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Success because of address

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Steve Russell, left, general chairman of the Mid Mon Valley All Sports Hall of Fame, visits Ulice Payne in 2003, when Payne was Milwaukee Brewers president.

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Ulice Payne

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Ulice Payne, far left, and his Ringgold teammates celebrate their WPIAL championship in 1973. Teammate Joe Montana, an NFL Hall of Fame quarterback, is third from the left; coach Fran Lamendola holds the basketball.

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In the middle again, Ulice Payne converses with the Russell brothers – Steve, left, and Jim – after being inducted into the Mid Mon Valley All Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.

Ulice Payne is a globetrotter, and it has nothing to do with his storied basketball past.

He is the owner and founder of Addison-Clifton, a global trade compliance company based in Milwaukee. His firm provides a range of services to assist clients in developing and maintaining management systems geared toward global security.

“It’s similar to the customs law work I used to do,” said Payne, 60, who has 13 employees, including four in a second office in China.

That is but one of 52 countries Payne has visited, making him a true globetrotter instead of a Harlem Globetrotter. Yet his lifetime travels include much more than his frequent journeys abroad.

He was the linchpin of Ringgold High School’s WPIAL championship team in 1973, a 6-foot-5 ½ all-state forward/center with collegiate All-American potential.

After departing Ringgold and his beloved Donora that summer, Payne secured two Division I basketball scholarships; was the sixth man on a national championship team and a Detroit Pistons draftee; earned bachelor’s and law degrees; and has been an MLB executive, a successful attorney and businessman, and a very proud parent.

It has been a whirlwind life, an extended fast break that remains up-tempo.

Payne launched Addison-Clifton in May 2004, employing the first names of his grandfathers, Addison Ross and Clifton Payne, into the corporate name.

“It reminds me of where I came from,” Payne said.

He formed the company at a tumultuous time in his career. Payne had been president and chief executive officer of the Milwaukee Brewers, the first black president of a major league team. He came on board in September 2002 after signing a five-year contract, but a little more than a year later, Payne was out of what seemed to be an ideal position for him.

The Brewers, a floundering franchise at the time, wanted to cut player payroll by 25 percent. Payne was opposed. That precipitated a feud at the top and he accepted a buyout.

“There was a dispute about how the club would be run, and it was primarily about the budget,” he said during a telephone interview last week. “I felt at the time that, after two or three years in a new ballpark (Miller Park) financed by the public, it would be hard to reduce payroll.

“We settled up, and they went their merry way and I went my merry way. I can’t say anything derogatory about the club and they can’t say anything bad.

“It was a great opportunity for me, but a lesson learned.”

Well-versed in customs law, Payne decided to start his current company. This was after 9/11, when so many security measures were employed. A compliance management system became required at a number of companies, “and we provide that compliance management.”

“Besides having a good business, we feel we are helping society.”

Payne’s many travels take him to some global hot spots, including the Middle East, Pakistan and India. There is a demand for Addison-Clifton’s services in these locations.

“They can be tough environments, but that’s where our demographics are.”

Payne has launched an online company as well – sasafrasnet.com – a wholesale distributor of BP and Mobil proprietary gasoline and motor fuel products.

As a teenager, of course, Payne was most readily identified with basketball. He was a standout, especially as a Ringgold senior, when he was selected first-team all-state. Payne was the most-renowned scholastic athlete in the valley in spring 1973, even more than a teammate of future acclaim – Joe Montana, future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback.

The Rams finished 29-2 during the 1972-73 hoops season, winning the WPIAL title in Class A, then the largest classification. They were favored to win a PIAA crown, but went cold in the semifinals and lost to General Braddock, a team it had defeated twice that winter.

Ringgold’s starting lineup featured five outstanding athletes who would distinguish themselves at Division I colleges: Payne, Montana, Mike Brantley (football, Indiana State), Scott Nedrow (Pitt basketball) and Melvin Boyd (Pitt track).

Payne accepted a basketball scholarship to Ohio University, where brother Bernie – a year older – was playing. Bernie transferred to Pitt and Ulice to Marquette, which upset North Carolina for the 1977 NCAA crown. A shoulder injury kept him out of that game, though. He was a starter the next year and lettered three times.

Although he has lived in the Milwaukee area for four decades-plus, Payne remains true to his Donora roots. He and Bernie grew up on First Street with their parents, Ulice Sr. and Mary. Their father was a steelworker at the Wheeling-Pittsburgh mill in Monessen and frequently held a second job. Mary worked full time at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Though steel was popular employment in the Valley, Ulice Sr. dissuaded his sons from pursuing that type of work. He stressed education. Ulice Jr. later secured both of his degrees at Marquette.

He met his wife, Carmella, in Milwaukee and they’ve lived in suburban Brookfield for many years. They have two adult children: Amber, 26, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and is in her final year of law school at Harvard; and Ulice III, 23, a fitness trainer in Minneapolis-St. Paul, who was a four-year starting offensive lineman at the University of St. Thomas (Minn.).

“He’s bigger than me,” Ulice Jr. said. “I’m proud of both of them.”

Ulice Jr. said he tries to return home a few times each year. He watched his 92-year-old aunt, Susan Hunter, get inducted into the Ringgold Hall of Fame in September and attended the Steelers-Oakland game at Heinz Field two months after that. Payne also gets weekly Pittsburgh sports updates from a longtime friend, Keith Hall of West Mifflin.

“I think about how thankful I am to have grown up in the family that I did, and to have grown up in the Valley,” Payne said. “There were so many people with different ethnic backgrounds, a lot of immigrants, most of whom were hard workers.

“Living there taught me some life lessons.”

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