How He Played the Game: Ed "Porky" Oliver and Golf's Greatest Generation

By Riley John

During the Great Depression, Ed Oliver rose from the caddie ranks to become one of the leading professional golfers in the world. Provided an initial stake by three country club members who saw his potential, he found himself facing golf legends like Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen. Within a few years he was beating the best of a new younger wave of professionals led by Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, and Jimmy Demaret.

Then, just weeks after overtaking Hogan and Nelson to win the prestigious Western Open, he was suddenly pulled into the U.S. Army with an early draft call, long before his golf tour competitors joined the war effort. He served longer than all of them, losing more than four and a half of his best athletic years. Following the war, he rebuilt his game and drove from coast to coast battling to make a living and support a family of six against the now dominant Snead and Hogan and a new wave of champions like Lloyd Mangrum, Cary Middlecoff, Julius Boros, Billy Casper, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer.

Although his long absence took its toll, Oliver still regained his standing among the best and was named to three Ryder Cup teams. He drew large galleries wherever he went, and in 1957 a Sports Illustrated article called him “the most popular player on the circuit.” Loved by fans and fellow professionals alike, with his body racked by cancer and facing his final days, he was named honorary captain of the 1961 Ryder Cup team. He died at age 46, just three weeks before they played.

This book is more than Oliver’s story. It is also the story of the many professionals who rose up from the caddyshacks, survived the Great Depression, served their country in wartime, then came home and built the modern golf tour. They could be called, “Golf’s Greatest Generation.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Faith & Family Publications
• Release date: Feb 23, 2022
• ISBN: 0578322501

Book preview

What People Are Saying

Porky Oliver was the greatest ambassador to golf who ever played. He always had a smile and a good word for everyone he met. I often speak of people I have met and played with in golf who I have admired, and Porky is on top of the list.

–Ken Venturi

I love you Porky, you inspire me.

–Ben Hogan

I think it is literally so that anybody who met Ed Oliver even once, remembered him thereafter with deep affection. There was a warmth about him as enduring as it was endearing.

–Red Smith, Pulitzer Prize winning sportswriter

He was a beautiful man.

–Jackie Gleason

There isn’t anyone who hits the ball any better than Porky.

–Gene Sarazen

On any given day Porky could beat any golfer who ever lived. But golf to Porky was just a means to have fun.

–Sam Snead

Anytime I can go anyplace or be around for Ed Oliver, I’ll be there.

–Charlie Sifford

We always liked to play with Porky. I don’t think he ever awoke in the morning but that it was a beautiful day to him.

–Jackie Burke

Ed was a great friend to me, ever cheerful, full of pranks and great fun to be with. In addition, he was a golfer who stood out among his peers. The record hardly shows his greatness.

–Peter Thomson

It is difficult for me to think of anyone who gave so much, so freely, to golf as did Porky Oliver.

–Dow Finsterwald

Very few people in the game will ever match the kindness and the unselfishness that Ed brought to this great game! Sure, he was a great player, but a greater person he was because of his unselfish quality as a human being. Ed ‘Porky Oliver’ was a Santa Claus without the reindeer and the suit because he brought Christmas to everyone who loved golf every day of the year.

–Bob Toski

Stories built around Porky would make a book—his long ball, transcontinental auto tours, enormous appetite, etc. Golf will enjoy the all-sports boom when the war is won and Porky Oliver will have ample opportunity to become the Babe Ruth of the fairways.

–Harry Grayson, sports editor,

Newspaper Enterprise Association

How He

Played the Game

Ed Porky Oliver and Golf’s Greatest Generation

Money is important but without the laughs, life wouldn’t be worth the battle.

–Ed Porky Oliver

John Riley

©2021 Oliver Golf Book LLC. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the author.

Cover jacket and design and interior layout by Michael Fontecchio, Faith & Family Publications.

For more information: olivergolfbook.com

Contents

What People Are Saying

About this Book

Introduction

Prologue

Chapter 1

Prodigy, 1931

Chapter 2

Caddie Champs, 1932–33

Chapter 3

Boy Golf Professional, 1934

Chapter 4

Golf Exhibitions, Davey Douglas and a Professional Win, 1935–36

Chapter 5

On the Road to Miami and the Winter Golf Tour, 1936–37

Chapter 6

The Greatest Round I’ve Ever Seen, 1938

Chapter 7

California Here I Come, 1939

Chapter 8

Beating the Best, 1940

Chapter 9

Heartbreak at Canterbury, 1940

Chapter 10

In Adversity Lies Opportunity, 1940

Chapter 11

Rookie of the Year, 1940

Chapter 12

The Draft, the Drive, and the Desert, 1941

Chapter 13

Fort Dix, New Jersey, 1941

Chapter 14

Golf’s Gift to the National Defense, 1941

Chapter 15

Playing Through, 1942–45

Chapter 16

Life, Death, and Golf, 1946

Chapter 17

The U.S. Open and Ed Oliver Return to Canterbury, 1946

Chapter 18

Nelson, Hogan, and the PGA, 1946

Chapter 19

Texas Tough, 1947

Chapter 20

The Summer of Bobby Locke, 1947

Chapter 21

Close Calls, the Ryder Cup and Another Hometown Hero, 1947

Chapter 22

Club Pro, 1948

Chapter 23

Goodbye to the Forties, 1949

Chapter 24

Almost Perfect, 1950

Chapter 25

The Hogan Problem, 1951

Chapter 26

The Struggle to Win Again, 1951

Chapter 27

Beating Hogan, 1952

Chapter 28

Down Under, 1952

Chapter 29

Record Rounds at the Masters, 1953

Chapter 30

Kansas City, Here I Come, 1953

Chapter 31

Another Ryder Cup, 1953

Chapter 32

Disaster at Cypress Point, 1954

Chapter 33

A Changing Landscape, 1955

Chapter 34

Jack Fleck and a Year of Close Calls, 1955

Chapter 35

Settling Down and Beating Snead, 1956

Chapter 36

The Most Popular Player on the Circuit, 1956–57

Chapter 37

From Houston to Denver, 1958

Chapter 38

The Traveling Porky Show, 1959

Chapter 39

A Fateful Year, 1960

Chapter 40

Coming Home, 1961

Chapter 41

Afterword

Appendix

For the Record

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

Index of Names

Index of Places

About the Author

About this Book

This book was made possible by the generous time provided to me by Ed Oliver’s surviving children, Eddie, Joanne, and John, who spent many hours sharing memories of their father. Edward III, the oldest, was only eighteen when his father died but was able to recall traveling with him to tournaments and meeting and getting to know many of his friends and fellow touring pros. Through his own experience as a professional golfer, he was able to stay connected with many of them for years after his father’s passing. Joanne Oliver Page, Ed’s daughter, was particularly helpful with details about the family, especially her mother, Clare Oliver. John Oliver was able to share photos, letters, telegrams, and various memorabilia that has helped in telling the story.

Born more than a hundred years ago, most all of Oliver’s contemporaries have passed on, but thanks to the United States Golf Association (USGA), Newspapers.com, the Delaware Historical Society, and various golf books and publications, there is an extensive record of his life. Particularly helpful have been the autobiographies of Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Tommy Bolt, Charlie Sifford, and Arnold Palmer, plus biographies of Ben Hogan by James Dodson and Curt Sampson and of Sam Snead by Al Barkow. In addition, Barkow’s History of the PGA Tour has been a great resource, including the extensive records and rankings of the pros from the Tour’s beginnings through 1988. Further acknowledgments and a complete bibliography can be found at the end of the book.

In addition to interviews with Oliver’s children, one contemporary who was able to share his Oliver experiences was the legendary Gary Player. Mr. Player’s interest and enthusiasm for telling Oliver’s story has been a source of inspiration. Oliver and Player played together many times from 1957 through 1960. They were due to face each other in an All Star Golf match on national television when the Delaware pro was diagnosed with lung cancer. Another fascinating interview was with the ninety-year-old author of the best-selling book Golf in the Kingdom, Michael Murphy. Murphy mentioned Oliver in his mystical tale and was able to discuss his personal experience at the 1955 U.S. Open when Oliver’s friend, Jack Fleck upset the sport’s world with his victory over Ben Hogan. Renowned golf writer Al Barkow, author of the History of the PGA Tour and Sam: The One and Only Sam Snead, also shared his views on Oliver and his relationship with Sam Snead.

The newspapers accessed to document Oliver’s golf career are too numerous to list here but they are all named in the text itself. The most comprehensive coverage of Oliver’s life was recorded in the daily papers of his hometown, Wilmington, Delaware, and the nearby Philadelphia Inquirer. (Readers should note that the Wilmington News Journal has also been published as the Wilmington Morning News and the Journal Every Evening. In this book it is generally referred to by its current name, the News Journal.) Several sports editors and writers had a particular focus on Oliver over his career. News Journal sports editor Al Cartwright is quoted extensively and Dick Rinard, who covered Oliver all the way back to his caddie days, became a close friend, and ultimately was a pall bearer at his funeral. On the national scene, author and syndicated columnist Grantland Rice and the Chicago Tribune’s Charles Bartlett took a regular interest in Oliver and his exploits.

In the months before Oliver died, the News Journal assigned Marty Levin to interview him about his life and career. These eight interviews have been an invaluable resource. Another extraordinary resource has been the fourteen letters sent by such Oliver contemporaries as Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, Ken Venturi, Bob Toski, and others to be read at the dedication of the Ed Porky Oliver Golf Club in 1983. Several of these letters, particularly those of Jack Fleck, Bob Toski, and Peter Thomson went into detail recalling stories and exploits by their good friend.

There seemed no end to the nicknames Oliver picked up in his life. As Tommy Bolt stated in his autobiography, If you called him Ed, he probably wouldn’t answer. As a boy and to Wilmington friends he was known as Snowball or Snobie. Out in the professional golf world he picked up Porky or Porkchop and that resulted in such derivatives as Chops, Old Chops and Chopsy. Whenever sportswriters mentioned his name it was almost always proceeded by adjectives such a rotund, husky, robust, etc. He never seemed bothered by the less than flattering descriptions, indicating he was perhaps a proponent of the philosophy, There is no such thing as bad publicity.

Wilmington Country Club will appear frequently in the early chapters of the book and will sometimes be abbreviated to WCC. Although readers may be familiar with the term caddy, I have used caddie as this is the official spelling used in the USGA rulebook. Also, competitions referred to are either conducted at match play or stroke play, sometimes referred to as medal play. Nearly all PGA Tour competition is conducted at stroke play over seventy-two holes, in which every shot is counted and the total lowest score wins. In match play, such as conducted in the Ryder Cup, results are calculated based on the lowest score on each hole. With the exception of championships, the caddie competitions referred to were typically at match play. Also, the PGA Championship was conducted at match play until 1958. Normally, match play competition ends when there are too few holes remaining to tie the opponent, thus results are recorded as the number of holes the player is up in the match, plus the total holes remaining. If a player wins the seventeenth hole after leading by two, the score is recorded as 3 & 1.

The reader will also note the use of the term British Open. The correct name for golf’s oldest championship is the Open Championship, but since U.S. newspapers often use the term, The Open for the U.S. Open, I use the term British Open to draw the distinction between the two unless quoting directly from a publication.

Through most of his public life, Oliver’s age is stated incorrectly. According to the Delaware Archives and his obituary, Oliver was born September 6, 1915, but the media regularly quoted his age as one year younger. Since it also appeared that way in USGA materials and on his military draft registration, it is possible that even Oliver believed he was born in 1916. When directly quoting from newspaper accounts I quote exactly as it appears.

Introduction

In

Michael Murphy’s best-selling book Golf in the Kingdom, published in 1972, mythical golfer Shivas Irons lists the thirteen names of what he called the true zodiac. Five are labeled after the greatest names in the history of golf: Old and Young Tom Morris, Harry Vardon, Bobby Jones, and Ben Hogan. Mysteriously, Murphy leads his list of famous golfers with Porky Oliver. In the following chapter, his hero, Irons, reflects on Ben Hogan’s playoff loss to Jack Fleck in the 1955 U.S. Open. What he misses in that chapter was the important role played by Oliver.

Edward Stewart Oliver’s destiny—and perhaps his entry into golf’s Hall of Fame—was thwarted by the great Hogan in the finals of the 1946 PGA Championship and again at the 1953 Masters, when Oliver tied the lowest score ever shot at Augusta National.

In 1983, as a local elected official, I sponsored a resolution to rename Wilmington Delaware’s Greenhill golf course in honor of the man remembered locally as Snowball. Oliver had caddied there as a boy and later served as an assistant golf pro of the then Wilmington Country Club.

Informed that Oliver would be honored by the renaming of the golf course, Jack Fleck sent me a letter in which he described receiving a call from Oliver moments before the start of the 1955 playoff against Hogan. Intended to be read at a public ceremony, Fleck cleaned up Oliver’s motivational plea to him. Go out there and box his ears, the letter read. Over the years, Fleck had told others that the words he used were a bit more colorful, but the point was made and Fleck would go on to complete one of golf’s greatest upsets and deny Hogan his fifth U.S. Open victory.

My connections to the Oliver family run deep. His son Bobby was one of my closest friends. I was at the Oliver home often, including times when the famous father arrived home from the golf tour in his Cadillac with the big tail fins. I recall him being angry on one occasion because the kids wore out the car battery running the power windows up and down. I had short glimpses of Mr. Oliver when he was healthy, but my most vivid memory of the man was seeing him lying bare chested on the couch in their little Wilmington row home struggling to breathe after having a cancerous lung removed.

My father, Curt Riley, and Snowball, as he was known in Wilmington, had played on the caddie golf team together at the Wilmington Country Club in the early 1930s. Until the day he died in 1976, my father continued to tell stories about the local legend to anyone who would listen. In addition, I caddied at a local public course named Rock Manor, populated with dozens of Oliver’s former caddie friends. The love they had for the man seemed to have no bounds and after a while you had to wonder if the stories they told might be embellished just a little bit.

About six months before Oliver died, my father took my brother Curt and me to the annual St. Anthony’s Sports Banquet. Always a big event, the 1961 banquet head table was graced by the likes of Steve Van Buren and Chuck Bednarik of the recently crowned 1960 NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles, Paul Hornung of the Green Bay Packers, and Phil Rizzuto of the New York Yankees. Sitting at the end of the dais was the gravely ill Oliver, graciously greeting and signing autographs for a long line of well-wishers. At the end of the program, the emcee introduced Delaware’s favorite son and as he slowly made his way to the podium, the eight hundred in attendance struggled to rise from the cramped seats and tables. They began a sustained standing ovation that has probably never been topped in the history of the First State. It was Wilmington’s way of saying goodbye.

In writing my book Delaware Eyewitness: Behind the Scenes in the First State, I included a chapter about the dedication of the Ed Porky Oliver Golf Club. I provided a short biography of Oliver and included a reference to his exploits as described by renowned golf writer James Dodson in his biography of Ben Hogan. Dodson had written about the third round of the 1953 Masters, when Oliver and Hogan were paired together in one of the great rounds in the history of the tournament. The duo had a combined or better ball score of 60, twelve under par. The round was considered so historic that the next day, the Augusta Chronicle newspaper recorded every shot on every hole by both players.

When I first thought of writing about the life of Ed Oliver, I hesitated, thinking that there might not be enough for a book—after all, unless you count the Western Open (considered by the likes Walter Hagen and Byron Nelson as a major before the war), he had never won that elusive major championship. But as I considered his battles against Hogan, Nelson, and Snead and his status as a member of three Ryder Cup teams, I decided to look deeper into his life. I came to realize that the story of Ed Oliver was also the story of the development of the golf tour in the years before World War II, the war years, and the post war years, when professional sports reemerged and captivated the attention of Americans from coast to coast. And as golf expanded its audience into millions of homes through television, the popular pro played a key role by playing in and winning the first nationally televised golf match.

The war had a profound effect on Oliver, taking him away from the game longer than any of his contemporaries, particularly golf’s biggest stars, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, and Byron Nelson. These three legends, and at a later point, Arnold Palmer, grabbed most of the trophies and headlines but part of what made them great were their battles against Oliver and other members of golf’s supporting cast. However, Porky Oliver was far more than just a member of that supporting cast. He carved out a niche for himself that made him one of the most popular and attractive figures in the game. As Merrill Whittlesly, president of the Golf Writers Association said in 1961, It was more fun covering Porky Oliver out of the money than a lot of the fellows who are on top today.

While Oliver became famous for making golf fun for the fans, he also seemed to be dogged by misfortune. In 1940, he was disqualified in a controversial decision by the USGA after tying for the 72-hole lead in the U.S. Open; in early 1941, almost a year before Pearl Harbor and well before his competitors on the PGA Tour, he was drafted into the Army; in 1946 he would face the toughest draw for five rounds before losing to Ben Hogan in the finals of the PGA Championship; in 1953 he fell to his antagonist again during Hogan’s greatest year even though Oliver tied the record for the lowest score ever shot at the Masters; and in the worst luck of all, while still capable of winning golf tournaments, he succumbed to lung cancer at the age of forty-six. But whatever his fate, even in his suffering, he embraced the people and the world around him and they loved him for it. In 1961, the PGA of America and Oliver’s fellow pros named him Honorary Captain of the Ryder Cup team. This is his story.

Prologue

In the 1940s, three records were set in the world of sports that have remained out of reach for more than seven decades: In 1941, Joe DiMaggio hit safely in fifty-six straight games and Ted Williams became the last man to bat over .400. Then, in 1945, Byron Nelson won eleven straight tournaments on the PGA Tour. Many feel that Nelson’s record will never be broken. One of Nelson’s wins during the 1945 streak was a major championship, the PGA. The humble man who had been named Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in both ’44 and ’45 arrived in Portland, Oregon in August 1946 as the dominant figure in the sport, but he was being chased by the leading money winner that year, Ben Hogan. Then thirty-four, Nelson let it be known that this would be his last year of playing full time on the PGA Tour. With the two leading figures in separate match play brackets, all hoped for a Nelson-Hogan final for the year’s last major.

Ed Porky Oliver was standing in the way of the hoped for showdown between the two biggest names in golf. Oliver had narrowly lost to Nelson earlier that summer at the Columbus Open after having been away from tournament golf following a long stint in the Army. He was hungry for a major championship. Prior to the war, he endured a controversial and heartbreaking disqualification after finishing regulation play tied for the lead in the U.S. Open.

The PGA Championship in 1946 was a true marathon that required steady nerves and physical endurance. After qualifying over thirty-six holes, the finalists would have to survive two eighteen-hole matches followed by four thirty-six-hole contests. By comparison to the current seventy-two-hole four day tournament routine, the PGA Championship winner could potentially play more than 200 holes over seven days and walk seventy miles or more. Over the second half of his quest for golfing glory, Delaware’s favorite son would have to carry his 220-pound frame across the Oregon countryside and play pressure golf at the highest level against two of the greatest golfers in history at the peak of their powers.

On August 23, 1946, the headline in the Wilmington paper read, Oliver Gets Big Chance as He Plays Nelson in 36-Hole Match. Later the story mentioned that the man the press called Lord Byron was naturally rated the favorite. After a strong morning 18, Oliver held a three-up lead over Nelson, but it all slipped away in the afternoon and he found himself two down after thirty holes. Bearing down against the defending champion, Oliver pulled back to even through thirty-five holes.

While Oliver had played some of his best pressure golf holding off the reigning prince of the game, the gallery of 6,000 fully expected the match would be headed to overtime and the championship would remain on track for the ultimate Nelson–Hogan historic showdown. But as Oliver placed his second into position on the par five thirty-sixth hole, Nelson stumbled. He hooked his shot into the trees and missed his putt for par. Oliver pitched onto the green and then tapped in for a win that shocked the golf world. Byron Nelson, who rewrote golf’s record book, headed home to Texas to start a new life.

Standing between Ed Oliver and his ultimate quest were seventy-two holes over two days against Jug McSpaden and Ben Hogan. McSpaden, who along with Nelson was known as one of the Gold Dust Twins, had won five times in 1944 and finished second thirteen times in 1945. One of golf’s most consistent players, he was ready to win his first major. Hogan, emerging to replace Nelson as the dominant figure in the game, was leading money winner for the year. Oliver was confident and playing well, but as he would say years later, You’re never safe against Hogan!

Chapter 1

Prodigy, 1931

The annual caddie banquet was the biggest night of the year for the 250 caddies of the Wilmington Country Club (WCC). Hosted around Christmas each year since 1925 by club director General J. Ernest Smith, the evening featured great food, friendship, and recognition. Awards were presented for service to the club and membership, and for skill at golf. The winner of the annual caddie golf championship would b e crowned.

J. Ernest Smith was an attorney and one of Delaware’s most prominent citizens. Considered the dean of the Delaware bar, Smith was described as having been the drawer of the Corporation Act of Delaware, which would propel the little state to become the leading corporation registration home in the country. Active in the banking world of the late 1800s, he was one of the founders and the first president of the Delaware Trust Company. He served as judge advocate general of Delaware under five governors, holding the official rank of colonel and brigadier general under Governor Denney.1

General Smith had a special relationship with the caddies at Wilmington Country Club. The dinner was his personal project and each year they would cheer him mightily. During the 1930s, as the Great Depression tightened its grip on life, the banquet was an uplifting moment. There were few opportunities to earn even small change during the winter months, but at banquet time cash awards were handed out from as high as ten dollars (more than $150 in today’s dollars), five dollars and a long list of one-dollar awards. The cash awards covered everything from attendance, to deportment, to caddie skills.

The Wilmington Country Club had been founded in 1901. According to the Wilmington News Journal, an organizing meeting was held in General Smith’s office and he became one of three initial stockholders in the club. Land was leased on the western edge of the city from William du Pont and John Reid of Atlantic City was engaged to lay out an eighteen hole course. Golf in America was in its infancy and for nearly twenty years, Wilmington was the only course in the state. In 1913, the club hosted the U. S. Women’s Amateur Championship, the first of numerous national championships to be held over the years.

While the club was the center of fun and recreation for members, it served a more serious purpose in 1918 when the Spanish Flu began to overwhelm area hospitals. In cooperation with the city, Wilmington Country Club became an emergency hospital to handle the overflow. Everyone, including Wilmington’s elite, joined in the effort to assist the sick. Within days after the clubhouse hospital opened, nineteen had died. Mrs. J. Ernest Smith led the local Red Cross committee providing food and other services to aid workers. By mid-November officials believed the epidemic was subsiding and announced the country club emergency hospital would close and the remaining patients shifted to existing hospitals in the city to save money. Over a period of less than two months, the club had cared for more than five hundred patients, with 153 deaths. As with much of the country, local conditions were grim as bodies piled up due to a shortage of coffins.

With the end of World War I and retreat of the virus, Wilmington returned to normal. In 1920, the Wilmington Country Club became one of the venues for Harry Vardon’s grand tour of America after competing again in the U.S. Open at the age of fifty. The six-time winner of the British Open Championship had won the U.S. Open in 1900 and lost in a playoff to Francis Ouimet (immortalized in the book and movie, The Greatest Game Ever Played) in 1913. He would finish second in the U.S. Open again that year, this time to his traveling and exhibition partner Ted Ray. Before a large gallery over thirty-six holes, Wilmington club professional Wilfred Reid and 1908 U.S. Open champion Fred McLeod of Maryland’s Columbia Country Club managed to tie the game’s greatest stars.

Caddying was one of the few ways for young boys to make a buck in the western part of Wilmington during the Great Depression. Caddie fees were generally around sixty cents a round, but with tip a caddie could earn up to a dollar for four hours work, not counting the time sitting around soaking up the caddie culture. Wilmington Country Club maintained a roster of up to 250 caddies, with most hailing from the nearby city neighborhoods of Little Italy and a section known as the Flats. Many days, there were far more caddies than golfers, so kids sometimes sat for hours before heading home empty handed and disappointed.

While there certainly were several fine golfers developing their skills at Wilmington Country Club during the 1920s, it would be General Smith’s beloved caddies who began to steal the show as the ’30s arrived. These boys would come to dominate the local golf scene for decades to come. At least a half dozen would become professionals and take positions at new clubs as they developed. Others would remain amateurs and win dozens of club and state competitions. The competitive culture that gave rise to this local talent was being fostered by the caddie master, Elbert Francis Nookie Burd, a twenty-three-year-old sandlot football standout, and the club’s Scottish golf pro, Alex Tait. No doubt Burd and Tait had the full backing of General Smith.

In the early 1930s, Nookie Burd looked to improve his prospects to have his caddie teams not only dominate the Delaware golf scene but to take on the best caddies in the entire Philadelphia region. In a 1931 one-point loss to the DuPont caddie team, Burd watched as a young prodigy named Edward Oliver defeated his rising star, Curt Riley, and led all scorers. The loss to DuPont was more than the competitive Burd could stand. He decided to try to lure DuPont’s star to Wilmington Country Club.

Edward Stewart Oliver Jr. was born in Wilmington, Delaware on September 6, 1915. His father Edward S. Oliver Sr.’s family had emigrated to the United States from Ireland in the mid-1800s. His mother, Clara Boulden Oliver, also of Irish descent, was born in Cecil County, Maryland, where her father was a farmer. She lived in Baltimore during her teenage years. After their marriage in 1913 and over the ensuing years, the Olivers rented homes in and around Wilmington, but during Ed’s formative years they lived on the banks of the Brandywine not far from the newly opened DuPont Country Club. According to the 1930 census, there were nine living in the home—the six Olivers and a sister, Mary Hughes, plus her two children.2 At some point during the 1930s, the family moved to 202 Union Street, on the edge of the Little Italy section of the city. In later years, they would move to suburban Elsmere and Richardson Park.

Ed Oliver Sr. was employed as a millworker for Joseph Bancroft & Sons, located along the Brandywine River in close proximity to the shuttered DuPont Company powder mills. In the ’30s Bancroft was one of the largest cotton dyeing and finishing works in the world, and the company began making Ban-Lon, which would become a popular shirt material for golfers for decades. With four children and unable to make ends meet on the wages of a millworker, the Oliver family supplemented their income by farming a parcel of land southwest of the city. They sold most of the produce directly from their home or gave it away to those who could not afford it.

The Brandywine divided the city and its rushing waters were the life source for local industry since colonial days. The Brandywine also played a pivotal role in the Revolutionary War. Expecting British General Howe to march from Maryland through Wilmington on the way to Philadelphia, Washington planned to block him near the town. When Howe flanked him to the west he quickly marched his army parallel to the Brandywine to Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania where they clashed in the largest engagement of the war. While Howe’s forces carried the day, the colonials inflicted heavy casualties on the British and Washington’s strategic retreat allowed him to preserve his forces for the Philadelphia campaign to come.

Eddie Oliver began his caddying career at Dupont at age eleven. DuPont had developed their country club for employees on the northern bank of the river approximately a mile from the Wilmington Country Club. A nine-hole course designed by Wilfred Reid, the golf professional at Wilmington Country Club, was opened in 1920. This course was replaced in 1924 by an eighteen-hole course designed by famed course architect Donald Ross.

Oliver had paid little attention to golf during his first two years at DuPont and when he finally decided to take up the game, he started out swinging cross-handed. In a Sports Illustrated interview years later, he gave credit to DuPont caddie master Joe O’Neal for correcting him. He also gave credit to Tommy Fisher, the Scottish pro at the club, for noticing his potential and giving him his first lessons. In an interview with Wilmington Morning News sports editor Marty Levin shortly before his death, Oliver spoke about his early development: Tommy taught me all the fundamentals…I would chase balls for him when he was giving lessons and he would help me straighten out my game.

Even as a teenager, stories about Oliver’s athletic prowess abounded. He was said to be able to punt a football the length of a football field and hit any target with a snowball, which led to the first of his many nicknames, Snowball. In May of 1931, Eddie Oliver led his Alexis I. du Pont High School baseball team to a title and an undefeated season. As a pitcher he averaged fourteen strikeouts a game and led the team in batting with a .453 average. In the 1961 Levin interview series Oliver talked about baseball being his first love and his time pitching in the local semi-pro league. He told Levin, I pitched against Bobby Carpenter (owner of the Philadelphia Phillies at that time) and Bob has often kidded me about playing with the Phillies when I used to run into him in Florida. On the golf course Oliver amazed his fellow caddies with his long drives. He was said to hit a seven iron over 200 yards at a time when only the best could hit a driver a similar distance. On caddie days when members would surrender the course for a few hours to the bag carriers, the kids were known to follow Snowball as he would often threaten the course record.

While Ed Oliver Sr. was talented at everything from horseshoes to marbles, the gregarious Irishman was not known to play any organized sports. Nonetheless, he and his wife encouraged their son’s obsession with sports. Later, Ed Sr. would often travel the pro golf tour with Ed Jr., living and dying with his every swing of the club and making friends along the way.

As 1931 was drawing to a close, Wilmington Country Club held its annual caddie dinner celebration. That year’s event was different because it would be the first without the founding host and benefactor General J. Ernest Smith in attendance. Even at eighty-two, General Smith was an active traveler and sportsman. He sent his greetings to the caddie gathering from California and the boys responded by presenting him a silver cigar box to enjoy after his return to Delaware. While caddie master Burd helped preside over the celebration and assist with the recognition, no doubt his thoughts drifted to the next season. Would 1932 be the year his boys would win it all?

Chapter 2

Caddie Champs, 1932–33

As the new year began in 1932, the Wilmington Evening Journal newspaper did not set an optimistic tone. Headlines read American Industry Crippled: Look to Hoover’s Emergency Plan to Break Vicious Cycle.

President Hoover had come to office based on his well-earned reputation as an effective administrator of relief to the starving people of Europe after World War I and for his leadership in responding to the great Mississippi flood of 1927 as the secretary of commerce. But the steps Hoover was taking to address the growing economic crisis were largely ineffective, and the U.S. unemployment rate had reached twenty-three percent by 1932. Since neither Social Security nor welfare yet existed, response to those out of work was left to community efforts. One local headline story identified agencies helping to provide relief and in their first editorial of the year the paper referred to the new year as being the third winter of the Great Depression. They then provided guidance on how to respond to the hobos and panhandlers on the streets of Wilmington.

Not unlike many teenagers during these difficult times, Eddie Oliver decided to drop out of high school and devote his energies full time to his work in the golf world. No doubt the baseball coach at Alexis I. du Pont High School registered his disappointment to his star performer, but to no avail. Snowball Oliver was falling in love with another sport.

In the summer of 1932, the local caddie competition began to heat up. As of July 6, Eddie Oliver was still playing for the DuPont Country Club team, but by the time Wilmington Country Club teed off against Bala Golf Club of Philadelphia on July 11, Oliver had jumped ship from DuPont. The Wilmington paper read, A new addition to the Wilmington toting team is Oliver who played in the second man position. In an interview given to Matt Zabitka of the Wilmington News Journal twenty-two years after Oliver’s death, Nookie Burd took the credit. When I became caddie master at WCC in the 1930s, I organized a caddie golf team. Snowball at that time was a caddie at DuPont Country Club. But I hustled him to come to WCC. Others familiar with the deal said Oliver was offered his choice of any job at Wilmington, even two caddie loops a day. As the Depression raged on, it was an offer Snowball couldn’t refuse. WCC would crush Bala that day and remain undefeated.

Though Nookie Burd ruled over the caddies at Wilmington Country Club with an iron hand, a subculture existed within the caddyshack not unlike a street gang or boys reform school—a place where only the strong, talented, or clever survived. It was said that newcomers had to fight another caddie upon arrival to earn their place, but Oliver was different. While many of the Depression era kids were tough and spent their spare hours around city boxing gyms, no one wanted to challenge the husky newcomer. It looked like a certain losing proposition and besides, he had arrived with Burd’s full blessing. You would be risking an expulsion for life if you interfered with the caddie master’s plan to get his revenge against DuPont and beat the best of Philadelphia. And it was not just Burd and Oliver’s apparent physical power that insulated him from the normal caddie induction ritual; everyone liked Eddie Oliver from the moment they met him.

A week after the Bala match, Burd’s team faced DuPont. With the departure of the DuPont team’s star, it must have been a demoralized group. They would be crushed by the Wilmington caddies, 10–1. Nookie Burd had met one of his goals.

Wilmington continued to pile up the wins and arrived at the Philadelphia caddie championship playoff against Philadelphia Country Club on August 12 with a record of 16-0. The media buildup for the event included a discussion about the need to find a neutral course for the match. The decision to hold the contest at Llanerch Country Club near Philadelphia was made by the president of the Philadelphia Newspapers Golf Association. Oliver won his match and WCC prevailed 4-3. Clearly not impressed that a team from Delaware took the Philly caddie crown, the Philadelphia Inquirer reporter referred to Delaware as the Mud Hen State.

Nookie Burd’s caddies had fulfilled his dream of a Philadelphia caddie championship, but there was still an important Delaware match to be played followed by the season ending individual club caddie championship. Although no one realized it at the time, the match played on August 17, 1932 between the Wilmington Country Club caddies and the boys from the public Rock Manor course would be historically significant. Ed Oliver would one day play on three Ryder Cup teams, but he was not the only future Ryder Cupper in the match that Wednesday. Fourteen-year-old Davey Douglas, son of the Rock Manor golf pro was playing for the public links team that day. Perhaps as a portent of what lay ahead, the youngster walloped a future Rock Manor golf pro, named Carmen Steppo 8 & 6. Douglas would one day win eight times on the PGA Tour and qualify for the 1953 Ryder Cup team, where he would partner with Ed Porky Oliver in a win against Peter Alliss and Harry Weetman, two of the top British pros of the era.

Snowball Oliver had been a strong addition to Nookie Burd’s golf team in 1932, but he was not yet the dominating player he would later become. At age sixteen, he was still developing physically and as a golfer. For most of Wilmington’s matches, Burd started Oliver in the number two position behind Curt Riley. Son of a police detective and future chief of police, Riley was smaller than Oliver but a year and a half older than his teammate. Snowball would lead the qualifying for the caddie championship at the end of summer, but Riley prevailed in match play to win his first title, following older brother Jim who had won in 1931.

In his 1982 interview with Burd, Matt Zabitka noted that the former caddie master spoke about Oliver with a tinge of reverence. He wrote, Snowball was the greatest golfer to ever come out of Delaware. As a youngster he could do anything—play football, swim like a fish, and throw a baseball. He might have made it in pro baseball, but he loved golf too much. Even as Oliver swept the Philadelphia caddie titles in 1933 and 1934, sports writers seemed as fascinated by stories of his all around talent as they were of his emerging dominance on the golf course. They would often refer to him as the boy Bunyan of the Brandywine. One story that became part of the Oliver legend was a fight against a big kid from another neighborhood that was reported to have lasted for hours. The bloodied warriors refused to give in and rested at various points before it was finally broken up by the police.3

On August 15, 1933, the talent identified by Tommy Fisher, Nookie Burd, and a host of caddie pals in Wilmington, invaded the proud world of Philadelphia golf, which was arguably the heart of golf in America in the 1930s. Some of the greatest clubs and courses had emerged in the area in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Courses such as Merion, Pine Valley, Aronimink, Philadelphia Country Club, Philadelphia Cricket Club, Rolling Green, and Llanerch would host some of the most important competitions in golf. In 1930, the Merion Golf Club was the site where Bobby Jones completed the Grand Slam of golf, considered the game’s greatest accomplishment.

The golf clubs and their members were supported by thousands of caddies desperate for any job or income. Captivated by the game they labored in, the caddies learned golf by observing for hours the best and worst practitioners of the sport. Many harbored dreams of beating the long odds and becoming one of the few who made a living playing the ancient game.

Snowball Oliver had played on the Wilmington team that won the 1932 club title against Philadelphia Country Club, but in August of 1933 he would make his first try for the city’s individual caddie championship at the Torresdale-Frankford Country Club north of Philadelphia and forty-five miles from home. To get to these events, trusting Wilmington Country Club members would lend their cars to Nookie Burd to transport the caddies. After firing a 76 on the tight Torresdale-Frankford Country Club course, the seventeen-year-old Oliver stood tied with nineteen-year-old Dominick Fannatto of the famous Pine Valley club. An eighteen-hole playoff was scheduled for the next morning so Oliver and the Wilmington contingent with Burd at the wheel made the forty-five-mile trek back through Philadelphia to Wilmington. The next day, after the long morning drive, Oliver shocked Fannatto