Cuban puts a ‘Q’ on ice cream cone
By Jaime Aron
Associated Press

COPPELL — Hundreds of people surrounded a suburban Dallas Dairy Queen on Wednesday to be served lunch by billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

Wearing a navy blue denim shirt and a manger’s badge with the name Tony printed in it, Cuban took orders, made change and pumped his own soft-serve ice cream cones.

“It might not be pretty, but it works,” Cuban said with a smile and a wink as he handed the treat to a happy customer.

Cuban was making good on a promise to the fast-food chain to manage one of its restaurants for a day to see how hard the job is. The company’s challenge came in response to Cuban’s criticism of the NBA’s head of officiating: “I wouldn’t hire him to manage a Dairy Queen.”

The league fined Cuban $500,000 for the comment, the largest against an individual in NBA history.

He left the high-level work, such as making the company’s trademark Blizzard, to more experienced employees.

“This is the best thing to happen to Dairy Queen since the invention of the Blizzard 16 years ago,” said Dean Peters, the company’s head spokesman, who traveled from the Minneapolis headquarters to be part of the event.

Fans and customers began lining up hours in advance. A carnival atmosphere surrounded the store, with inflatable play areas for children, portable basketball games and more than a dozen television and radio stations broadcast live. One TV station even flew its helicopter for an overhead view. The store was handing out free ice cream.

The first customer ordered a strawberry blizzard. “I came here to join in on the festivities,” said James Kelly, who had Cuban autograph a $1 million bill.

TCU Daily Skiff © 2002