Phil Hickey and Jeff Trent had nothing on their minds besides the basketball game on TV when Craig Sager approached them at the Jocks & Jills restaurant in the Galleria mall three months ago.

Sager, a longtime Turner Broadcasting sportscaster and co-founder of the chain of sports bars, wanted the career restaurant executives to buy and operate the troubled company.

Frank Niemeir/AJC (ENLARGE)

Phil Hickey, who sold the Atlanta-based restaurant company Rare Hospitality for $1.19 billion last fall, has set his sights on rejuvenating the Jocks & Jills restaurant chain.

PHIL HICKEY FILE • Age: 53 • Born in Detroit • Graduated from Michigan State in 1977 • Former CEO of Rare Hospitality, sold for $1.19 million to Darden Restaurants in 2006 JEFF TRENT FILE • Age: 54 • Born in Detroit • Graduated from Michigan State in 1976 • Former chief of operations for Peter Morton's Hard Rock Cafe BUSINESS Latest Headlines: [an error occurred while processing this directive] • More business news • Business photo galleries

Hickey wasn't interested. Jocks & Jills had gone bankrupt a year before in the midst of a protracted sexual harassment suit. And he was enjoying working part time as a consultant after selling the Atlanta-based restaurant company Rare Hospitality for $1.19 billion last fall.

But Trent offered to do the brunt of the work as chief operator, and Hickey became convinced that the restaurant's brand had potential.

So nine days after having no interest in owning Jocks & Jills, Hickey purchased the company.

It was an unlikely career move for a man who has been called one of the best CEOs in the business. Eight months after he left a job running a company with 330 restaurants and 20,000 employees, he has become the co-owner of a company with four restaurants, 160 employees and allegations of mismanagement at the highest level.

Now Hickey and Trent must restore profitability to the company in a time of $4 gas, consumer insecurity and high food prices.

"If anybody can do it, it would be Phil Hickey," said Mark Newton, program director of the hotel, restaurant, tourism management program at Gwinnett Tech.

Rise and fall

Jocks & Jills was founded in 1987 by Sager and two Atlanta Hawks players. The company enjoyed early success and eventually there were 10 restaurants and a catering company.

The company's downward slide started with a sexual harassment lawsuit filed in 2000 by one of its managers. The manager, Tracey Tomczyk, lost initially, but on appeal she won a $2.25 million award.

In the 2006 ruling, Jocks & Jills was ordered to pay $1.25 million, and the company filed for bankruptcy protection on March 19, 2007.

Former company chairman Joseph Rollins, who was ordered to pay $1 million to Tomczyk, has appealed, and a third trial is pending.

The sexual harassment suit was not the only factor driving the company toward Chapter 11. A document filed on April 28, 2008, alleged that Rollins' actions — including profane interactions with important landlords and payment of more than $1.8 million in unauthorized "management fees" — had imperiled Jocks & Jills. Rollins' attorney, Denise Dotson with Atlanta firm Jones & Walden, declined comment.

The company closed some of its most visible and profitable locations at the CNN Center, in the Brookhaven neighborhood and its original restaurant on 10th Street in Midtown. Two company-owned restaurants, at the Galleria Mall and in Charlotte, N.C.; a franchise in Canton; and a licensed location in Macon continue to operate.

The company had been so devalued, Hickey was able to purchase its assets from bankruptcy court on April 2 for $373,500. (Sager, who is still a co-owner of the company, put up another $41,500.)

"It was a fair price to pay, given the uncertainty," Hickey said.

Looking forward

The new owners have no intention of dwelling on the past. On the same day Hickey purchased the company, he told the secretary to answer the phone identifying the restaurant as "the new Jocks & Jills."

Hickey and Trent haven't contacted any of the NBA players who helped create the restaurant, and they have no plans to speak with Rollins.

"Decisions were made at the highest level to cause the company pain," Hickey said. "It wasn't a brand issue. It was a leadership issue."

Hickey and Trent are facing an uphill climb in rejuvenating the restaurant. First, they're understaffed. Jocks & Jills' three-room corporate office has two occupants: Trent and a part-time secretary.

"We are lean from an administrative standpoint," Trent quipped.

Also, they're up against competition that didn't exist when Jocks & Jills was founded. Sports fans now have a plethora of established restaurants to choose from, including the Fox Sports Bar, the ESPN Zone, Champions and Taco Mac, not to mention hundreds of restaurants that simply feature a bar and a TV.

The new owners have spent the past two months compiling a list of needed improvements, from updating the Web site to revising the menu. Eventually, they hope to open more locations, but first they plan to shore up current operations.

Parallel paths

Hickey and Trent have taken nearly parallel paths to their current positions at Jocks & Jills. They grew up in the same Detroit neighborhood and attended Michigan State, although they didn't meet until they were paired together to open a Houlihan's in San Diego in 1976. After several years with the company, Trent stayed in California to become director of operations at Peter Morton's Hard Rock Café, and Hickey moved east.

Since then Hickey has earned a reputation as something of a turnaround artist. He reinvented a restaurant concept in Nashville and then helped pull Rio Bravo out of the red in time to be purchased by Applebee's for $66 million in 1994.

More recently Hickey took charge at Rare Hospitality — operator of LongHorn Steakhouse, the Capital Grille and Bugaboo Creek Steak House — and in 10 years increased the company's market capital from $90 million to $1.2 billion.

For Hickey and Trent, who have 64 years of restaurant experience between them, running Jocks & Jills is a chance to tackle yet another challenge as well as reunite 32 years after entering the business together.

"To be around sports and great food can't be beat," Trent said. "Makes you want to wake up everyday."

JOCKS & JILLS TIMELINE

• 1987: The company's founders — sportscaster Craig Sager and Atlanta Hawks players Randy Wittman and Scott Hastings — open the first restaurant on 10th Street in Atlanta.
• 1996: The first Jocks & Jills outside of metro Atlanta is opens in Charlotte, N.C.
• 2000: Manager Tracey Tomczyk files a lawsuit alleging company chairman Joseph Rollins wrongfully dismissed her after making lewd sexual and racist comments.
• 2006: A jury trial returns a $2.25 million verdict in favor of Tomczyk. The verdict was appealed, and another trial is pending.
• 2007: The company files for bankruptcy and closes several of its locations.
• 2008: Phil Hickey purchases the company's assets from bankruptcy court. Only four out of 10 restaurants are still open.