardware Company joins the Hillerichs as their sales manager. He quickly bred success and in 1916 the new Hillerich & Bradsby Company entered the golf market mainly as a supplier to retail companies including Simmons. Like MacGregor, their woodworking equipment was first used to turn shafts and heads before it was realized they could assemble clubs just as easily as make the parts.

The first H & B clubs made were privately branded for stores but within a few years they introduced their own line. These early clubs were simply stamped Hillerich & Bradsby Co., Louisville. They were followed in about 1918 with the Par X-L models which were aimed at low handicap golfers and often had the mark of a hand holding a hammer signifying their hand forged construction.

In the early 1920s, two other lines were introduced including their best known series: the Grand Slam set. With its easily recognizable brand mark of a hand holding a winning trick of playing cards, it was the company's biggest selling line.

The Grand Slam was quickly followed by the Kernel set, an affectation of the company's "Kentucky Colonel" heritage. Both of these sets were optionally available with the patented H & B "Kork" grip. Other models selling in the 1920s and early 1930s included the LoSkore and Lady LoSkore sets.

The first H & B autograph model displayed the name of Stewart Maiden, the Carnoustie-born professional whose brother Jimmy gained fame as Bobby Jones's first golf instructor in Atlanta. Many of the Maiden models were fitted with the flat-sided DuBow power shafts. Because of their strong retail orientation, the also produced many junior and juvenile clubs.

For many years H & B’s target market was the retail store customer with the company utilizing the same distribution channels as they did for baseball. But in the 1930s, they began courting the quality customer with their top of the line Pebble Beach model woods, aimed at competing with the MacGregor Chieftain. Made from the finest materials, they were easily recognizable by the gold plated grip butt cap where most other clubs either had aluminum or plastic. With these clubs, H & B turned the corner to steel shaft production and began producing their quality PowerBilt line, forerunner to their Citation series.

Hillerich & Bradsby is still in the thick of the golf business today although their manufacturing facilities are now across the Ohio River in Jeffersonville and New Albany, Indiana.

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