BAD BOYS MORE DIRT ON RODMAN

It was 1990 when Barry Rich and Rod Vilhauer were looking to start an excavation company, the type that primes land for construction, in soon-to-be booming Frisco. Short on cash, the two farmboys asked their old friend Dennis Rodman, then a Detroit Piston, for help. Rodman, the Dallas native whose mood changes more frequently than his hair color, lived with the Rich family in Bokchito, Oklahoma (pop. 607), while attending college. Virtually everyone urged the rogue re-bounder not to waste his money, including coach Chuck Daly and teammate Isiah Thomas.

Not known for taking advice from others, Rodman ignored them and invested $20,000, half of the necessary start-up costs. Now Rodman Excavation, which started with two employees and four pieces of equipment, has grown into one of the largest dirt movers in the Metroplex. Last year the company grossed $14 million in sales, earning its namesake about a 200 percent return on his initial investment.