The man who broke the PGA color barrier
70 years ago this week the PGA voted to allow black players to enter PGA tournaments, thus breaking the color barrier less than 5 years after Jackie Robinson became the first black player in major league baseball.
What I found astonishing was that the man who was instrumental in this effort was former heavyweight champion Joe Louis.?Louis was an outstanding golfer.?He actually received a local sponsor exemption to play in the San Diego Open 70 years ago this week.?This created a showdown with the PGA that led to the rule change.?
Initially after Joe Louis, as an amateur and two other black professional golfers received sponsor exemptions for the San Diego Open, they were told they could not play in the event because of the ban against non-white players in PGA tournaments.?You can read about this in an article in the January 14, 1952 Los Angeles Times:
Louis was determined to get the rule changed as described in this article in the January 15, 1952 Los Angeles Times:
The next day the PGA approved Louis to play in the San Diego Open because he was a amateur.?But Horton Smith, PGA President (and the first winner of the Masters in 1934) announced that black professional golfer, Bill Spiller, who had posted a qualifying score for the tournament in the Monday qualifying rounds, would not be allowed to play.?The other black professional who had been provided an exemption, Eural Clark, had not qualified to play in the Monday qualifying rounds.?Louis’s approval, but Spiller’s ban is described in the January 16, 1952 Los Angeles Times:
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A day later, Joe Louis, playing as an amateur, became the first black player in a PGA tournament as he played the first round of the San Diego Open.?He was paired with PGA President Horton Smith!?Louis played very well shooting a 76, the same as Jim Turnesa (who won the PGA championship later that year) and one shot better than many PGA professionals including Jerry Barber (1961 PGA Champion).?Only one shot ahead of Louis was the legendary Billy Casper.?Bill Spiller tried to play but was denied.?You can read about the first round play of Louis in the January 18, 1952 Los Angeles Times:
Louis didn’t fare as well the next day and shot 82 to miss the cut.?But he was successful in his efforts to challenge the PGA color barrier.?On January 19, 1952, Horton Smith announced the PGA had voted to lift its ban on black players.?This was reported in the January 20, 1952 Los Angeles Times:
This leads me to propose that the Joe Louis – Horton Smith match in the first round of the 1952 San Diego Open was the most important match of Joe Louis’s sports career as Louis delivered the knockout blow to the color barrier.
Coming on the week of Martin Luther King day, I thought this was an inspirational and fascinating story.
Partner at Holden Advisors. We are a premier pricing, negotiation, and sales performance firm, working with clients to increase their pricing power and equip them to sell and negotiate with greater confidence.
3 年Hi Len, I'll be a lot of people don't know this story (I didn't). Thank you for sharing it, well done.