Ed Wheatley, A New Book & St. Louis Sports History 101-Sunday, -Golf With Jay Delsing

This is golf with Jay Delsingh. A two-time college All-American at UCLA. A participant in nearly 700 PGA Tour events.

Seven professional wins to his credit. Over 30 years of professional golf experience. This is Golf with Jay Delsingh. Good morning, this is Golf with Jay Delsingh. I'm your host, Jay. I've got Pearly with me. Pearly, good morning. How are you? Good morning, Jay. Happy Thanksgiving.

I'm looking forward to Christmas and doing the show this morning. Let's put it that way. Right on. So, guys, I apologize a little bit for my voice here.

I had a great trip with my grandkids and I think I picked up a little something from Alabama. But, anyway, we're glad to be with you. We formatted the show like a round of golf.

The opening segment is the On the Range segment. It's brought to you by the Gateway section of the PGA. We so appreciate their support here on the show. I need to say this and I've really been bad. I want to say that the Golf with Jay Delsingh show is brought to you by our title sponsor is Darty Business Solutions. We really appreciate Darty. We're doing a lot of fun things together. They are a community powerhouse and we so appreciate their support.

But, like we said, we're on the On the Range segment. One of the things that we do here is we give away golf balls. So, they're tailor-made TP5 golf balls from our buddy, Jeff Thornhill. So, send me an email, jatjdelsinghgolf.com, and you will be entered. This is week 49 and we have sent out 48,000 golf balls this year. And it's pretty cool getting a lot of really fun fan mail. My mail bag is completely full with questions and things like that.

So, if we have time today, we can try to get to those. Well, let's just jump into the show. Got a repeat visitor on the show, Ed Wheatley, who is a true blue, fully encompassed St. Louisan, and he's got a new book out. And it's really, really a fun read. And it's called St. Louis Sports Memories. It's Ed's fifth book. And I had no idea about most of the things in that book, John. People are more fired up about St. Louis than you are, but I think he might have the edge on it. Oh, no, there's no question about that.

There's no question. He's dug into the details. And what fun stories and what fun information. It made me think about a lot of different things because, you know, there's only so much information that gets through to the public, if you will, or through to the general masses. And you and I know behind the scenes how different things actually are than sometimes what seeps through and becomes the story.

So this is a book about that. And but with with just great detail and interest. I just loved it. I started looking up some of the names you guys were throwing around after I was listening to the interview and just a lot of fun. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I really, really enjoyed it.

But so we're going to talk and break that down a little bit after his interview. Lydia Ko won the CME Championship, the Tour Championship on the LPGA last week and overtook Nellie Korda, kind of our favorite, our favorite LPGA player on the golf with Jay Delsing show as world number one. And what a what an incredible and an impressive win for her. She won the largest. She won two million dollars that week, John. Largest purse on the LPGA tour and a killer year.

Almost set the yearly earnings record by a few hundred dollars behind Lorena Ochoa. And I sit there and I feel like Lydia Ko's 42 years old. You know, she's been around forever. She's nearly qualified for the LPGA Hall of Fame.

John, she's 25 years of age. It's just amazing. That's amazing. And the fact that she had fallen quite a bit and now she's coming back and taking on Nellie Korda, who in some ways to me looks like she's invincible out there with her with her game. And so it's it's so interesting to to see the battling it out. We have so much to look forward to in the in the future with those two.

Oh, my gosh. I mean, there are so many good players and it seems like every year, John, another two or three South Korean women that were not household names pop up and, you know, knock off a major or two. So the competition's great. Hats off to Lydia Ko, her perseverance and our game. It's it's interesting to John the contrast between Nellie Korda and Lydia Ko and the way they go about it and their abilities to do what they do. They're not really related.

I love that you brought that up. That's one of the beauties of the game is there's so many different ways to get it done and and they're showing us. I don't know enough about the distance between those two. How much distance is there, you know, off the tee irons in general, quite a bit, quite a bit. I don't know exactly, but I could do some a deeper dive in the world next time because I think it's interesting for our peeps to to check out and learn about because in the men's game, it's all about power.

It's all about power. If you're not over 300 yards off the tee, you're nowhere on the on the on the men's tour. That is not the case on the LPGA tour. There are women that are smashing it like Nellie, but Lydia Ko is not one of those. I'm not saying she's super, super short, but she goes about it in an entirely different way.

It's an amazing difference. Just the whole approach physically, etc. But again, fun to watch. And one of the beauties of the game is that you can do it differently. Clearly, guys in the on the on the guys who are sure they're here at different distances, but they go about playing quite differently to at least some of them.

Absolutely. So, John, well, we could segue into Cameron Smith winning on his in his homeland. He won the Australian PGA. That is a tournament that qualifies for World Golf Ranking points.

And you had an interesting take on this, bro. Yeah, I'm just wondering, you know, we're still waiting with great anxiousness to see what's going to happen with the live players and the majors. And I'm just wondering if one of the ways they look at this is to say, well, if you're in the world rankings like any year, you're going to be able to get into the major. Well, as we know, the live events don't give world ranking points. However, if a guy steps out of live goes and does like Cameron Smith did and wins, he wins quite a few world ranking points.

And with what he had before, I'm assuming he would still be in that restaurant to where he would get in. So I think that's quite interesting. Again, I don't know that it's going to go that way. But that would be one way that would be halfway reasonable to say, hey, if you've got the world ranking points, you get to play. But very few players are going to be able to do that. So it'd be kind of interesting to see who can maintain those points, playing the live events, and then trying to step out in other areas where they're allowed to play.

Well, john, it kind of defeats the purpose of live, however, because all the guys are talking about, I want to play less, I want to do this. Now they're going to be tripped. That went out the window a long time ago, we know it had nothing to do with playing with less and being with their families.

They want to go party and they wanted a bunch of guaranteed money. So, you know, let's let's call a spade a spade on that one. I like it. I like it.

All right. Tiger Woods, unfortunately, Pearl had to withdraw from his own tournament to hear a world challenge down in the Bahamas this week. You know, I was down there several years ago with my wife and what a beautiful place and had a great time with Alberto Valenzuela, one of our good buddies, college, and he just treated us like royalty.

And there's a lot of royalty down around that area relative to that whole thing. And what a tournament, what a setting, what a disappointment. Tiger's got to really be bummed out. I wanted to look for a bright side to this, and maybe as part of his thought process, because December 15 through 18 is when we get to see him and Charlie, hopefully his son, play again.

In that father-son, I think it's the PNC, I think it's called, down in Florida. And that was a highlight for me to see that with his recovery from his accident to be able to play with his son. And, you know, he may or may not be competitive in the future on tour, but the fact that he can play with his son, hopefully for the rest of his life, is pretty special and fun to watch. And Tiger's a character on his own, but his son, other than a minivi, has his own level of energy and showmanship.

No, there's no question, there's no question. And I can't wait to watch the Charlie Woods story unfold, John, because like you said, are these things inbred in Tiger's children? I mean, his club flip, his mannerisms are, I mean, are they practicing this together? Are they synchronized golfing? They look so much, they look so similar. And I'm really kind of bummed that Tiger didn't get to play in the Hero World Challenge, because I just love watching anything that he does.

But to your point, the PNC is special. I spoke with Lee Trevino about that when he was in St. Louis for the Ascension Charity Classic, still trying to get Lee on the show. Kind of give me the Heisman a little bit, but he doesn't realize I'm going to stay after him. He's playing with his son, Daniel, down there, and Lee had the yips. And so Lee's been putting in the dark.

John, he's been doing, he's doing all this, all these fun little antidotes to try to get rid of the yips, but he said he's also, he's 82 years old, he says he's in the gym. He goes, my tees are going to be so far up. He goes, I'm going to dominate the tournament with my driver. And he drives it so, so straight.

It really is one of the true characters of the game. And he is not stopping anytime soon at 82 years of age. Well, it's so funny that they move up and they're going to dominate and do this. You know, these guys are competitive and they don't, they don't, there's no ego loss than taking the competitive edge with moving the tees up and stuff like that. I wonder what's going to happen with Charlie this year. You know, he drove it so well last year from the up tees. At what point are they going to move him back? My guess is Charlie's 10 to 20 yards longer this year than last year. If that's the case and they keep them in the up tees, there's going to be some hollowing going on.

Oh no, there's no doubt. And what I'm interested in is, you know, we know we've said this, one of the biggest fallout from this year with Tiger and his inability to play on tour at any sort of regular basis was his putting. And John, we know from experiences with me, from other tour players, you have to be thrown into the competition to get used to those nerves and all the things that go with that and dealing with just the battle of the demons that you fight, you know, every single competitive round of golf. So I'm going to be really plugged in to see how Tiger's putting rolls out, even if it's only in the PNC. Yeah, I think that's going to be tougher and tougher as things go.

He putted pretty well, if I remember, last year in the PNC. But yeah, you and I went back and forth many, many times with your game and when there was layoffs or in between season and stuff like that. When you're not out there under the gun, it's just a completely different game. And I mean, we've seen that so many times and so fun to watch other athletes from other sports come out and play golf and, you know, they're at home shooting two, three, four or five under par in one of these tournaments or a secondary event or pro-am and all of a sudden they can't break 80.

It's just a different, different game when that when the light goes off. John, remember, you and I were traveling to Australia, New Zealand to play a couple of events. And I flew out to Arizona and played a mini tour event before too many tour events before to just try to get a couple of reps under my belt.

I think it's huge. I think it's I used to try to do that in college when we'd have too much time in between events and I needed to go play and I know the coach got upset with me but I'm like I can't not play for a month or month and a half and then expect to go out there and not have nerves just firing all over the place. So I need that. I think there's other ways to do it a little bit, but nothing really like a tournament to you can't really simulate a tournament.

No, that's compared to actually being in one. Absolutely. Well, that's going to wrap up the underwriting segment. Let me do the tip of the cap. The tip of the cap is brought to you by our friends at the team Volkswagen of Kirkwood and our buddy Colin Burt 314-966-0303. Our tip of the cap today goes out to all the caregivers, the nurturers, the nurses, the doctors, all of the folks that devote their time, their life for caring for and looking after those among us that are in need. We lost our dear friend Jay Randolph Jr. just a week or so ago and we know that there are some of these angels, I'll say, walking among us that do a job that is just not easy and so important with the energy and the love that they show. And so we are tipping our cap to those folks today and we appreciate the team Volkswagen of Kirkwood for supporting and for sponsoring the tip of the cap segment.

If you need any sort of vehicle, give me a call, send me an email, Jay at JayDelsonGolf.com. Spell Jay out on both ends of that and I'll introduce you personally to Colin, but his number 314-966-0303. That's going to wrap up the underwriting segment.

Don't go anywhere. We have our interview with Ed Wheatley. This is Golf with Jay Delson. I love having Daugherty Business Solutions as the title sponsor of the Golf with Jay Delson show. You already know that they're the number one largest IT consulting firm and the largest software developer in the St. Louis region. You also know that there are over 2,500 Daugherty teammates in 30 states and three countries around the world. But what you may not be aware of is what Daugherty Business Solutions does right here in our own community. They were the sponsor for the first Advocate PGA event at Glen Echo this past September. Daugherty Business Solutions was also a presenting sponsor of the Ascension Charity Classic. They have created Access Point, which builds diversity in the IT workforce. This is a game changer in our community. Literally hundreds of mostly young African American women are getting 50 to 60 thousand dollar per year jobs right out of high school.

And that training begins in high school. Daugherty Business Solutions believes talent is equally distributed, but access to that opportunity is not. Ron Daugherty, our founder at Daugherty Business Solutions, is the chair of the 2023 Heart Ball supporting the local American Heart Association Foundation.

These are just a few examples of the positive things Daugherty Business Solutions is doing right now in our community. How would you like access to 90 holes of golf? Well, that's what happens when you join at Whitmore Country Club. You get access to the Missouri Bluffs, the Links of Dardeen, and the Golf Club of Wentzville.

And guess what? No cart fees included in that deal. There's no food and beverage minimums.

There's no assessments. They have a 24 hour fitness center, two large pool complexes, three tennis courts. Year round social calendar includes holiday parties, picnics, date nights, live music. They even have a kids club for your children and much, much more. There's junior golf, junior tennis, and swim teams available.

This is a family friendly atmosphere and they have a wonderful staff. If you get out there, you got to poke your head in the golf shop and say hello to my friend Bummer. He is a terrific guy and he will help you with your game and show you around. And don't forget, there are golf leagues, skins games, members tournaments, and couples events available all year round. Visit whitmoregolf.com. That's whitmoregolf.com. You're listening to Golf with Jay Delsing. For golf tips, news on the latest equipment, and everything golf, log on to golfwithjdelsing.com.

The front nine is coming up. After my knee replacement, I was able to swing the golf club again without any pain. SSM Health Physical Therapy guided me through the rehab process. And when I was ready, one of their specially trained KVEST certified physical therapists put me on the 3D motion capture system.

It was awesome. They evaluated my posture, alignment, and the efficiencies of my swing. They gave me golf specific exercises to help make my swing more efficient and repeatable. Call 800-518-1626. Tell them Jay sent you for special pricing.

Your therapy, our passion. Folks, are you in the market for some additional protection for your ride? You need to call my friends at Vehicle Assurance. Their number is 866-341-9255. Sherry Fain is the owner and president, and she and her team are committed to helping you with your unexpected auto repair bills. They are committed to finding the right protection for you, your budget, and your family. They only work with the top vehicle service providers in the country.

Get the protection and the peace of mind you deserve. That's Vehicle Assurance 866-341-9255 for a free quote. 866-341-9255. Hey, good morning. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host, Jay. I'm sitting down this morning with my buddy, Ed Wheatley. Ed, welcome and good morning. Glad to be back.

Yeah, it's great to have you back. Last time we were talking a lot of St. Louis Browns and the Missouri Historical Society. This new book of yours, your fifth book by the way, St. Louis Sports Memories, it's really, really got some incredible historical sports significance between almost every day gone sport out there and St. Louis.

Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, St. Louis often gets its teeth kicked in because of our situation, social, political, whatever. You know, that can change. And sports has been this one continuous factor throughout our history. And our greatness is really second to no other city in America. And that's what we really put. And, you know, we were and we can be great again.

And that's what I think. Sports is the underlying thing throughout every society. You know, Ed, it's interesting because sports is the fabric that can connect us in a lot of different ways. You know, I see it all the time in golf. I mean, it's just wonderful opportunities to get to spend time together with people that you don't really know. And then the game is just the facilitator.

Well, it is. I mean, you think back in 2018, people didn't know about golf. They were all rooting for, you know, Tiger and Koepka. Think about it just two months ago, the city, you turn people into friends by saying, you think pools is going to get one tonight?

Or did you see that one he hit? Strangers talk to strangers. Sports brings them together.

It doesn't such an equalizer. It's such a leveler the field and so, man, there's so much to unpack in your book. It's such a great read.

It's called St. Louis sports memories. Again, I said it's a fifth book that Ed Wheatley has done. And so Ed, we're talking about parts of the boxing scene. Remember back in the day when boxing when you were the heavyweight champ in the boxing world, you were the king.

You were the king. And, you know, many believe that one St. Louisan was the greatest boxer ever. And you think that, well, who was he?

I always joke by the book. But no, there are so many great boxers from St. Louis. I mean, you know, the Spinks brothers and what they did in the Olympics and what they did then when they went into the ring and boxes professionals and, you know, Sonny Liston, you know, the man who was laying on on the mat when Cassius Clay was screaming, I am the greatest. But still, someone else is the best that there ever was.

You got to give it to us. Henry Armstrong. Henry Armstrong.

The only man to hold three titles at the same time. That's just incredible. Unthinkable. It is. And impossible.

Relatively impossible. So, but we also have the St. Louis Hawks. We've got an incredibly rich tennis history with Arthur Ashe. I mean, let's talk about that for a minute. You mentioned in the book where Arthur Ashe at the time was dealing with this racial barriers and wasn't allowed to play in Richmond, Virginia.

Yeah. And so where does he go to play St. Louis of all places? You think about that? You know, St. Louis wasn't the most opening and affirming town in the 60s, but he came here because this was the hub of tennis greatness. We had, you know, Jimmy Connors. We had, you know, the golden girls of tennis. We, you know, we had, you know, multiple with Chuck McKinley, Buck Holes. You know, they were all there at the armory playing. And today, you know, we're starting to celebrate this rebirth of the armory. This is where the tennis world was focused in the 50s and 60s. And they made these men.

They will tell you every single one of them. I learned the special way to play at the armory, but for a young boy who could not play against whites or indoors in the winter to come to any city in the country. And he came to St. Louis and that's where he then went on to win Wimbledon and all the others. It's just amazing. We also have the history of the St. Louis Hawks, you know, this basketball championship and the trade with Bill Russell. I mean, just, let's talk about that just a little bit.

Yeah. I mean, you know, first of all, you know, the Hawks weren't the first NBA team in St. Louis and everybody goes, what are you talking about? Well, there was a team before them. And we had such a rich history. One of my favorite stories that leads up to the Hawks is because one of the men was in 1948 when the NIT was the big dance. The NCAA didn't have this big television parade that goes on for the March Madness.

It was the NIT. And a little team from St. Louis, St. Louis University went as David and beat Goliath, New York City University in New York, of all places. And they did it with a team of all homegrown boys. Every person on that team, every player was from a St. Louis high school. You never see that again today.

No. And they did it. And it was led by Ed McCauley, who then will work his way through the greatness of college and into the NBA and, you know, was part of that Hawks team that you speak of. The Hawks would always fight for the Celtics for many of those years throughout the 50s for the title. And, you know, McCauley was one of the big keys. And he was also one of the big keys is how he got here, as you mentioned a moment ago, the trade for Bill Russell. You know, the Hawks had the draft number two. They had drafted previously Bob Pettit, one of the greatest men in the game.

And today he still holds many records today. And he's always picked on whether it's a 25-year greatest team, 50th-year greatest team, 75th. He's always in that conversation.

He's always there. And so is Bill Russell. And the next year when they had the second round pick, they were going to take Bill Russell. But Rochester had a first pick. The Celtics, who wanted Russell bad because they had been in quite a few in a row title games and lost, Russell was going to be their meal ticket. The story of how they got Russell in this goes back to they made a deal with Rochester because the owners of the Celtics also own the ice cap age, which was a really big deal in the 50s.

You know, we didn't have all the entertainment. So they get Rochester not to take him. And they'll get all these top dates for the ice cap age. So they don't take him. St. Louis is number two on the clock. They're going to take him. So the Celtics say, all right, we want Russell. We'll give you Ed McCauley, who had been one of their keys in the Celtics championship matches, and the rights to the next draft pick, which would be Cliff Hagan.

So it's one of those things you look back. I mean, yeah, we got two Hall of Famers, for one. But what would St. Louis be in the world of the NBA if they had Pettit and Russell side by side?

Oh, my God. Oh, cornerstones of many, many championship runs. We also need to talk a little bit about soccer. We had the World Cup going on right at this moment. And St. Louis was really the hub of North American soccer for so long. Oh, yeah, we were definitely the capital of soccer for North America. And some people like to argue we were the world capital of soccer, like we were the world capital of bowling.

And, you know, soccer was there wrestling today, chess. But, yeah, you know, everybody knows, hopefully remembers the famous 1950 World Cup story tied to St. Louis. We had the Fab Five, Fab Four, excuse me, from the Hill. Six players from St. Louis actually went to that team, and that team was put together real quickly. They didn't have a long time to practice. They're going up against the Great England team, which has still never beaten the United States. And they had been together for years. But it was these four boys from the Hill who had played their whole lives together.

It wasn't like we had to learn anything new. They just played, and they defeated England. And I think we had another St. Louisan starting on that team, didn't we? I think we had five players.

There were five players that started World Cup. The six didn't play, but the five, but four were from the Hill, yes. And it's just really interesting to look at when, and we'll talk about this a little later in the interview, but golf's got its, it's firmly entrenched in this as well. We've got, you know, the 47 open at St. Louis Country Club, and that's a great story just in itself. Well, yeah, I mean, you know, with golf, people don't really realize, and we tell the story, how did golf get to St. Louis? You know, and where did these country clubs start evolving that now blossom everywhere? And it was, call it the rich kids who went back east in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They took up this golf game, which was all over the East Coast, you know, when they're up there at Harvard and Yale and Brown and those schools.

And so when they come back home, they want to play. And that's what led to all these golf courses being built. And as the growth of St. Louis was pushing north, that's why they were all originally in the Normandy area, you know, with Glen Echo and Bell Reeve and Normandy, Norwood. You know, people don't remember, they think of Bell Reeve out there in Town and Country. Anybody who went to school at University of Missouri St. Louis, that was the grounds for Bell Reeve Country Club. Yeah, it's right on the, it's right and intertwined in the UMSL campus up there, and it's really interesting.

We'll talk a little bit about some of those specifics. So Ed, how long did it take you to write this book? Because this is a, what's so fun about this read to me, Ed, is short little snippets and hits, and it's really, really fun. Well, it is.

I mean, it was, it started really kind of out of nowhere. What happened was I had just come out with Wrestling at the Chase, which I had written during the pandemic when, you know, usually my genre is baseball. But a lot of those, like the Hall of Fame, the Negro League Baseball Museum, they were all closed. All the archives are furloughed.

You couldn't get any contact. Somebody had come and asked me, you know, we've won a few awards on our coffee table books on baseball and said, would you do a book on Wrestling at the Chase? And here is all the materials. I own it all.

Photos, background. So I did. So I'm signing books last fall and somebody said, when are you going to do a book on bowling? Somebody said, what? You know, we've got a lot of tennis players from St. Louis. And, you know, I said, well, you know, I don't know if they're a full book or a full story.

And I started thinking, I was joking with my publisher. I said, you know, people don't know that St. Louis had four NFL teams. It had four Major League Baseball teams. The St. Louis Hawks, who you spoke about, they weren't the first NBA team. And today the Blues were not the first NHL team.

And the people were always going, what are you talking about? And I tell them, you know, St. Louis had the first female owner of a Major League Baseball team with Helen Britton owned the Cardinals. But, you know, St. Louis had the first female owner of an NFL team.

She brought her team to St. Louis and she had actually, you know, would leave with a resume of having won an NFL title. And everybody goes, oh, yeah, Georgia. No way. You got to go read it and find out who it is. And it's like, wow.

I mean, these are these amazing nuggets. So it was like, how fast can you put that book together? Right. So not fast is the answer.

It wasn't fast, but it was it was faster because I committed and, you know, I did probably two years of work in about nine months. So you have a heart for this stuff. I do.

I love the research. Yeah, I was going to ask. So tell us a little bit about that, because this stuff can be extremely esoteric if you're not really, really loving it and into it.

And I know you are. Yeah, you got it. You really, you know, you come out with an outline of thoughts. I took this sports, the things I knew, the things I wanted to validate. And then every time you go into these things, you find these nuggets like, whoa, wow.

You know, it is like, you know, example I spoke of a minute ago. I probably would have thought Georgia was the first female owner of an NFL team until I did my investigation and found such, you know. And I did not know that there were four NFL teams. But once I started looking and researching and how these other two everybody knows the Cardinals in the Ram.

How did these other two get here and what did they do? You know, it was so interesting, but it's then it led into. We'll call them the minor sports, if you will, you know, probably one of the more minor sports, but is a St. Louis original is the piece that commercial comes is corkball. And you think about people my age, your age, where we grew up, everywhere, churches, every bar around had a corkball cage. And people's dads would always play corkball.

It was, you know, created here in St. Louis, taken all over the world by servicemen. I, you know, talked to Yogi Berra's family, how he taught the Yankees and had pictures of him teaching the Yankees how to play corkball in Yankee Stadium. It's interesting because the folks that don't know the corkball is about the size of a golf ball, but a baseball type with the stitching and everything. And then the bats basically like a broom handle. And, you know, it was everywhere and, you know, and it went off into tangents like bottle caps, fuzzball, Indian ball, but it all started here in St. Louis. And actually, Marquardt Sports was built all around corkball.

Yeah, it's just fascinating. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm visiting with Ed Wheatley.

We are going to take a break and come back with the second half of this interview. Don't go anywhere. Powers Insurance is a family-owned agency right here in St. Louis that specializes in providing personalized coverage for the client who has a lot going on. At Powers, they understand that you and your life do not fit in a simple box.

So guess what? Neither should your insurance coverage. Go to PowersInsurance.com or call 314-725-1414 and ask for Tim Davis.

That's PowersInsurance.com. Hey, this is Jay Delsing for SSM Health Physical Therapy. Our golf program has the same screening techniques and technology as the pros on the PGA Tour use. SSM Health Physical Therapy has the title as Performance Institute-trained physical therapist that can perform the TPI screening on you as well as use a KVEST 3D motion capture system. Proper posture, alignment, etc.

can help you keep your game right down the middle. We have 80 locations in the St. Louis area. Call 800-518-1626 or visit them on the web at SSMPhysicalTherapy.com. Your therapy, our passion. Good sportsmanship will be back in St. Louis with the return of PGA Tour champions at the 2023 Ascension Charity Classic presented by Emerson. This year, Patrick Harrington took the champions trophy, but the real winners were again local St. Louis charities. Together with our corporate sponsors and fans, we were able to donate over $1 million to those who need it most. Thank you St. Louis and join us at historic Norwood Hills Country Club September 5th through the 10th for the third annual Ascension Charity Classic.

Thank you St. Louis. Hi, this is Peter Jacobson and you're listening to Golf with Jay Delsing. I want to tell you about a family-owned and operated golf business that's been right here in St. Louis for over 40 years. I'm talking about Pro-Am Golf Center. That's right, Pro-Am Golf Center. I know you know the name, but I'm not sure you know what they really have to offer. They have everything a seasoned golfer like myself could need all the way down to what a beginner would want. Pro-Am Golf Center has the lowest price in the area for custom club fitting. I just went and visited CJ.

He is terrific. If you call them now, mention my name, Jay Delsing. You will receive a discount on that already low club fitting price. Their number is 314-647-8054. Ask for CJ or you can visit them at ProAmGolfUSA.com. That's ProAmGolfUSA.com.

Hey, welcome back. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host, Jay. I am sitting down with my buddy friend Ed Wheatley. He's the author of the St. Louis Sports Memories book, his fifth book in publication. Before we get there, we want to thank Pro-Am Golf for sponsoring the back nine.

Guys, just call, visit CJ, and get fitted. We kept a consistent message all year. It will really, really help your game. All right, Ed. We were talking about some of the minor sports. Let's touch on bowling a little bit. We have the National Bowling Hall of Fame here. We were definitely the bowling hub of this country. We had several teams here. The most prominent team in all of bowling history was the Budweiser, sponsored by the brewery.

Dick Weber, Don Carter, Ray Bluth, Tom Hennessey, Pat Fitzgerald. They were what it was all about. They had shattered a record that had stood since the 30s as far as pins in the game. They did it down at the Flores Lanes.

It caught the attention of the whole country. The interesting thing, that record they broke that had been set decades earlier was by the Herman Undertakers from North St. Louis. Then I found out as I was doing this, you talk about these aha moments, it was broken in about 2010 by a team from Detroit.

But in the midst of the pandemic in 2020, another St. Louis team took and set that new record down at Concord Lanes down in South County. It's still here and there's so much bowling. If you remember back in the 50s when there wasn't a lot of other entertainment vehicles, bowling was big on television.

One of the biggest places it was out of was the Arena Bowl right next to the arena. Every Saturday afternoon there would be all this bowling and it was led by Don Carter, Dick Weber. The thing that was interesting, another one of those moments, Don Carter, of all the sports in the world, you would think about this in the early 60s. Who's the first man to get a million dollar sports contract for advertising? Don Carter, a bowling ball.

He got mad. People don't realize that. That's how big it was.

Him promoting a ball is bigger than Willie Mays promoting a glove or bat. That doesn't make any sense to most of us, but I think that's so cool. One of the things I want to touch on, Ed, because I think the diversity of our communities and we have different pockets of, you know, Italian folks used to hang at the Hill. We've got these pockets of different nationalities kind of spread throughout our region, like almost all cities do. But what's really interesting to me is there's almost different sports associated with different folks. And this gives a really fun, accurate representation of those people and kind of what their life was like back then.

Oh, it does. I mean, you know, I mean, that kind of joke I remember growing up, there were the Catholics and the Publix. You've probably heard that, you know, the Catholics played soccer, the Publix played baseball and football. And, you know, we talk about that ethnicity and how that's where the C.Y.C.

came in. And, you know, it drove St. Louis to be, as we said earlier, the soccer capital of North America, if not the world. I mean, people forget that we were the tennis cup, you know, named after Davis.

It's one of the most coveted. You know, we've got, you know, the Sinkfield Cup, the chess, because we're the chess capital of the world. We got the Walker Cup in golf. You know, people don't really know about that, but it's been around since the 20s.

And it's named after George Herbert Walker, the president of, the grandfather and great-grandfather of two presidents. I mean, you know, and we have the Herman Cup, which comes back to the soccer here, which is handed out every January at the Missouri Athletic Club. We are all these such diverse pieces, and they all have these tentacles to St. Louis.

It's wonderful, and it's also, it's, gosh, if we can get back somehow to these, more of those roots that we can probably get over ourselves a little bit and find a little piece out there. The Herman Cup, by the way, is the equivalent of the Heisman Trophy that they give to New York. The best college soccer player.

The best college soccer player, yeah. So let's talk a little golf. Yeah.

So this is exciting to me. So in 1947. Correct. U.S. Open.

St. Louis Country Club, which is one of my favorite courses. Right. And Sam Snead is not in the conversation with one of the few career grand slams. Right.

And he had a hell of an opportunity. So what I know about this, Ed, is that Sam had a two-stroke lead going into the 18th hole in regulation and made double bogey on 18 at St. Louis Country Club. And then for folks that aren't aware, in the U.S. Open, you have an 18-hole playoff.

You don't just go out and start playing on 15 and figure this out. You're going the next day back to the hotel room, back to wherever, and do this whole thing over the course of 18 holes again. And when they get to the final hole, Ed, it was almost one of the most controversial things of the generation, especially in our game. It wouldn't matter anymore, but they've got these two putts. Let's talk about that a little bit. Well, you know, they lined up and you know who's going to take the honors and who's going to go first.

They're down on their knees with tape measures and, you know. It's Sam Snead and Lew Warsham. Right, yeah. And, you know, Snead doesn't get the call and doesn't put it in and doesn't get what he always wanted and never got. Never got the four-time runner-up in the U.S. Open.

And then you think, we're right back here in St. Louis the very next year, Norwood Hills Country Club for the PGA Championship. Correct. And another iconic champion.

Oh, yeah. I mean, you're going to find that throughout all the times the Open and the PGA come in. There's iconic champions. There's playoffs.

You know, think about 2018, how exciting it was. It was that way in the late 40s. And in 65, same thing. And so it shouldn't surprise folks. I mean, if you get into this book and you look at some of the history and talk about the historical perspectives and significances of what's going on in there, it's no doubt that when we do a champions event at Norwood Hills, we're raising ungodly amounts of money and all of these things for charity because this city has been supporting the game and games forever.

Oh, they have. And not only that, we, you know, color TV, first time ever here. And before that, in the 40s, the first televised.

And so it just goes on and on, whether it's the Open, the PGA, the Ryder Cup. They were all here in St. Louis. And what's interesting then is the Ryder Cup, with the best players and the most recognizable names, come to Old Warson in 1971 and play, and I've actually had somebody give me a program from the 1971 Ryder Cup. And it was really just fascinating to page through that and look at all the ads that they sold for that. Nicholas Palmer, Lee Trevino, they were all there at the height of their games. At the height of their games. And some of the classic pictures, they have them up in Old Warson today.

They're in these books, and there's some great photos in your book as well with Arnold and Jack. Looking over the other shoulder, lining them up. Could you imagine if you get to tee it up in the Ryder Cup? You know, most people don't know, the Ryder Cup was never a real competition back in the day. Great Britain and Ireland played the United States, and we whipped their ass every year. And that's one of the things that Jack Nichols will say.

He's like, eh, you know, the Ryder Cup, because Jack has a very iffy record in the Ryder Cup, especially for someone with his stature. And they'll say, eh, you know, it was just kind of one of those things. We kind of mopped the floor with them. They were nice men. We competed against them.

It didn't really matter. Well, they changed that format back in the late 70s, I believe it was, and included all of Europe. So now, Seve Ballesteros. And so Ballesteros and Bernard Langer were the driving forces for trying to get those guys to play in these international competitions, because there was only one of them.

Right, right. And so it's kind of neat to see how this whole thing, how St. Louis has a piece of that. Well, not only that, I mean, Ryder Cup was for men. People don't remember the Curtis Cup.

They don't pay attention, you know. And we had some very good women players competing and winning in those Curtis Cups. We had a Curtis Cup. The most recent Curtis Cup was at St. Louis Country Club. So, I mean, the golf tradition here in St. Louis is alive and well. And then you had the St. Louis Classic, which was played up at Norwood Hills.

And so we had the President's Cup coming in 30. I mean, you know, the world has realized golf is important in St. Louis. You know, we may not be, you know, Torrey Pines or Doral or those. All of a sudden, we've got one called Bell Reef where some of the most exciting matches have taken place.

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, from my perspective, hats off to Bell Reef for keeping us, you know. When you take on an event, and I know this is a little off the book, but when you take on an event, the members are going to use our course for at least two weeks. And the golf course and the grounds are going to get battered just with all the people. Nowadays, the production, like in 2018, the 100th anniversary of the PGA Championship, we blew out records. St. Louis blew out records over there. And with all of the media and all of the size and magnitude of it, that golf course gets destroyed.

And hats off to Bell Reef because they're right back. We're getting the BMW Championship in 2026. And then the really fun thing about the President's Cup, win other than the Ryder Cup in 71, but St. Louis had such a prominent international competition. Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, it's just there is this presence, this history that people just don't know about in all these sports. And, you know, in golf, and it's the little things.

I mean, one of my favorite stories was, you know, Gary Player, he gets his grand slam here. Right. And then what's he do? He gives his winnings, which was $26,000, away to amateur golf, to cancer, who took care of his mother who had passed away from cancer. That's right.

And then he gave it to his caddy, and he actually threw in another thousand of his own money to give the caddy more. Isn't that something? And people don't know that.

No. I mean, it's just, what a wonderful story. And it happened here in St. Louis. Those stories with that sort of human thread can really bring this thing down to a level where people can relate, because most of the time folks can't. Right.

I mean, in their stories, too, you've got to really rewrite over and over, think about it, because I don't want it to be a bad mark. And I use Bob Golby as an example. Right. I mean, he got the jacket. He got the green jacket, won the Masters. And everybody knows he did, but how did he win the Masters? You know, I tried to be positive, because in my mind he would have won the next day. It was a playoff.

It should have been a playoff. But DiVincio, he signed the card. Tommy Aaron had put down the wrong number. He gets a penalty. And that one penalty point cost him the playoff.

And it's not a slam on Golby. He was there. He was a great golfer. But it's part of that intrigue of these events in the history behind the scenes of golf and sports. And it happened here in St. Louis. Yeah.

And there's all those little things. So Bob passed away, unfortunately, earlier this year. And I was fortunate enough to get an invite to his celebration of life and got to hang out with Kyle and Kevin. And I saw a bunch of this memorabilia. And you would not believe Bob Golby got hate mail.

Because people said, you didn't earn the green jacket. He did nothing wrong. Roberto DiVincenzo signed the wrong scorecard, as you said, with Tommy Aaron keeping the card for him. And he shot 66, by the way, on Sunday's round. He did nothing wrong.

And there was a letter in the Golby Room over at St. Clair Country Club, where they played in the houses, grew up and played. And it was from the President of the United States saying, this is ridiculous. You won this championship fair and square.

You didn't do it. I mean, Bob really, really got beat up with this thing. Right. And you know, that's where, in a way, telling the story in the book, people will look at it a little differently. Yeah, hopefully so. It's really well told in the book.

Ed, gosh, anything else you want to talk about? First of all, where can we get this book? Where can we find it? It's at every bookstore. You can get it online. You can get it on sportstales.org is my site.

You can get it from Reedy Press. But it is available. It's one of these things, like I said, there's so much that you didn't know, you know, from the St. Louis Hummers, all the girls playing out there in Valley Park or the St. Louis Browns softball team at Cold Park, to all these secondary but the major sports. And the one thing that, you know, I will say, every sport, we talked about soccer earlier. And soccer, you know, think about, you know, we had the Stars here and then we had the Steamers and the Ambush and all these secondary indoor soccer leagues. The one thing, whether it's all those soccer leagues that would come and fold, come and fold, come and fold, or it's baseball, blues.

Every time St. Louis was the leading attendance in those leagues or at the top, you know, the St. Louis slew hockey team, the college hockey team still holds the record. We used to go all the time. Everybody went. It was down there.

Absolutely. And one of the things, folks, so you don't have to be a St. Louis Hawk to enjoy this book. St. Louis honk to enjoy this book because you're going to see how the seeds that might have been planted in St. Louis spread out through the country.

I mean, you're talking about Bill Russell and Bill Russell never played for the St. Louis Hawks. However, we had a say into how this whole thing went down. You know, the best way I could sum up the book was at the latter chapters is the St. Louis fans. And why do we have such great fans? We've got the great, greatest baseball fans in America and we've got, you know, great hockey fans, soccer fans, maybe second to none also. It was the people who taught us the game, who gave us the game. I have a whole section on the different announcers. You know, we talk about what Harry Carey, you know, if you knew Harry Carey, if you ever talked to him in his biography, he talked about, there wasn't TV in those days, painting the picture.

You could sit, I want you to sit on your patio or on your front porch. The wine, the pitcher comes in, checks off the sign. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

Toes the rubber. Absolutely right. Here's the wind up.

Here's the pitch. You learn the game. You know, Dan Kelly. You know, Dan Kelly. The voice of hockey, NHL tonight.

He shoots, he scores. And that scores has 18 O's in it, you know, drug out. Right.

You know, the funniest one I put in there is, I was a little kid and Dan Kelly, the Blues are skating left to right on your dial. And I'm like, huh? Wait a minute, what? Yeah. So, I mean, they're all there and we've got them now. You know, Dan McLaughlin, you know, Kerber. They're all there. They teach us the game.

Yeah. We love it through them. And here's what's interesting, especially when you bring up Danny Mac.

We're in his studio, so I'm going to give him a shout out. Because he teaches you how to respect the game by the respect he shows you and the way that he's describing it and the players. And that's what I write about. And that is why we have the greatest fans.

It's because the people who teach us the game and give it to us every day. Thank you, my friend. Thank you for having me.

I'm always glad to be here. I want to summarize some of the fantastic things that Marcon, your hometown company that is the largest distributor of General Electric compliance parts in North America, has done this year. We started out with CEO Jim Sowers donating two service dogs to the wounded service men and women heroes in our country. We followed that up with a raffling of two suites at St. Louis Blues Home Games with Danny Mac and myself.

And with all of those proceeds headed to the Backstoppers organization. Lastly, the Marcon first responder military police and firefighters viewing deck at the Ascension Charity Classic was a huge success. So much so that this idea and model is being implemented at other PGA Tour Champions events.

Thank you, Marcon, for your support and thank you for your tireless giving in our community. The legends of golf returned to St. Louis in twenty twenty three. You won't want to miss one of the strongest fields in golf. Ernie Els, Steve Stricker, Bernard Langer, John Daly and many more when they compete for the twenty twenty three Ascension Charity Classic title September 5th through the 10th at historic Norwood Hills Country Club. All proceeds benefit area charities. Together, we were able to donate over one million dollars to those most in need last year.

Visit Ascension Charity Classic Dotcom. I am proud to welcome the gateway section of the PGA back to my show. Whether you're pulling into your favorite driving range, public golf course or country club, there is an excellent chance that the staff there is part of the over three hundred men and women PGA professionals at over one hundred facilities that make up our gateway section.

I grew up watching so many of these fine men and women getting to the golf course at dawn, leaving at dusk, spending their entire day running events, giving lessons and growing this great game. PGA Reach, Drive Chip and Putt, PGA Hope and the fantastic PGA Junior League are a few of the examples of the programs run by these same PGA professionals. Go to Gateway PGA dot org to learn more or to find your next PGA professional for your next lesson. Go to PGA dot com. The Gateway PGA.

Growing the game we love. Hello, friends, this is Jim Nance and you are listening to golf with my friend Jay Delson. I've been looking for over three years for the perfect place to be the official 19th hole, the golf with Jay Delson show, and the search is over. Please welcome the loading dock to the show. What a great place it is.

It is located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers in beautiful Grafton, Illinois. Their patio is killer, with seating for over eight hundred. And every weekend the loading dock has the area's best live music.

There's no reservations required. They have overnight lodging available and they also have an ice skating rink in the winter months. And don't forget about the super cool Riverside flea market, which happens the fourth weekend of each month from April through October.

If you're into antiques and collectibles, you've got to check it out. The Grafton Ferry runs directly from St. Charles County to within steps of our parking lot. Go check out the loading dock and say hello to my buddy Peter Allen. He is a great guy, good golfer, and a lover of the game.

Call 618-556-7951 or visit them on the web at graftonloadingdock.com For more information on their live music schedule, the Riverside flea market, and more. The loading dock, the new official 19th hole of the Golf with Jay Delsing show. This is Golf with Jay Delsing.

We're headed to the 19th hole. Thanks so much for joining us here. Pearl, one of the things that stuck out to me, I understand there are people around the country that are listening to our show and it's not only St. Louis centric. But John, these St. Louis rooted stories have these long reaching tentacles throughout so many other parts of the country and the sports world in their little genres that I think everybody can pretty much relate to it.

I'm going to challenge you a little bit here and you can push back. I think every city has those stories. You guys are so jacked up and rightfully so. St. Louis does have a rich history and it's great that people like you and Ed are so passionate about it to continue to keep it alive and share it. But every little town, every city's got the stories once you start digging into it, I think. But I appreciate your passion for St. Louis.

Well, John, one of the things that Ed was saying, he is an expert, I'm not. But one of the things he was saying is that a lot of the East Coast cities do have these rich histories in some, for example, like say a Negro League team or a basketball team before the NBA. They would play and they'd maybe barnstorm and come through town. But he said a lot of the Western cities, the Los Angeleses and things like that, they don't go back nearly as far as some of the St. Louises as far as some of the New York cities do just because of their age and that they weren't old.

I have no idea on the basis of that, but I thought it was very interesting. No, I think it's super interesting, but I just think it's fun when people are passionate about it. You go from little town to little town in southern Illinois, where I live, and each one of them, if you spend enough time, you get to go somebody, at some point somebody that's passionate is going to say, hey, this town's really special, you need to hear this.

And you're thinking, I could do anything special in this little town. But you start digging into it and there absolutely is. I also remember reading a story years ago about the opportunities that the different losing franchises had and the people they passed up on. And you guys referenced Bill Russell a little bit in your talk about because of the choices and draft choices and who took who, how that affected so many people.

And it's interesting when you kind of go look at the franchises in the different sports that don't play well, who they passed on through the years, it could have made an immense difference. So all of that is just so fascinating. That's why I think his book's great. His passion behind it is so attractive to kind of want to dig into yourself. And then like I said, I Googled Henry Armstrong after I heard you guys talk just to learn a little bit more about him. And as I Googled and walked through that a little bit, man, he's got unbelievable body.

There's obviously could be, I think there is a book, books and more and more information on evidence further you dig and how he affected different things. And it's somebody that I follow sports. I never heard of him before. And he's absolutely fascinating. One of the all time fascinating boxes. Well, that's gonna wrap up another show.

Thanks for being with me today. It goes too fast, Jay. It used to feel like it took forever to do a show. I'm not sure what that means. Is that a good thing? I think it's a great thing. It's certainly fun. I can tell you that much. It is more enjoyable and relaxing than it used to be when we first started. Hopefully the folks think the same way.

All right, that'll wrap it up. Get them straight, St. Louis. This has been golf with Jay Delsing. To learn more about Jay and the services he can provide any golfer, visit jaydelsingolf.com.

You'll see the latest in golf equipment, get tips from a PGA Pro and you'll learn more about the game of golf. That's jaydelsingolf.com Hey, do you like wine? Have you heard about the hottest new wine bar in St. Louis? It's called Wild Crush Wine Bar and it's located in town and country on Clayton Road just behind the strobs. Have you ever experienced self-dispensing wine machines?

Well, they are here. The only place in St. Louis and most of Missouri that you'll find them and it's at Wild Crush. You can choose your size of pour and Wild Crush will pour the freshest wine in the area for you. The organic argon gas system used at Wild Crush keeps this wine pristinely fresh for up to 60 days. So if you're tired of drinking wine that's been open for a few days, come into Wild Crush for the best and freshest wine selection in the area.

Go to wildcrushstl.com and come have one with us. Hi, this is Chris Howard, host of Plugged In with Chris Howard. The college football playoff committee made their decision on Sunday and as much as I loathe the idea of Ohio State losing their way into the college football playoff, I 100% agree with OSU making it in over Bama. Nick Saban citing some hypothetical point spreads to prove his point that the tie deserves a spot in the college football playoffs holds little substance when you consider Bama's best win is over Texas.

No, the committee got it right. TCU had a great season with far more ranked wins than Bama and didn't deserve to lose their spot after playing a surge in Kansas State in a championship game. And Ohio State, while not playing some of their best ball later in the season, was still 12-0 until they came face to face with my Wolverines. While the college football playoff system isn't nowhere near as good as it could be, it's better than what we had. And in a few years, it will be better for all of college football.

Hi, this is Chris Howard, host of Plugged In with Chris Howard. You get the latest odds and trends for every professional and amateur league out there. From football to basketball to soccer and esports, we've got it all at BetOnline.net. And if you love sports podcasts, you can find those at BetOnline as well. And don't forget, BetOnline for the NHL, MMA, boxing and golf. Head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more. BetOnline, where the game starts.