J.B. McMath Sr. was a spirited young boy in the early 1900's when his family escaped the Galveston hurricane by moving to Dallas, Texas. He had his first real encounter with God when he was seventeen. J.B. worked in the sign business and as providence would have it, he bought his own sign company in the early 1930's and was commissioned to build the famous Flying Red Horse icon on top of the Magnolia building in downtown Dallas.