NEW YORK CITY - July 22, 1953
I have traveled back in time, virtually, to New York City, precisely 70 years ago yesterday, to witness a spectacle that has never been again seen in the world of golf - a ticker tape parade for a golfer.
Ben Hogan arrived back in America yesterday, with the claret jug for winning the British Open.
The ocean liner that carried him home was named the United States. When it passed the Statue of Liberty, on it’s way into New York, fire and police boats saluted Hogan. Then “newspaper reporters, photographers, newsreel cameramen and television people boarded the liner,” according to the New York Times.
And when the United States docked at pier 86 at 8:15am, there was a crowd on hand and giant signs that read, “Welcome Hogan.”
4 hours later, Hogan got into the back of a convertible in lower Manhattan to begin the best automobile ride of his life.
Ben Hogan was having a New York City ticker tape parade in his honor.
4 years earlier, Hogan had the worst automobile ride of his life, when he was involved in a near fatal accident. He missed almost an entire year of golf, and he is still a physical wreck here in 1953. He has to wrap his legs to walk a golf course and he can only do it sparingly, playing just a half dozen tournaments a year.
And yet, Hogan, as previously reported in The Sports Time Traveler™, captured the Masters, the U.S. Open and the British Open in this 1953 season.
He became the 1st man to ever win all 3 of those tournaments in the same year.
And no one else has done it since.
You can read or listen to my prior article on Ben Hogan winning the 1953 British Open at this link: Ben Hogan's Victory in the 1953 British Open
150,000 people lined the parade route, and tons of paper rained out of office building windows along the way.
The parade ended at City Hall where New York Mayor, Vincent Impelliterri, told Hogan, “Here you are, the greatest golfer in the world, being introduced by the worst one.”
Hogan told the crowd, “Only in America could such a thing happen to a little guy like me... I have tough skin, but I have a soft spot in my heart, and this tips anything that has ever happened to me… you just want to cry.”
He then received a telegram from President Eisenhower. Mayor Impellitterri read it out loud, “Millions of Americans would like to participate with the New Yorkers today, who are extending their traditional welcome upon your return from your magnificent victory. We are proud of you.”
Today Ben Hogan’s picture appeared on the front page of both the New York Times and the New York Daily News. The Daily News wrote in the caption, “Ben’s Approach is Perfect.”
You can watch a short news reel video of Hogan’s arrival in New York here:
FOLLOW THE SUN
Prior to the ticker tape parade, 3 years earlier, in 1950, after Hogan had made his miraculous return to competitive golf, he became one of the only golfers ever to have his life chronicled in a major Hollywood movie with A-list stars.
The movie about Ben Hogan was called “Follow the Sun,” and starred Glenn Ford as Ben Hogan, and Anne Baxter as Hogan’s wife Valerie. Baxter was an academy award winning actress prior to the making of the movie, and Ford was one of the top box office draws at the time.
You can watch the entire movie for free on YouTube at this link:
In the movie, there are some interesting highlights:
At the 30:20 mark you can see a spectacular view of the 18th hole at the Pebble Beach Golf Links in 1950.
The movie concludes with the playing of the 1950 Los Angeles Open at the Riviera Country Club. This was Hogan’s 1st tournament after the horrific car accident a year earlier.
At the 1:19:45 mark you can see Glenn Ford, portraying Hogan, wearing the wrap around his legs that he needed to walk a golf course.
At the 1:20:20 mark you can see 2 of the biggest golf stars of the 1950s, Cary Middlecoff and Jimmy Demaret, playing themselves teeing off at the 1st hole of the Riviera Country Club for the Los Angeles Open.
SAM SNEAD
Sam Snead also plays himself, and has several appearances in the movie. You see Snead in the locker room at 1:18:15.
Then he sinks a putt to tie Hogan and force a playoff at the 1:27:40 mark.
And at 1:28:10, Snead sinks a putt to win the 1950 Los Angeles Open. Snead then shakes hands with actor Glenn Ford, playing the part of Ben Hogan.
While Hogan did not win, it did not diminish the magnitude of his monumental comeback to tournament golf.
And what a comeback it was.
Starting with the Masters in 1950, in which Hogan finished 4th, he proceeded to finish in the top 10 in 15 consecutive major golf championships that he played in.
I don’t believe anyone else has ever done that.
In addition, beginning with the U.S. Open in 1950, which Hogan won, he started a stretch of 6 out of 8 majors that he played in, in which he was victorious.
Again, I don’t think anyone else has ever had a string of major wins like that.
There is a small caveat in that Hogan, after his accident limited his walking ability, only played the British Open one time, in 1953, and he never played the PGA Championship again until after it was changed to stroke play. During the match play era, the PGA required 36 holes per day for several days in a row, something Hogan’s legs could not endure.
POSTSCRIPT
For Sam Snead, the victory in the Los Angeles Open win was one of his 82 official PGA TOUR victories in his career.
Sam Snead and Tiger Woods are presently tied for the most career PGA TOUR victories at 82.
The Sports Time Traveler™ actually received an informal golf lesson from San Snead in 1986 as we were both playing in the Duke Children’s Classic.
Below is a picture with Slammin’ Sammy and me.
2 weeks after the lesson, I shot my 2nd hole-in-one.
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