Frank Lowy
In 1983, Frank Lowy was elected posthumously to the
NSGA Sporting Goods Industry Hall of Fame for his services
to the American Sports Industry.
This is the citation that accompanied his election.
Unicorn Products Ltd.
1983
FRANK LOWY (1901-1969), a native of Budapest, Hungary,
was founder-owner of Unicorn Products Ltd. in Forest
Hill, London, England. He began his career with a 6-Pound
(British) investment and an idea for improving and marketing
darts.
With a background as an apprentice engineer and having
worked in an international patent office, Lowy applied
his knowledge and his newly found interest in the game
of darts to design and patent the "Silver Comet"
dart in 1937. Lowy took the darts, which were sold loose
on market stalls or hardware stores, and packaged them
in sets of three and marketed them through sporting
goods stores.
Lowy's dart manufacturing and marketing was only part-time
until after WWII when the business developed rapidly,
becoming the world's largest and leading manufacturer
of darts, equipment and accessories. He was the first
to market plastic dart flights and to export darts in
substantial quantities.
Frank Lowy was a unique character. He took 6 Pounds
and a single idea, applied his mind and energy to the
equipment for the game of darts, plucked sales from
the street and placed them firmly in the sporting goods
industry. He developed and invented equipment through
which a simple inn game was translated into a world
wide sport and by broadening the range of essential
items for the dart played he provided a year round demand
for sporting goods stores everywhere.
Copyright NSGA