Subway’s founders formed Doctor’s Associates Inc. in 1966. Fred DeLuca and Peter Buck created the company one year after opening their first sandwich shop, using it to oversee the growing restaurant operation.
DeLuca had opened Pete’s Super Submarines in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1965 with a $1,000 loan from Buck. The shop was meant to help DeLuca pay for college, while Buck contributed financial support and business guidance. As more locations appeared, the partners needed a corporate structure to manage the expanding system.
The name Doctor’s Associates reflected both founders’ circumstances: DeLuca hoped the business would fund his medical education, and Buck held a doctorate in physics. It did not mean the company operated medical clinics or that DeLuca was already a doctor.
The sandwich business was renamed Subway in 1972, and franchising followed soon afterward. That later expansion is why the 1966 corporate-formation date is easy to confuse with the chain’s 1965 founding date or its 1972 name change.