Hall W. Thompson

Last updated • 4 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Hall W. Thompson
Born(1923-05-28)May 28, 1923
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
DiedOctober 27, 2010(2010-10-27) (aged 87)
Alma mater Vanderbilt University
Occupations
  • Businessman
  • golf course developer
SpouseLucille
Children5

Hall W. Thompson (May 28, 1923 – October 27, 2010) was an American businessman and golf course developer. [1] [2]

Contents

Biography

Early life

Hall W. Thompson was born on May 28, 1923, in Nashville, Tennessee. [1] He attended Vanderbilt University. During the Second World War, he served in the United States Army Air Corps in the Pacific Ocean. [1]

Business

While at Vanderbilt, he started working at General Truck Sales, the nation's largest privately owned GMC truck outlet. [1] In 1957, he purchased the north Alabama dealership for Caterpillar Inc. and called it Thompson Tractor. [1] [2] New tractor facilities were built in Anniston, Decatur and Tuscaloosa. [1] In 1987, his son Michael took over, and it became the authorized dealer for south Alabama and the panhandle of Florida, employing 1,230 people. [1]

He served on the Boards of Directors of AmSouth Bank, South Central Bell, BellSouth Telecommunications, Protective Life Corporation, and Alabama By-Products Corporation. [1] He also served on the board of trustees of the Crippled Children's Foundation and he was the past director of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, the State Chamber of Commerce, and Associated Industries of Alabama. [1] He served on the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, Vanderbilt University, until his retirement in 1993. [1] He was a member of the Birmingham Rotary Club. [1]

Golf

He developed and established the Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1977 as an invitation-only private golf club. The course held a number of notable tournaments, with major events such as the 1984 PGA Championship won by Lee Trevino passing without incident. In the months before the 1990 PGA Championship which was to be played in August at the club, Thompson was approached by a reporter from the Birmingham Post-Herald who asked about the club's admission policies, with Thompson noting the inclusion of Jews and women as members, saying that "we don't discriminate in every other area except blacks". [3] Civil rights organizations announced that they would stage protests. [3]

IBM and other key corporate sponsors such as American Honda Motor Company, Lincoln-Mercury and Toyota pulled out of the television advertising during the tournament, costing the tournament's broadcasters ABC and ESPN an estimated $2 million in advertising revenue. [4] On July 31, in an agreement reached between the club, the PGA and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Shoal Creek announced that it would begin accepting blacks as members. Following the agreement, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People announced that it too would not conduct protests at the club. [4] The tournament went off in the absence of any confrontations. [3] Sports Illustrated called Thompson "Alabama's second-most-effective catalyst for change in race relations" after Rosa Parks, noting that the effect of his remarks led to club's admission of Louis J. Willie, president of the Booker T. Washington Insurance Company as an honorary member, meaning that he would not have to pay the club's standard $35,000 initiation fee and paved the way for the sport's governing bodies to end play at clubs that practiced discrimination. [5]

He remained involved with the Shoal Creek club until his death, and saw the admission of members such as former United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. [3] A junior amateur tournament was held at the club in 2008, [3] and in 2010 Shoal Creek the PGA Champions Tour announced it would move one of its major tour events, The Tradition (now to be called "The Regions Tradition") to the club in 2011. [6] He was a member of the Augusta National Golf Club. [7]

His remarks led to greater introspection by the golf world regarding the membership policies at the clubs that serve as tournament hosts, with an official at the USGA estimating that 75% of private clubs in the United States in 1990 had membership policies that exclude minorities and women. [8] As part of an effort that "helps change the climate" executive director David B. Fay of the United States Golf Association, the organization that sets rules for the sport and operates the U.S. Open, the second of the four major championships, announced new regulations in November under which the USGA would not hold tournaments at private clubs that discriminate against women or minorities. [9] The PGA Tour and the PGA of America had already announced in August that clubs that discriminated based on race, religion or sex would not be accepted as sites for the 120 tournaments conducted each year. [10]

Personal life

He died at the age of 87 on October 27, 2010. He was survived by his wife, Lucille, as well as by two daughters, three sons and eight grandchildren. [3] He was honored as Alabama's first "Distinguished Sportsman" by the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and he was inducted in the Alabama Academy of Honor. [1]

Related Research Articles

The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open national championship of golf in the United States. It is the third of the four men's major golf championships, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour. Since 1898 the competition has been 72 holes of stroke play, with the winner being the player with the lowest total number of strokes. It is staged by the United States Golf Association (USGA) in mid-June, scheduled so that, if there are no weather delays, the final round is played on the third Sunday. The U.S. Open is staged at a variety of courses, set up in such a way that scoring is very difficult, with a premium placed on accurate driving. As of 2024, the U.S. Open awards a $21.5 million purse, the largest of all four major championships.

The PGA Championship is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major golf championships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Golf Association</span> Governing body for golf in the United States

The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the rules of golf. The USGA also provides a national handicap system for golfers, conducts 14 national championships, including the U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open and U.S. Senior Open, and tests golf equipment for conformity with regulations. The USGA and the USGA Museum are located in Liberty Corner, New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Golf Hall of Fame</span> Professional sports hall of fame in Pinehurst, North Carolina

The World Golf Hall of Fame was, until recently, located at World Golf Village between Jacksonville, Florida and St. Augustine, Florida, in the United States. It is unusual amongst sports halls of fame in that a single site honored both men and women. It is supported by a consortium of 26 golf organizations from all over the world. It is moving back to Pinehurst, North Carolina, with the new campus opening in 2024.

The U.S. Women's Open, one of 15 national golf championships conducted by the United States Golf Association (USGA), is the oldest of the LPGA Tour's five major championships, which includes the Chevron Championship, Women's PGA Championship, Women's Open Championship, and The Evian Championship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Men's major golf championships</span> Four prestigious annual tournaments in professional golf

The men's major golf championships, commonly known as the major championships, and often referred to simply as the majors, are the most prestigious tournaments in golf. Historically, the national open and amateur championships of Great Britain and the United States were regarded as the majors. With the rise of professional golf in the middle of the twentieth century, the majors came to refer to the most prestigious professional tournaments.

Golf Channel is an American sports television network owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Founded in Birmingham, Alabama, it is currently based out of NBC Sports' headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Tradition</span> Annual over-50s major golf championship

The Tradition is an event on the PGA Tour Champions. First staged 35 years ago in 1989, the PGA Tour recognizes the event as one of the five senior major golf championships. Unlike the U.S. Senior Open, Senior PGA Championship and Senior Open Championship, it is not recognized as a major by the European Senior Tour, and is not part of that tour's official schedule. It is the only senior major where the winner does not earn an exemption into a PGA Tour or European Tour event.

Thomas Daniel Weiskopf was an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. His most successful decade was the 1970s. He won 16 PGA Tour titles between 1968 and 1982, including the 1973 Open Championship. He was the runner-up at The Masters four times. After winding down his career playing golf, Weiskopf became a noted golf course architect. He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2023 and was be inducted in 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regions Charity Classic</span> Golf tournament

The Regions Charity Classic, formerly known as the Bruno's Memorial Classic, was an American golf tournament on the Champions Tour. It was originally held at Greystone Golf & Country Club and moved to Ross Bridge Golf Resort and Spa, one of ten courses on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, located in Hoover, Alabama in 2006. The tournament was founded in 1991 by Birmingham-based Bruno's Supermarkets. The event was managed by the Bruno family under its Bruno Event Team company.

Shoal Creek Club is an invitation-only private golf club in the southeastern United States, located in Shelby County, Alabama, southeast of Birmingham. Opened 47 years ago in 1977, the course was designed by Jack Nicklaus and is rated as the top golf course in the state. Shoal Creek is consistently listed as one of United States top courses, most recently being ranked #50 in Golf Digest and #70 in Golf Week.

Joseph Charles Dey Jr. was an American golf administrator and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cypress Point Club</span> Private golf club in California

Cypress Point Club is a private golf club located in Pebble Beach, California, at the northern end of the Central Coast. Its single 18-hole course has been named as one of the finest in golf, best known for a series of dramatic holes along the Pacific Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Louis Country Club</span> A country club located in St. Louis

St. Louis Country Club (SLCC) is a country club located in Ladue, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. It is recognized by the United States Golf Association (USGA) as one of the first 100 Clubs in America.

The 1990 PGA Championship was the 72nd PGA Championship, held August 9–12 at Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama. Wayne Grady won his only major championship, three strokes ahead of runner-up Fred Couples.

The 1984 PGA Championship was the 66th PGA Championship, held August 16–19 at Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama. Lee Trevino shot four rounds in the 60s to win his second PGA Championship and sixth and final major title, four strokes ahead of runners-up Gary Player and Lanny Wadkins.

Abraham Lincoln Wood Jr. was an American civil rights leader, who helped coordinate the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and stood behind Martin Luther King Jr. during his historic "I Have a Dream" speech.

Golf telecasts have aired on NBC since 1954, with some of its earliest telecasts having included the 1954 U.S. Open, and the first televised coverage of the Ryder Cup in 1959.

Gordon Sargent is an American amateur golfer who is currently attending Vanderbilt University. In 2022, he won the NCAA Division I Men's Individual Championship. He reached number 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking in February 2023, and in June he was the low amateur in the 2023 U.S. Open.

Jewish country clubs are country clubs whose members are predominantly Jewish, having been excluded from other elite social clubs during periods of rising anti-Semitism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As a result, many major cities across the United States have at least one Jewish country club and, in cities with larger Jewish populations, often more than one, founded by wealthy Jews in that era.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Alabama Academy of Honor biography". Archived from the original on 2012-12-31. Retrieved 2013-01-08.
  2. 1 2 Thompson Tractor Archived 2012-06-26 at the Wayback Machine
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pennington, Bill. "Hall Thompson, Who Stirred Golf Controversy, Dies at 87", The New York Times , October 28, 2010. Accessed October 29, 2010.
  4. 1 2 Diaz, Jaime. "Golf; Shoal Creek Club Agrees To Begin Admitting Blacks", The New York Times , August 1, 1990. Accessed October 29, 2010.
  5. ↑ Johnson, William Oscar. "The Gates Open: By admitting a black, Birmingham's Shoal Creek led a quiet revolution", Sports Illustrated , August 13, 1990. Accessed October 29, 2010.
  6. ↑ "The Tradition to Alabama". The Bulletin. 2010-08-24. Archived from the original on 2011-01-10.
  7. ↑ Augusta National Golf Club members list, USA Today
  8. ↑ Diaz, Jaime. "GOLF; Racism Issue Shakes World of Golf", The New York Times , July 29, 1990. Accessed October 29, 2010.
  9. ↑ Diaz, Jaime. "U.S.G.A. Says Clubs Must Not Discriminate", The New York Times , November 16, 1990. Accessed October 29, 2010.
  10. ↑ Diaz, Jaime. "GOLF; PGA Tour to Require Proof of Nonbias at Sites", The New York Times , August 4, 1990. Accessed October 29, 2010.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.