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InnerView:JEG COUGHLIN Sr. |
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The ignition for all this success, though, has been Jeg Sr. Starting out as a local hot rodder in the Columbus area, he soon branched out to building engines for his racing friends. He was good at it, and was able to open Jeg's High Performance in 1960. We'll pick up our interview there and let him tell the rest. DRO: I'm sure you've answered this before, but for newcomers, two elementary questions: Is Jeg your real name and whose voice is on the TV and radio ads? JC: Well, my real name is Edward James Coughlin. I was a red haired child, but my mother didn't like the nickname "Red." My dad's name was Ed, my mom's was Ginny, and they sometimes called me by middle name, James. So my parents took the first letters of our first names and came up with "Jeg." As for the voice on the ads, I don't know who the guy is. You'll have to ask Ray Staggs at our Columbus office. (It was later revealed that the mystery voice was that of former Columbus area disc jockey Steve Mountjoy) The interesting part is that we've been using that voice for 15 to 16 years, but almost got rid of it. After the first three or four years, I got a little tired of it and said something like, 'This is getting a little old. Can we stop it and come up with something different.' We did, but we found out that our customers and the racers already identified with the voice and they wanted it back. So like you do in business, we went 'the customer is always right' route. DRO: How did Jeg's get started? JC: I raced like a lot of teenagers did, and I was pretty good mechanically. In 1960 I was 19 and I had 2 or 3 cars, and I'd meet people and they'd ask me for help on occasion. If I had a specialty, it would be the engine and conversion work. For example, some guy would want to put a Chevy small-block in an MG or a Cadillac in a gas coupe, and I did that pretty well ... certainly well enough to open Jeg's High Performance in 1960.
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Copyright 2000, Drag Racing Online and Racing Net Source |
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Jeg Coughlin Sr., is the founder of Jeg's Mail Order/High Performance,
one of the largest retail and mail order high performance businesses
in the world. The standard black and yellow Jeg's Mail Order logo and
the guy with the deep voice on the radio and television ads ("Jeeeggg'sss")
have made the Columbus, Ohio-based company drag racing household words.
Greatly aiding and abetting the family-run business now run by sons
John (38), Troy (36), Mike(34), and current NHRA Winston Pro Stock world
champ Jeg Jr. (30), is their incredible performance on the dragstrip.
All four sons have won NHRA national and divisional races and rate in
the top dozen of their respective classes.