television commercials were prone to show a Trailways bus pulling into the parking lot of a Holiday Inn hotel. By June 1972, when Wilson was featured on the cover of Time magazine, there were over 1,400 Holiday Inn hotels worldwide. Innovations like the company's Holidome indoor pools turned many hotels into roadside resorts. Wilson retired from Holiday Inn in 1979. In 1988, Holiday Corporation was purchased by UK-based Bass PLC, followed by the remaining domestic Holiday Inn hotels in 1990, when founder Wilson sold his interest, after which the hotel group was known as Holiday Inn Worldwide. Wilson was the founder of many different kind of companies such as Holiday Inn Records. And Orange Lake Country Club. After selling his shares of Holiday Inn, he formed Wilson World, another hotel chain. Basketball team owner In July 1974, Wilson, along with Isaac Hayes, Al Wilson, Mike Storen and others, bought the Memphis Tams franchise in the American Basketball Association. They changed the team to the Memphis Sounds. They quickly built a strong roster, obtaining players such as Mel Daniels and Rick Mount. The team was the most successful pro basketball team that Memphis ever fielded; it finished fourth in the ABA's Eastern Division, advancing to the 1975 ABA Playoffs before losing the Eastern Division semifinal series four games to one to the eventual 1975 ABA champion Kentucky Colonels. Following the season, the Sounds were sold to a group in Baltimore, Maryland, where they moved to become the short-lived Baltimore Claws. Legacy His 1996 autobiography, Half Luck and Half Brains, tells the story of Holiday Inn. Wilson was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1982. In 1965, Wilson received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. The Kemmons Wilson School of Hospitality and Resort Management at the University of Memphis is named in his honor. References Additional reading De Lollis, Barbara. (2007). Holiday Inn chain gives itself a face-lift. USA Today. Retrieved on September 23, 2007 from http://usatoday.com/money/industries/travel/2007-07-19-holiday-inn_N.htm Economist, The. (2003). Kemmons Wilson. Economist, 366 (8313). Retrieved September 12, 2007 from Academic Search Premier. Hendricks, Nancy. (2006). Charles Kemmons Wilson (1913–2003). [Electronic version]. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. Retrieved on September 23, 2007 from http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia Foster, D. Wayne. retrieved from 2008 audio interview recording; https://web.archive.org/web/20100715152543/http://www.holidayinnrecords.com/. Kerr, Robert, & Wilson Kemmons. (1996). Half Luck and Half Brains: The Kemmons Wilson, Holiday Inn Story.