In memoriam: John Derr, Calvin Peete and Hubert Mizell

1917-2015

JOHN DERR, who reported from the Masters Tourna­ment 62 times and broadcast from the 15th green when it first was on television, died June 6 of an apparent heart attack. He was 97.

Derr attended his first Masters in 1935 and was in the clubhouse when Gene Sara­zen made his double eagle on the par-5 15th hole. He worked for CBS Radio and was part of the first telecast from Augusta National Golf Club in 1956.

Derr also was at Carnous­tie in 1953 when Ben Hogan captured the only British Open he played.

It was his intimate friendships with Masters and Au­gus­ta National co-founders Bob­by Jones and Clifford Rob­erts that most influenced his life.

“I got to Augusta by way of Duke University – not as a student but as a reporter at a Duke football game,” Derr told The Augusta Chronicle in 2013.

The young Derr was covering Duke’s 1934 football game against Georgia Tech in Durham, N.C., and happened to be assigned the seat next to Atlanta’s O.B. Keeler, the man who famously chronicled Jones’ career. Keeler suggested he attend the Masters, and Derr did so in 1935.

“Lo and behold, the first person I see when I go through the gate is O.B. Keeler,” Derr said. “He said, ‘Oh, I see you made it. Have you seen Bob Jones yet?’ ”

Next thing he knew, Keeler dragged Derr over to meet the Grand Slam winner, and Jones took an instant liking to him “for no reason” and established a friendship.

“Mr. Jones said, ‘Have you met Grantland Rice yet?’ ” Derr said. “I told him no, I just got here. So Jones takes me over to meet Granny Rice. … I was introduced by Bobby Jones to all these people. You can’t have it any better than that. I am so fortunate. You could never plan something like that.”

By Sunday, Derr was part of the press corps stationed on the clubhouse veranda, entranced as he watched legends such as Rice, Keeler and Ralph McGill craft their stories of the Masters.

It was on that veranda where word came from a caddie that Gene Sarazen made a two on No. 15. Writers immediately dismissed it as a mistake, thinking he meant No. 16 instead. By the time it was confirmed, Derr had the chance to rush down and watch Sarazen play the 18th.

He got eyewitness accounts of the shot that made the Masters famous. The Sun­day crowd in 1935 at Au­gus­ta had been reduced by overnight rain, and Derr estimates little more than 2,000 patrons were there, and very few were at the 15th hole when Sarazen holed his second shot.

“Sarazen said he’d met 20,000 people who saw it, but there were only 26 and he knew the name of every one of them,” Derr said.

CALVIN PEETE

1943-2015

CALVIN PEETE, who taught himself how to play golf at age 24 and became the most successful black player on the PGA Tour before Tiger Woods, died April 29. He was 71.

Peete won 12 times on the PGA Tour, mainly from his uncanny accuracy off the tee. He led the PGA Tour in driving accuracy for 10 consecutive years starting in 1981. He also played on two Ryder Cup teams.

He played in the Masters Tournament eight times, and his best finish was a tie for 11th in 1986.

More impressive than his record, however, was the journey to compete against – and beat – the best in golf.

Born July 18, 1943, in Detroit, Peete used to pick beans and corn in Florida to make money for his family. According to a 1983 profile in The New York Times, he became interested in golf when he saw how much money golfers were making. He first tried the game in Rochester, N.Y., when he was 24. In six months he was breaking 80, and a year later he was breaking par.

Even more remarkable is that Peete’s left arm couldn’t fully extend. He broke his elbow as a kid, and it was never properly set.

Peete became the fourth black player to win on the PGA Tour, joining pioneers including Pete Brown, Char­lie Sifford and Lee Elder.

Peete finished his career with more than $3.2 million in earnings from the PGA Tour and Champions Tour.

HUBERT MIZELL

1939-2016

HUBERT MIZELL, who covered 40 Masters and an additional 50 major championships in golf, died March 3. He was 76.

The longtime St. Peters­burg Times columnist suffered from diabetes, kidney problems and congestive heart failure, his son Kevin told The Associated Press.

Born in Georgia and raised in Jacksonville, Fla., Mi­zell got a job as a newspaper carrier for The Florida Times-Union and later started answering phones and taking stats. He eventually became a sports writer, working at the Orlando Sentinel, the Times-Union and the AP.

Mizell started at the St. Petersburg Times in Decem­ber 1973. He was named national sports columnist of the year in 1982 from among America’s largest newspapers and eight times was voted Florida Sports Writer of the Year.

He covered 32 Super Bowls, 30 Fi­nal Fours, 25 World Se­ries, 23 Daytona 500s, 22 Ken­tucky Derbies, nine Wimble­don championships and numerous college football bowl games, according to his WCJB-TV bio. Mizell did sports commentaries for a Gaines­ville, Fla., station in retirement.

Mizell is one of 24 to receive the Masters Major Achieve­ment Award, which is given to media members who have covered the tournament 40 years or more.

– From staff and wire reports