Pressure Is Nothing New to Jim Thorpe

Jim Thorpe, among the leaders in the U.S. Open, doesn’t think the pressure will get to him today. He’s seen it all.

Thorpe, a big hitter who once played fullback on the Morgan State football team, used to hustle for money on the courses around Washington, D.C.

He told Dave Anderson of the New York Times: “One time my wife and I had $503 in the bank, and I took out $500. I was playing a guy named Joe Pugh with this big roll of bills in my pocket and I was one down coming to the ninth hole when I pressed him.

“On his second shot, he hit a 9-iron about three feet away. He was a good putter. I thought, ‘I’m gonna lose $1,000.’ I hit a wedge, half-skulled it, but it was on line. It hit the flagstick and jumped in the hole. I went on to win $2,500 that day.”

Did he ever tell his wife he had risked their bank account?

“There are certain things,” he said, smiling, “that you don’t tell.”

For What It’s Worth: In the 1966 U.S. Open at Olympic Club, ABC announcer Dave Marr tied for fourth with Tony Lema at 286. Billy Casper and Arnold Palmer tied for first at 278 and Casper won the playoff. Jack Nicklaus was third at 285.

Rives McBee, who set a course record of 64 in the second round, tied for 13th at 292, one shot behind 53-year-old Ben Hogan at 291.

Hogan told McBee after the second round, “Nobody shoots 64 on this golf course.”

McBee, now 48, is a teaching pro in Texas. He tried to qualify for this year’s Open but failed to make it.

Trivia Time: Who is the only major league baseball player who also played in a Super Bowl? (Answer below.)

23 Years Ago Today: On June 21, 1964, Philadelphia right-hander Jim Bunning, a father of seven, pitched a perfect game to beat the New York Mets, 6-0, on Father’s Day. Bunning became the first pitcher to win no-hitters in both leagues, having performed the feat with Detroit in 1958.

Would-you-believe-it dept.: When USC beat South Carolina, 23-13, in 1980, the Gamecocks had a tailback who would win the Heisman Trophy and a senior cheerleader who would make even bigger headlines.

They were George Rogers and Donna Rice.

Duane Kuiper, an announcer for the San Francisco Giants, tells about a recent flight: “I sat next to a woman with three-month-old twins, and when I told her my wife was expecting, she shoved one of the kids at me and said, ‘Here, practice.’ ”

Said Steve Alford, after NBA chief scout Marty Blake said the Indiana All-American wouldn’t be able to guard Michael Jordan: “Well, who in the NBA did guard him?”

Asked the biggest adjustment he’ll have to make, Alford said, “I’ll have to learn to travel.”

That’s not travel, as in airplanes, but travel, as in taking steps.

“They give you those extra steps in the NBA,” he said.

Trivia Answer: Tom Brown. He was an outfielder-first baseman for the Washington Senators in 1963 and was a safety for the Green Bay Packers in the 1967 and 1968 Super Bowls.

Quotebook

Mac O’Grady, golfdom’s resident philosopher, on the vagaries of the game: “One minute you’re on top of the world and the next you’re struggling like little baby turtles coming off the Galapagos Islands.”