24 • December 16, 2021 - December 22, 2021
THE NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS
IN
THE
CLASSROOM
Trailblazing golfer, Bill Spiller By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews
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president of the PGA of America, moved to exclude them. Joe Louis, the former heavyweight boxing champion, interceded on behalf of the golfers and the situation, mainly through the nationwide microphone of Walter Winchell, which gained national traction. A lawsuit was once again filed by Spiller and, like before, the PGA and Smith promised to change the rules. Although the segregation clause remained in place, some
November 1961, the PGA of America finally relented and removed the clause that had been in existence since 1943. The success of this came much too late for Spiller, who was by now 48 years old, having started his golf career comparatively late. Even so, he had paved the way for other Black golfers to participate in the major PGA of America tournaments, and win. Spiller died in 1988 in Los Bill Spiller courtesy of the PGA and Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame
denied entry in the 1948 Richmond Open Held in Richmond, California by the PGA of AmerGolf enthusiasts, particular- ica, he began to relentlessly ly those attuned to Blacks who challenge the PGA’s segregahave excelled on the links, may tion policy. No participant in have heard of a few old-tim- a major golf tournament could ers such as Ted Rhodes, Char- enter without approval of the lie Sifford, Pete Brown and Lee PGA, and, of course, one of the Elder (who died recently died rules was you had to be white. on Nov. 28), but unless you With the assistance of attorare deeply informed Bill Spill- ney Jonathan Rowell of the Bay er may have escaped your gaze. Area, Spiller filed a lawsuit. He Spiller was born Oct. 25, 1913 was joined in the lawsuit by Ted in Tishomingo, Oklahoma and moved to Tulsa in 1922, a year after the race massacre took the lives of countless African Americans. At a very early age his athletic prowess bloomed, and he eventually starred in two sports as a high school student and at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. Golf was not one of the sports he pursued in college. He was 30 years old when he seriously began playing golf and saw it as a possible professional career. By this time he was residing in Southern California, and armed with a degree in education he taught for a while, supplementing his Rhodes, and they charged they income by working as a rail- were being denied an opporturoad porter. He was convinced nity to earn a living because the by a fellow porter to give golf a PGA was a closed shop. Such try and began competing and rules, under the Taft-Hartley winning in Blacks-only ama- Act, were illegal and against teur tournaments in the 1940s. the law. After the PGA agreed His performance in the Los An- to end its discriminatory policy geles Open was sensational in that would allow them to par1948, though he failed to defeat ticipate, they withdrew the lawthe great Ben Hogan. Finishing suit. This promise was not kept in the top 60, however, made as the PGA sidestepped the him eligible for the next PGA agreement by sponsoring “intournament—the Richmond vitational tournaments,” and Open. It should be noted that Blacks were not among those Ted Rhodes also made the invited. cut tying at 22nd while Spiller Spiller, however, was invited ended in a tie at 29th making to the 1952 San Diego Open, them the first Africans to play in where apparently the sponnon-USGA, PGA Tour events. sors were not aware of the When he was whites-only clause. To correct this mistake, Horton Smith,
sponsors began inviting African Americans anyway. By 1960, the racist policy of the PGA was a common practice, one that the attorney general of California and the state’s future Supreme Court Justice Stanley Mosk could not ignore. He advised the PGA of America that it would not be allowed on public courses where most of the tournaments were held. To get around this injunction, the PGA resorted to hosting their tournaments on private courses. Aware of the manipulation to avoid ending discrimination, Mosk then began contacting attorney generals in other states to adhere to his measure. In
Angeles California, and in 2009 he was granted a posthumous honorary membership to the PGA, along with Ted Rhodes and John Shippen, and to the boxing immortal Joe Louis. “He would have been proud of this honor,” said his daughter, Pamela SpillerStewart. “Bill Spiller is a hero, but unappreciated,” said Al Barkow, a national sports writer on golf. “Charlie Sifford gets a lot of the credit for breaking the racial barrier, but Bill Spiller paved the way.” He was inducted into the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame in 2015.
ACTIVITIES FIND OUT MORE Any golf digest or historical account of Blacks in golf usually includes at least a paragraph on Spiller and his pioneering career. DISCUSSION More needs to be said about the number of tournaments Spiller won and what amount of money he earned on the links. PLACE IN CONTEXT Spiller came of age during the first decade of the 20th century and lived to near the end of it, making his mark in golf along the way.
THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY Dec. 12, 1940: Singer Dionne Warwick, winner of five Grammys, was born in Orange, N.J. Dec. 12, 1943: Popular saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. was born in Buffalo, N.Y. He died in 1999. Dec. 12, 1963: The East African nation of Kenya achieved its independence.
