LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Phones seemed to ring every 10 seconds at Shively Sporting Goods on Monday.

The din was matched by a line of customers snaking from the register along partially stocked walls.

After 53 years, Shively Sporting Goods will be no more — at least in the form most sports families recognize. The company was recently bought by BSN, a national online retailer with ties to investment firm Bain Capital. One of a dwindling number of full-service "mom-and-pop" sports equipment retailers, Shively's sales are being moved exclusively online. 

Before then, everything that isn't nailed to the floor must go.

"I’ve got about $2.5 million worth of product to liquidate," said Brandon Wyatt, a sales manager who has spent 21 years with the company and will be moving on to another job once there is no more to sell.

"You’re just losing the walk-in, 'Hey, can I help you' — you know a couple of dollars here and there. So, I mean, life goes on and sports goes on, it’s just sad."

After the announcement, support poured in online from coaches and parents. For those who remember their origins in youth athletics, a sporting goods store is part of a sacred memory.

For Bellarmine men's basketball coach Scott Davenport, there are many memories to ponder.

"For over 50 years they have been a pillar in this community," he said in an interview with Spectrum News 1. "And I think everybody owes them a big 'Thank you' in any way, shape, or form. Because, the reason we need to thank them, they deserve it. And the reason they deserve it is because they earned it."

Davenport first came to the store when he was 12. He said there was still horse tack on the walls at the time, as Shively outfitted more than human athletes in decades past. He returned as a high school basketball coach, as a father, and even as he reached incredible heights in the sport coaching the University of Louisville and, eventually Bellarmine University across town where he remains today.

Within 30 seconds, Davenport not only agreed to an interview but began lauding the care offered to him by the employees at Shively. Within 30 seconds walking the sales floor Monday, customers could be heard sharing their eulogies of the place that offered them their first ball glove or their daughter's first field hockey stick. All at a reasonable price and all sold by someone whose undivided attention and care were theirs.

The current sales staff has been promised positions in the new online format, so local teams will still have access to the same customer service, only through a landline from now on.

It's a silver lining in the death of an American mainstay.

On Monday, five minutes after closing time, David Palmer hurriedly scanned the picked-over shelves: balls, gloves, a bat, and a bag to carry it all. This brand new little league softball coach tried to get as much as he could for a team yet to take shape.

"Every penny a coach spends, it’s out of your own pocket or somebody’s helping you out," he said. "They gave me a pretty good deal."

One more deal for the kids. A team full of dreamers now awaits the spring.