Issac Sewell (September 9, 1903 – August 20, 1990) was an American athlete, businessman, entrepreneur, and founder of the

Uno Chicago Grill Uno Pizzeria & Grill (formerly Pizzeria Uno and Uno Chicago Grill), or more informally as Unos, is a franchised pizzeria restaurant chain under the parent company Uno Restaurant Holdings Corporation. Uno Pizzeria and Grill is best known for its ...

restaurant chain that originated in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, as well as founder of the Pizzeria Uno and Pizzeria Due restaurants there in 1943 and 1955, respectively. Sewell started as an All-

Southwestern Conference The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United States. It participates in ...

guard as a player on the

Texas Longhorn football The Texas Longhorns football program is the intercollegiate team representing the University of Texas at Austin (variously Texas or UT) in the sport of American football. The Texas Longhorns, Longhorns compete in the NCAA Division I Football ...

teams from 1926 to 1929.

Biography

Early life and career

Sewell was born in Wills Point, Texas, 50 miles east of

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

, and grew up in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_ ...

. A graduate of the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, Sewell achieved both All-Southwest Conference (SWC) and All-American honors as a guard on the Longhorn football squad. Sewell was a member of the

Sigma Chi Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. The fraternity has 244 active (undergraduate) chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more t ...

fraternity.

Pizzeria Uno and Su Casa restaurants

In 1943 Sewell opened Pizzeria Uno restaurant at the corner of Ohio Street and Wabash Avenue in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, offering the first Chicago deep dish pizza. He had originally intended to open a Mexican restaurant. Ric Riccardo and Sewell would eventually expand and open up another restaurant, Pizzeria Due, just a block away from Pizzeria Uno, in 1955. Sewell would also open up the Chicago area's first upscale

Tex-Mex Tex-Mex cuisine (from the words ''Texan'' and ''Mexican'') is an American cuisine that derives from the culinary creations of the ''Tejano'' people of Texas. It has spread from border states such as Texas and others in the Southwestern United ...

restaurant, Su Casa, in 1963.

Death

Just 20 days before his 87th birthday, Sewell died in

Northwestern Memorial Hospital Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) is a nationally ranked academic medical center located on Northwestern University’s Chicago campus in Streeterville, Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship campus for Northwestern Medicine and the primary ...

in Chicago on August 20, 1990 after suffering from a lengthy bout with leukemia for several years. He was survived by his wife Florence Davis as well as his children and several grandchildren.Ike Sewell, 87; Developed Thick-Crust Pizza, Dubbed It Chicago-Style, (obituary), LA Times, 8-27-1990, accessed 9-20-2010.
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References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sewell, Ike 1903 births 1990 deaths Fast-food chain founders American restaurateurs Texas Longhorns football players People from Dallas People from San Antonio People from Wills Point, Texas Deaths from leukemia 20th-century American businesspeople