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From growing up poor and fatherless in a tough Italian neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, likened to that of the film “Goodfellas,” to building a Burger King franchise empire in the mountainous West of Utah, John Gullo’s story is a quintessential example of the classic rags-to-riches tale.
Yet for this entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist, the “riches” never equated to the money he made. Gullo innately knew early in life that it was about giving back.
“It’s more important to be happy than it is to make money. And that’s a belief of mine. And when you ask me about my business, I never got into it to make money,” he told Fox News Digital.
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Now 82, Gullo, who during his career opened a total of 54 franchises in Utah, Arizona and Wisconsin — including the first-ever Burger King attached to a gas station, in Hurricane, Utah — is sharing his life’s journey.
From his first stint as a night manager at the fast-food chain to establishing the nonprofit American Dream Foundation with seed money from his business success and becoming the designated “Father of Professional Pickleball,” it’s all in his memoir, “Extraordinary Adventures of an Ordinary Man.”
Gullo refers to the title as “the caption for my life.” He wrote the book, which can be found on Amazon, with the help of author Bridget Cook-Burch.
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The reason he decided to sell his restaurants, he said, was because he wasn’t working with the kids anymore.
“I wasn’t actively involved in the day-to-day operation, and I missed that,” he said.
“Everything I do with kids is a life lesson, so when I wrote the book, I did life lessons after each chapter with the hope that kids are going to read this thing and people are going to see it, and they’re going to learn from it,” Gullo added, noting his belief that, for some reason, he has been spiritually inspired all of his life.
“Giving is just very important to me — it’s very rewarding to me,” he said, noting that the philanthropy piece of his life has always been there. “…Maybe it’s because when you have nothing, you appreciate everything so much more.”
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As documented in the recent Deseret News article “How Utah’s Burger King king became the king of giving back,” Gullo has, for the last quarter-century, focused strictly on helping people and organizations that help people. In essence, his projects have served children, teens, families, classrooms, firefighters and those with disabilities.
His philanthropic efforts have gone to dozens of charitable endeavors and organizations, including Prevent Child Abuse and the Children’s Justice Center. He’s been behind the Ogden, Utah-based Enable Industries, which serves people with disabilities, as well as the American Fallen Fire Memorial, Youth in Transition, the Ogden Police Department’s Let’s Play Program, and the Treehouse Children’s Museum.
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The latter includes the American Freedom Trail, which every fifth-grader in Weber County can take a field trip to. It’s just one piece of what Gullo’s American Dream Foundation has funded since 2002, with more than $2 million going toward charitable causes.
Gullo is all about emphasizing the freedom to have your own opinions and the opportunities this nation has afforded him, which he’s expressed in patriotic videos featured on his foundation’s website.
“I think it’s important that the kids know the price that was paid to give them the right to burn the flag. The patriotism that existed at that time, the love of country at that time, it’s disappearing,” he explained. “We’re so segmented right now, and I do everything I can to offset that.”
Gullo himself said he has a lot of friends on both sides of the political aisle, but regardless of their beliefs, they’re able to remain friends.
“We disagree, that’s OK,” he said.
He specifically noted his friendship with former NBA player Thurl Bailey, who now does color commentary for the Utah Jazz and wrote the foreword for Gullo’s book. The two have collaborated for 20 years on charitable events.
“What this country needs more of is to have a relationship like ours,” Gullo said, noting that the two are totally different but are “brothers from another mother” and are united in how they care about people.
“We care about things and we work together. And there’s just not enough of that in the United States anymore,” Gullo said, noting his pursuit to bring organizations and people together.
Bailey called meeting Gullo at a charity event where Gullo purchased an auction item that involved Bailey giving a keynote speech at an Ogden youth program for underprivileged kids “fortuitous.”
“That’s when I really started to find out what a charitable man he was — a man successful in business in his own right, but you would never know it because he’s just so giving,” Bailey told Fox News Digital.
Later, during some country music concerts in Ogden sponsored by Gullo, the two would realize they had parallel lives growing up.
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“We clicked on a lot of levels when it came to our backgrounds, even though mine turned into sports and his into business and philanthropy. We both connected on the giving side,” he said.
So where does pickleball come into Gullo’s story?
He has credited the sport with saving his life after heart failure and first discovered the game while recovering from quintuple bypass heart surgery in 2008.
It helped him lose 100 pounds and inspired him to get courts built throughout Northern Utah — hundreds of them, in fact. He went on to found the Professional Pickleball Federation and the Tournament of Champions, a national event with prize money donated from his own pocket.
All of that has led to his induction into the Pickleball Hall of Fame in 2024 for his contributions to the growth of the sport, which has skyrocketed in popularity. He’s officially been dubbed the “Father of Professional Pickleball.”
“This is the most social game ever invented. You just got to show up. You don’t have to get three guys to play golf or tennis or anything like that,” Gullo said. “…What other sport do you know where a guy like me can partner with a 24-year-old kid in a tournament and be part of it? That’s what makes this sport so great.”
A proud father of two sons, Gullo continually emphasizes the difference between positive mistakes and negative ones to the younger set.
“A positive mistake is when you’re trying to do something and you make a mistake. I can live with that. A negative mistake is when you screw up because you don’t do anything. It’s that simple,” he said, noting he also tries to keep his own grandkids on track.
“After COVID, I sat down with them and said, ‘What did you learn?’ And after some discussion, I said, COVID taught you the difference between wants and needs. What did you go without that you really don’t need in your life? Because when I was a kid, everything was a want, everything was a need because we had nothing.”
He credits the Jaycees, a civic and leadership training organization for young adults, with bringing him out of his shell and instilling in him the importance of leadership through community service.
“When I joined the Jaycees, I was an introvert, but the Jaycees really turned me around… and that’s where I learned a lot about my business and charity life because all of a sudden you’re in charge of a project and you have to get people to help you,” he said. “You’re not paying them, and you might not even like them, so I learned that part of human relations through that process …”
Now, as he undertakes a program with Thurl at Ogden High School featuring his book and leadership training, Gullo looks back and is still amazed at what he’s been able to accomplish, sometimes even making fun of certain triumphs, like being the first to put a fast-food restaurant in a gas station of any kind.
“…I went to Russia and I saw McDonald’s and a gas station and I said, ‘Father, forgive me, I know not what I do,’” he quipped.
Mostly, it’s when he realizes his American Dream Foundation has donated more than $2 million since 2002 that he stands in disbelief. In true Gullo style, all the proceeds from his book will go to charity.
“I didn’t go to college, barely got out of high school… you’re talking to a guy that grew up in poverty,” Gullo said. “I realized it took the same amount of energy to cry as it does to laugh, and the choice is mine.”
“The power of one means one person can do a lot,” he added.
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“John’s a man who cares about a lot of things, but is passionate about giving,” Bailey added. “He’s a giver. The world needs more John Gullos.”
