Six-decade career fits like a glove

By David Mullen

Since 1934, Nokona Athletic Goods Company has been making high quality baseball gloves. As the 2022 baseball season is about to begin, Nokona is the only U.S.-based manufacturer of baseball gloves remaining. And Helen Ulbig has been there along the way for nearly every fly ball and bad hop that has settled into a Nokona mitt.

Ulbig is celebrating 60 years with the company. She was the first female employee in the group’s history, breaking the glass, or more appropriately, leather ceiling.   

“It went by fast,” said Ulbig.” I got out of [business school] and I put out a bunch of applications, but I didn’t put one in at Nokona. Mr. [owner Bob] Storey called me and said: ‘I understand that you are looking for a job. Why don’t you put in an application?’ So, I put in my application, he interviewed me, and I went to work the next day.” That day was March 30, 1962.

The company started in 1926 as Nokona Leather Goods Company in Nocona, Texas, a town of about 3,000 people less than two hours northwest of Dallas. “It’s a pretty little town,” Ulbig said. “They have come in and modernized the buildings. It is a place where a lot of people come. We have a Mardi Gras here in February.” Although founded in Nocona, the factory is named Nokona because, Storey said, “That’s how the Indians spelled it.”  

“We were making billfolds and moccasins,” Ulbig said. “But when I first worked there, we also made football equipment. Mr. [Bob] Storey made the first football. We made the helmets, the shoulder pads and the thigh guards. I can remember, in the office, we used to help put the decals on the helmets.”

 Ulbig began as the first woman in an office with more than 75 male employees.  “It was nice. The gentlemen I worked with were real good to me. They were all like brothers,” Ulbig said. “They were like my family.” Ill prepared to welcome the first female employee, Nokona’s offices did not have a woman’s bathroom. “At that time you shared. You just made sure that the door was locked.”

  She began as an office clerk and now handles the company payroll. But she has gotten involved in the production process, and even laced their signature baseball gloves. “Lacers do that [regularly],” Ulbig said. “But one time, I wanted to learn how to lace a glove. So, I laced a glove.”

Office and factory automation is the biggest change she has witnessed during her tenure. “I was glad when we went to computers,” Ulbig said, “because now you can do all the work in half the time. We used to do everything manually.” 

While humans are involved in the entire glove making process, machines play roles in “clicking,” a practice that cuts the leather from an overhead blade. “In the factory, the technology is much better out there,” Ulbig said. “When we have to do our clicking of the glove, you used to have to click one piece at a time. Now, with this new machine we have, you lay out the patterns and it will cut the whole pattern at one time.   

“I have always been dedicated to my job. I really do love it. There aren’t too many days that I have missed.” Seventy-five percent of Nokona’s staff is now made up of women.

Nokona has adapted during sudden economic and business difficulties. In 1942, during World War II, the U.S. Office of Procurement awarded Nokona a contract to produce ball gloves for servicemen. In July 2006, the Nokona factory at Walnut and Baylor Streets caught fire and burned for two days. All employees were paid throughout the business interruption and, after 51 days, Nokona employees got back to making gloves in the former Nocona Boot Company factory.  

And in 2020, the pandemic hit. “During COVID, I worked from home for about a year,” Ulbig said. “We kept the business going by making masks.” As a recognized leader in baseball gloves, Nokona produced replica vintage mitts for the movies “Field of Dreams” and “A League of Their Own.” Throughout a six-decade career, Ulbig has seen the biggest changes in the gloves themselves.

“Now, we have a lot of custom made gloves where you can have different kinds of leathers and colors,” Ulbig said. “They are just really pretty when they come out.”

Heading up payroll, Ulbig has come in contact with every employee, but sees the same type of commitment from workers, even the freshest. “They like that cell phone,” Ulbig said of the younger crew. “We have a little problem with that. But we have a lot of families that have been working for generations with us.”

Premium ball gloves are handcrafted, using the world’s highest quality leathers. Many of the workers have dedicated their lives to producing the finest baseball and softball gloves. Each glove is individually cut, stamped, stitched, laced and embroidered. In 1999, President Donald J. Trump invited one company from each state to participate in the “Great American-Made Product Showcase” at the White House. Nokona represented Texas. All Nokona items are designed in the U.S. Their “Made N USA” stamp shows that Nokona gloves and belts are made entirely or almost entirely (some leather comes from Australia) in the U.S. Any item that needs repair is sent directly to the Texas factory. 

“When we watch a game on TV, we always see if we can find a Nokona glove,” said Ulbig, who still works full time. She has no children and lives with her dog, Shorty. “He’s a little dachshund and he wears a Nokona collar.”

A celebration marking Ulbig’s 60th anniversary will be held on Wednesday, March 30 at 12:30 p.m. at the Veranda Events Center in Nocona. She is not sure how the company will honor her. “I don’t know because I’ve never seen anyone with 60 years.”

A glove gilded in gold is out of the question. Although Ulbig is deserving, the Gold Glove is already reserved for the best fielders in professional baseball. But who knows? Those slick fielders at the Major League level may be wearing a Nokona glove, and Ulbig will be watching.