By 1978 Northwestern had become the largest manufacturer of golf clubs in both units and dollars, doubling that of the nearest competitor Northwestern manufactured and sold more than 7 million clubs per year. Ravenswood Avenue (coincidentally located just alongside of Northwestern Railway tracks). The company grew and flourished under Nat II, and moved its office and plant from 3505 N. Nat II, at first, steadfastly continued his father’s company motto, “We make golf clubs for the masses NOT the classes!”, and hence continued to sell easily affordable clubs only through department store outlets. took over the day-to-day responsibilities of managing Northwestern’s operations in 1961 when the elder Nat C.
and Leroy, both of whom began working at the company full time as teenagers.
After working for Wilson for a handful of years, the elder Nat Rosasco took his earnings and what he learned about golf club-making and in 1929 founded Northwestern Golf. , who offered Nat a job manufacturing golf clubs. He settled in Chicago and was a neighbor of L.B.
Rosasco Sr., was an expert machinist who emigrated from Genoa, Italy, to the U.S. Long before Scottsdale/Phoenix (AZ), Carlsbad (CA), Fairhaven (MA), Beaverton (OR), or China or Mexico were considered to be the golf club manufacturing centers of the world, it was here in Chicago, Illinois where the most golf clubs were produced, and here is where the Northwestern Golf Company was founded and grew. Penney’s, Wieboldt’s, Goldblatt’s, or perhaps a local hardware store. PGA Superstore, Golfsmith, or Dick’s Sporting Goods, the vast majority of casual golfers bought their clubs at Sears & Roebuck’s, J.C. Long before amateurs made their golf purchases at the ‘big box’ stores like Golf Galaxy, Long before Rickie Fowler played Cobra, long before Fred Couples played Lynx, long before Tom Watson played Ram, and even before Jack Nicklaus developed and sold Golden Bear, there was a manufacturer of golf clubs using an animal logo that was endorsed by a number of golfing greats of their era that animal was a thunderbird, and if you are old enough to recall the likes of Johnny Revolta, Chandler Harper, Dick Metz, Marty Furgol, or George Fazio, then there is a good chance that you owned or used golf clubs that were made by Northwestern Golf Company.