Joseph F. Covington, Sr. was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1930 and attended Catholic schools in Alabama and Texas as his family moved about in the south seeking stable work. Senior, as called by his friends, attended John Carroll High School in Birmingham, where he met and later married his wife of 52 years, Ruth. Senior and Ruth were members of the first graduating class of John Carroll, the only Catholic high school in Birmingham.
On June 1st, 1948, the morning following his graduation from high school, Senior began his career in the flooring business by joining the workforce at E.P. Cuthrell Flooring Company in Birmingham. This was to be a summer job at the time he was hired and assigned to drive tractor-trailer rigs hauling floor tile from the New Orleans manufacturing plant back to Birmingham. Eventually, the company assigned him to travel and install the tile flooring across the southeast in housing projects and high-rise buildings including the massive Prudential Insurance Corporate office in Jacksonville, FL.
His work ethic and natural organization skills did not go unnoticed by the owner, Enos Cuthrell. He was made a foreman overseeing the installation of all flooring installed by the company, including thousands of square feet of unit-block wood flooring in residential housing projects in the City of Birmingham along with numerous military housing projects across the southeast.
As the gymnasium business grew, Joe Covington and his men specialized in the installation of an adhesive-applied maple floor marketed by Robbins Hardwood Flooring, and sold under the trade name "Ironbound".
It is no exaggeration to say that Joe, Sr. and his workforce installed a thousand or more maple gym floors in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and the Florida panhandle.
During this timeframe, Robbins was a division of the E.L. Bruce Company and was headquartered in Memphis, TN.
Founded by the Abendroth family of Rhineland, Wisconsin in the early 1920’s, the Robbins Flooring Company operated maple mills in White Lake, WI and Ishpeming, MI to the early 1960's where it was sold to the E. L. Bruce Company of Memphis, Tennessee.
In 1971, Enos Cuthrell sold his flooring company to E.L. Bruce - now a division of Cook Industries. Joe Covington, Sr. was named General Manager for the Birmingham contractor operation and marketed its services under the same Cuthrell name. The company promoted the Robbins brand and quickly became a market-share leader in their trade area.
Being a sister company of Robbins, Cuthrell Flooring was also a testing ground for numerous synthetic products marketed by Robbins, including several new “synthetic” gym surfaces being introduced to the marketplace. These included SportTred, a sheet-vinyl flooring designed to be adhered to concrete, and ProTurf, a seamless poured-in-place urethane gym floor gaining popularity in the collegiate and secondary school market. During this time, Joe Covington traveled throughout the US and Europe, working with other Robbins customer’s crews, to install these new synthetic athletic floor systems. He was considered a great teacher and brought his many years of “hands-on” experience to these training sessions along with forging many long-term personal friendships across the U.S.
By the mid-70’s, Cook Industries experienced financial difficulties and began to divest itself of its numerous subsidiaries. The Cuthrell Flooring Company along with the Bruce and Robbins Flooring operations were sold as separate entities.
A Birmingham-based company desiring to diversify its market presence purchased the Cuthrell Flooring Company operation and its assets in 1977.
Once again, because of his experience, knowledge and organizational skills, Joe Covington, Sr. was named as General Manager of the company now operating under new ownership.
The late 70’s and early 80’s witnessed Cuthrell Flooring working alongside the other “Builder Group” businesses. Cuthrell expanded it network by opening offices in New Orleans and Atlanta in addition to its Birmingham home-office location.
Joe Covington, Sr. became General Manager of the consortium and passed the management of Cuthrell Flooring segment to his son and longtime employee, Joseph F. Covington, Jr.
In the winter of 1982, and following a time when prime interest rate averaged 20%, creditors liquidated the consortium, along with all the sister companies, including the profitable Cuthrell Flooring Company.
Joe Covington, Sr. has always preached a philosophy about life summed up by him saying, "things will work out for the best." In his darkest hours, he, along with his son, invested their life savings to give birth to Covington Flooring Company in 1982.
The very first job secured by the new company was to re-coat the gym floor of a local church. The new father-and-son team called on a relationship previously forged with the pastor. He had faith they would perform, and perform they did. Over the next 40 years, Covington Flooring Company has grown to be a multi-million dollar operation and continues to be the dominant force in athletic and commercial flooring in their trade area.
Joe Covington, Sr. retired from Covington Flooring Company in July of 2002. He continues to visit the office every week and enjoys attending Robbins and MFMA meetings and mentoring with younger men and women following in his footsteps.
As Joe Covington, Sr. leaves the active workplace, he leaves behind a legacy of hard work, determination and a belief that "things really do work out for the best".