Posted on 01/03/2007 5:33:31 PM PST by Mr. Brightside
Golfing great serves as Ford pallbearer
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
By Tom Rademacher and Greg Johnson
The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS -- Golf legend Jack Nicklaus has met many influential people, including seven U.S. presidents.
But there was something special about his relationship with the 38th president, the chief executive who hailed from Grand Rapids.
The two men golfed together, skied together, dined together. They exchanged letters and Christmas gifts. They even shared a common love for the lineage that delivered them their golden retriever puppies.
So when Gerald R. Ford asked Nicklaus if he would serve as an honorary pallbearer at his funeral, the golf great nodded his assent. He was to be among a dozen men and women performing that duty this afternoon at Grace Episcopal Church in East Grand Rapids.
"I do not know," Nicklaus said, "if I have ever met a nicer man in my life."
The golfing great, reached at his room inside the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel on Tuesday, said he often prefers a publicist to handle interview requests.
"But when someone calls about Jerry Ford," he told a reporter, "that's a call I try to return."
A shared love of dogs
Nicklaus spoke at length about his relationship with Ford, revealing not only that they shared the same lineage of golden retriever dogs, but how Ford once tapped the golfer for some political muscle.
Nicklaus and Ford first met as partners at a pro-am at Inverarry Resort near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., while the president still was in office. Ford and his wife, Betty, and Nicklaus and his wife, Barbara, were enjoying dinner when the topic of dogs came up.
"Barbara and I had always had small dogs -- ankle biters -- and Barbara never really wanted a big dog," Nicklaus said. But it was Barbara who jumped at the opportunity when the president offered a puppy from the litter of their golden, Liberty, who was pregnant.
"As soon as we got in the car, and before I could get in my two cents," said Nicklaus, Barbara blurted out that "If the president would have offered me a snake, I would have taken it."
Today, the Nicklauses are on their fourth golden, all descendants of Liberty.
When Bill Clinton was president and Ford was trying to exert influence on the pending North American Free Trade Agreement, he called Nicklaus to have the three of them golf.
Nicklaus remembers Ford saying: " 'Jack, I want you to play golf with me and Clinton so I can talk some sense into this guy's head.' "
Nicklaus initially bowed out because he was playing in a PGA event the weekend Ford wanted to golf. When Nicklaus failed to make the cut, however, "it wasn't five minutes and (Ford) was on the phone to Barbara."
That intended weekend, the trio played for two days at Vail, Colo.
"It was a very nice time," Nicklaus said, "and President Ford's efforts were successful, so I guess I had a small hand in that."
Nicklaus: Ford was family man
Nicklaus always was in awe of Ford's attention to family. Ford, having decided knee problems would keep him from being a golf partner to Nicklaus one year, counseled the golf legend to take his son, Jack, as a replacement.
"He said, 'When I was in Congress, I went years and years without being able to do things with my sons, and I deeply regret that. The demands of public life stopped me from enjoying and helping my boys grow up, and that was a mistake. So there is no way in the world I'm going to contribute to you making the same mistake.' "
Nicklaus said Ford might have been the best golfer among the presidents he has seen.
"The former president was a big hitter off the tee and played to about a 13- or 14-handicap," Nicklaus said. "And when I say a 13- or 14-handicap, I mean he was a real 13 or 14. He would regularly shoot 85."
Nicklaus called Ford "one of the best athletes to have ever served in the White House," but perhaps more importantly, he took the time Tuesday to call him what a lot of those in West Michigan and elsewhere have been calling him for decades:
"A genuinely nice guy."
I heard yesterday that Ford and Nicholas were also business partners.
Is the Ford funeral a big deal where you live?
I am from Grand Rapids. The expressway overpasses were lined with people waiving flags and crying. Traffic backed up all over town. My employees trying to call in sick so they could stand in line for six hours to look at his casket.
Maybe I am cold-hearted. Or maybe I am just too busy. But this whole funeral seems like overkill.
What a wonderful tribute. Thanks for a great post.
How inconsiderate of Ford to live so long after his presidency that he was merely "overkill" so many years later, and not remembered for his place in our American story. That darn Jerry.
Jack Nicklaus is truly a class act, a real American hero and role model in the way he conducts himself on the course, in his business affairs and in his personal life.
How many hours would you stand in line to view a casket?
Gerald Ford was a class act and the best person needed for the job at a very difficult time.
I hadn't previously heard about the "dog connection" between President Ford and Jack Nicklaus, but I'm not surprised.
I know that Jack Nicklaus has done some great work for the Republican Party. He made several campaign appearances for and with President Bush in Ohio in 2004, which of course ended up being the crucial state.
Jack, an Ohio State grad, is a revered figure in Ohio. He recently "dotted the i" at a football game, where the OSU marching band spells out a script "Ohio," with the "i" usually being dotted by the guy with the big white tuba. Quite an honor for Jack, and well deserved.
ML/NJ
"So when Gerald R. Ford asked Nicklaus if he would serve as an honorary pallbearer at his funeral, the golf great nodded his assent."
Was this before or after President Ford passed away. Or was it just telekinesis?
For a man who wanted a simple memorial, six days was surely much too much.
I don't see how Betty Ford endured this never ending spectacle.
17 hours.
"Maybe I am cold-hearted. Or maybe I am just too busy. But this whole funeral seems like overkill."
He was the President of the United States. Everything was as it should have been.
Former Presidents plan their funerals as soon as they leave office.
He planned it himself. It was what he obviously wanted.
Two of my favorite people. It is fitting that they found and shared a part of their lives together.
Unlike that cheating hacker Billy Jeff.
Nice posting.
Thanks.
Its called respect. And this man deserved every bit of it, as does every president does..excluding maybe Clinton.
If I lived in a town who's former native was a president and he died, I would have called ALL work off for the day, closed shop, and allowed every worker who wanted to go and show their RESPECT to do so.
Respect is dearly lacking in this day and age.
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