Football, Baseball Stars in Golf Event This Week

Thirteen members of the football and baseball Halls of Fame will compete in the 20th American Airlines Golf Classic Thursday through Saturday at the Marriott Desert Springs Resort and Spa course in Palm Desert, announced tournament chairman Mike Gunn.

Gunn, senior vice president of marketing for American Airlines, said football’s Deacon Jones, Otto Graham, Ray Nitschke, Sonny Jurgensen, Paul Warfield, Chuck Bednarik and Ken Houston, plus baseball’s Don Drysdale, Yogi Berra, Ernie Banks, Warren Spahn, Ralph Kiner and Willie McCovey will play in the 54-hole tournament.

Drysdale, Kiner and Berra played in the first Classic in 1967 at La Costa, while McCovey and Houston, who were inducted into the Hall of Fame last year, will be making their debuts here.

Other prominent athletes in the 64-player field include John Elway of the Denver Broncos, Mike Scott, 1986 NL Cy Young Award winner of the Houston Astros; pitchers Mike Witt and Kirk McCaskill, Angels; Orel Hershiser and Rick Honeycutt, Dodgers; Lou Piniella, manager of the New York Yankees, Rick Rhoden, Yankees; Brad Van Pelt, Browns; Randall Cunningham, Eagles, and Billy Kilmer.

One football star is paired with his baseball counterpart and two businessmen partners in this scramble format. Action begins Thursday with a 9 a.m. shotgun start.