Charlie Sifford

[Bill Shamleffer]

An interesting article on Charlie Sifford, (and a worthy OT topic).

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-plaschke-20111025,0,4306937,full.column

[Clyde Johnston]

Good article on Dr. Sifford.

I was recently involved with the renovation of the Revolution Park GC in Charlotte, NC. Dr. Sifford had played there over the years. The Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation Department choose to rename the course to the "Dr. Charles L. Sifford Golf Course at Revolution Park" in his honor.

The Grand Opening was May 3rd of this year and they held a big ceremony with Dr. Sifford and many other well known African American golfers who had played the course. Dr. Sifford kept everyone in laughter with his wise cracks but let everyone present know about the difficulties he had breaking the racial barrier in golf.

I bought an autographed copy of his book "Just Let Me Play" and have enjoyed reading it. It's amazing what he had to put up with. He never gave up. He loved playing golf and no one would keep him from doing it.

[Gary Slatter]

I was fortunate to meet Charlie when he lived in Orlando, really enjoyed sitting beside him for several hours at John Heine's house, while we watched a Superbowl on TV,  he  kept us in stitches making brief comments about the tour.

Clyde:  thanks for linking the article, too many people have never heard of Charlie!

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

I have always had great admiration for Dr Sifford.

[Tim Martin]

He duly feels that he paved the way for many players that don`t even know who he is and it is clear that he is bothered by that.