The kitchen at Bulldog Pizza is dominated by one appliance - an enormous six-foot-wide Blodgett deck oven that’s nearly as tall as it is wide. Ken Wright (‘96) is next to it, forming a rough circle of scratch-made pizza dough in his hands. He feeds the rough dough into a machine and out rolls a wide, thin circle. He feeds it in again, then drapes the enormous piece of dough over his hands. It looks like cloth, off-white, the form of his knuckles visible on the delicate surface.
Then he launches it.
The crust lifts into the air, spinning. He catches it and tosses it again and again, the dough more delicate with each throw. Catching it for the last time, he sets it on a pizza peel, uses a blank to measure and then cuts a perfect circle.
“I think I’ve made half a million pizzas,” says Wright. His last count was around 490 thousand, “and that was a while ago.” Wright is the owner of Bulldog Pizza and Grill, where he’s been throwing crusts since the early eighties, when he was pursuing a degree in history and political science at UMD.
“The whole UMD experience was good,” Wright said, “but it went fast.”
From classes to professors and intramurals, he valued the broad perspective and understanding he took from his liberal arts education. But during his senior year, his boss told him he was looking to sell. The opportunity was exciting and Wright saw new possibilities with the business. So, despite being only a few more credits from graduation, he quit school and “all of a sudden, I'm buying a business in 1986.”
First, he decided on a new brand, a nod to his alma mater across the street. “We'll name it ‘Bulldog,’” he said.
During the next decade, Wright–with help from UMD’s Small Business Administration–built a successful company, and a community mainstay.
Even so, his nearly completed degree nagged at him. Among the many regulars was his old advisor and professor Craig Grau. “He'd always say, ‘When are you coming back, Ken? Can you finish up those classes?’ He kind of kept after me,” Wright said. “I’d spent all that time, and I was so close, right?”
“After 11 years, I went back and finished my degree at UMD and had a greater appreciation of what UMD had to offer,” Wright said. He picked up where he left off, putting that new perspective and new focus to work. “I was the nontraditional student in the front row, answering all the questions.”
“I guess what I enjoyed when I went back,” Wright said, “was just the fact that I was going to finally finish it.” He graduated in 1996 with a major in political science and a minor in history. When asked why he didn’t get a business degree, he quips that he got his business degree in the school of hard knocks.
Now that he’s achieved his goal of completing his degree, he’s able to focus on the future, and the legacy he’s created at Bulldog Pizza. His biggest point of pride? Through those half a million pizzas, he’s been able to serve several generations of Bulldogs. “It's fun to see that.”
Wright’s story is a testament to the fact that it’s never too late to pursue your goals. You just have to pace yourself, and take them one class–and one pizza–at a time.
