Frank Liberto of Ricos Products Company and Liberto Specialty Company will be honored with the 2004 National Association of Concessionaires' Mickey Warner Award. The award will be presented Thursday, June 17 at the Membership Luncheon during the NAC Annual Convention & Trade Show in St. Louis.

The Mickey Warner Award is named for the originator of the NAC Concession Manager Certification program, and a great innovator and educator for the concessions industry. "We are pleased to honor Frank for his longevity and leadership in the industry as well as his steadfast support and commitment to NAC," said NAC President Chris Bigelow of The Bigelow Companies. Liberto is the third person to be honored with this award; previous winners are Shelley Feldman, NAC director of education, and Walter Dunn of The Coca-Cola Company.

Frank Liberto has been in the concessions industry for almost 40 years, and is the third-generation family members to run Liberto Specialty Company, an 86-year-old wholesale distributor of concession supplies and equipment. Liberto began his career at an early age, hawking food items at local San Antonio parades and festivals, and worked part-time in the family business while in high school. He graduated from St. Mary's University with a degree in marketing and became a management trainee at Liberto Specialty. While at St. Mary's, Frank was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in Field Artillery, and spent six months on active duty and ending his twelve years in the active reserve as a captain.

While at Liberto Specialty, Frank also founded Dine-A-Mite Foods, a chain of snack bars operating in shopping centers, malls and discount stores, as well as Await Concessions, which operated all food concessions at Joe Freeman Coliseum. Frank was made general manager of Liberto Specialty in the early 1960's.

Frank's vision for the company included growth, and he acquired many companies that are now part of the Liberto Family of Companies. In 1980 he founded Ricos Products Company, named for his father Enrico "Rico" Liberto. The Liberto Family of Companies now includes: Liberto of San Antonio, Liberto of Dallas, Liberto of Harlingen, Liberto of Colorado, Liberto of North Carolina, Liberto of Houston, Liberto Manufacturing, Liberto Management, Ricos Products, Ricos Manufacturing, and The Associate Network of Distributors (A.N.D.I.), a computer-based service bureau which allows retail chains to buy from several distributors.

Frank Liberto is widely known as "The Father of Nachos" in the industry for introducing nachos to the stadium/arena market in 1976 at Texas Rangers Stadium. After their introduction to a nationwide audience during a Monday Night Football Game, Liberto found he still had to convince concessionaires to try out his new item. He sampled them at trade shows and traveled around the country touting his product. He dutifully proved to his colleagues that nachos did not cannibalize other sales. It had the opposite effect - sales increased, particularly of soft drinks and beverages. Nachos were determined to be new money, and increased per caps.

Frank's involvement with the National Association of Concessionaires dates back to 1970, when he joined the NAC board as a regional vice president, a position he has held continually since then. He has been active in holding regional meetings and seminars in his region, and is a recipient of the NAC Bert Nathan Memorial Award, for leadership and involvement in the theatre concessions industry.

Frank has volunteered and is a member of many charitable and business organizations. He served on the St. Mary's University Alumni Board, and the Variety Club of Texas Board, and has been or is a member of The Texas Restaurant Association, the National Restaurant Association, United States Chamber of Commerce, San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Knights of Columbus, The Alhambras International, National Association of Wholesale Distributors, National Federation of Independent Businesses, and the San Antonio Crime Council.
Mickey Warner (1920-1995) had a passion to give recreational foodservice its professional place. His passion led to the innovation of certification programs, an industry textbook, and an NAC university chair.

In the early 1980's, Warner discussed the idea of funding university-level research and teaching with then-NAC president Shelley Feldman. The NAC Board established a chair at Florida International University's, School of Hospitality Management.

In 1985, at the age of 65, Warner entered a doctorate program at the College of Education at FIU to perform research in recreational foodservice management. Within two years, he completed the entire required curriculum, passed the comprehensive examination and presented his research topics on the competencies of a recreational foodservice manager to the dissertation committee. He was turned down because of a lack of "body of knowledge."

Not to be defeated, Warner set out to establish a "body of knowledge" by producing an all-encompassing textbook, Recreational Foodservice Management, which is the cornerstone of the NAC certification program today. During the busy summer of 1988 Warner wrote the textbook, established an undergraduate course at FIU, and established a new, one-level certification program for NAC. The next fall Warner represented his request for research to the doctoral committee and was approved.

The National Association of Concessionaires was founded in 1944 to serve the recreational and leisure-time food and beverage concessions industry as a network and resource for operators, suppliers, manufacturers and distributors. Association services include publications, educational seminars and training programs, convention and trade shows and other programs for the concessions industry.