Begrudgingly, we’ll concede that there are a handful of people who don’t accept that the world indeed does revolve around golf. What we can all agree upon, however, is that golf is at all intersections of our lives and provides endless opportunities.
Some of us slow down and absorb the game in small doses. Some find one or two layers of golf that quench their thirsts. Some offer curiosities, find periodic pleasure, but never fully commit.
Then there are those like Peter Fox, he of a deep golf soul and a rich and intriguing life of fascinating jobs that always seemed to connect with his love of golf. Going back to childhood days when he would don a baseball glove and catch his father’s soft wedge shots, “I can’t remember not playing golf,” said Fox.
He is now 83 and on good days, of which there are many, Fox can shoot his age at Hillandale Golf Course in Durham, N.C., not far from where the Connecticut native chose to retire. It might be “the college basketball capital of the world,” which checks another box for Fox, but golf is embraced mightily in North Carolina so the love affair continues.
It's been a ride with many twists, turns, career changes, and different locales, but blessed with the ability “to be able to put one word in front of the other,” a gift for which he credits his mother, Peter Fox has at different junctures of his life chronicled with books and articles his wildly entertaining life. The latest work, “The Early Days of ESPN: 300 Days of Daydreams and Nightmares,” was a cathartic experience born out of the pandemic. And should you wonder what Fox would know of the early days of ESPN, consider his answer: “I was the first employee at ESPN.”
That Fox’s friendship with Bill Rasmussen, the communications director of the Hartford Whalers, revolved around their love of golf is consistent with many chapters in Fox’s life. Most of his friends, his business, and his writing assignments seemed to thrive in a golf setting.
The day in the late 1970s when Fox and Rasmussen along with Ed Egan and Bill Rasmussen’s son, Scott, were noodling thoughts of doing “pay per view” of UConn basketball games, they were on the golf course. Someone asked if they had ever heard of “the satellite,” heads shook in unison, and they vowed to look into it.
The quest to launch ESPN was on, all of them filled with intrigue and enthusiasm. “I have four kids but if you pay me, I’m in,” said Fox.
Backed by significant financial support from Getty, ESPN launched its first broadcast on Sept. 7, 1979 and Fox was front and center. He was a producer but readily concedes “we were definitely in over our heads.”
About a year in, Getty brought in half the NBC sports network to run ESPN and Fox laughs heartily when he recounts how he knew it was time to leave in 1982. “I went from producing Big East (basketball) to producing arm-wrestling.”
Still, there is enormous pride and his book – the rights to which have been bought by a Hollywood group – is an eyewitness account of a mega-network learning to walk. No surprise that what stirs Fox’s pride about those early ESPN days is golf – specifically the idea to bring the sport to the masses on Thursday and Friday. A few generation of golf fans might shudder at such a thought, but back in the day, golf was shown on TV for two, maybe three hours on Saturday and Sunday only.
The 1980 U.S. Open at Baltusrol ushered in a new era. Peter Fox and ESPN got the blessing of Frank Hannigan, then director of special projects for the USGA, to provide video feeds of Thursday and Friday golf for their news updates. Fox’s son, Patrick, deserves a footnote “because he was the one driving video from New Jersey to Bristol (Conn.),” said Fox, and what should never be lost on sports fans is how this fledgling cable company thought so aggressively and professionally.
Hannigan was so pleased he told Fox that he could facilitate the same sort of deal with the R&A for the Open Championship and down the road the U.S. Open arrangement would be sweetened. “The caveat was, Frank said we had to hire him for TV,” laughed Fox.
ESPN’s reaction to that contingency? “We said, ‘We want it, we’ll do it,’ ” said Fox.
Thus was the door was opened for Thursday and Friday coverage and were it to be suggested to Fox that he might not have received as much credit as he deserved, he would shrug.
“I know what we did. I helped get the ball rolling and we had a lot of guts,” he said. “Had a lot of fun, too.”
Two legendary figures who Peter Fox feels fortunate to have shared life experiences with -- Connecticut golf icon Jack Burrill (left) and the mystical ball-striker from Canada, Moe Norman.
So ESPN wasn’t going to be his career. Peter Fox wasn’t discouraged; he was brilliantly resourceful and committed to an old-school mentality. “My careers were built on necessity,” he laughed. There was a family to support “and I knew I had to make a buck.”
Ah, the winding road traveled by Peter Fox. He worked a few years for the American Specialty Underwriters. (If you want, he’ll talk about selling “sweep insurance” to the MLB commissioner.)
Living in Naples, Fla., he ran a small golf magazine which brought him in contact with the legendary Canadian ball-striker Moe Norman. Peter Fox marveled over the iconic single plane swing and will confirm that Norman was eccentric – “socially inept, no doubt, and he would dress weirdly” – but an incredible guy whose talent is worthy of the legends.
Later, Fox’s ability to produce polished copy caught the eye of executives at DuPont and they hired him to write a book on the company’s history. He was captivated by the history of LYCRA and how it played a role in making pantyhose which in turn helped designers bring on the miniskirts.
It struck Peter Fox that this chapter should be entitled “Thank you, Mary Qaunt.” (Brilliant sense of humor, Mr. Fox. He knew that Quant was the British designer famously credited with the miniskirt.)
Proving that golf is consistently entwined in Fox’s career, he became friends with James Trainham. “He was a super scientist who led the mission to find a replacement for freon, which was destroying the ozone,” said Fox. Trainham succeeded, of course, but of a more personal note, Fox had himself another wonderful golf companion.
Ah, but here is where Peter Fox’s marvelous journey in golf needs to focus on his favorite golfer of all, a Connecticut legend named Jack Burrill.
Burrill’s legacy is rich, but here are the highlights that are most special to Peter Fox – that Burrill was mentored by the great Tommy Armour; that he was a four-time club champ at Wampanoag CC in West Hartford, Conn.; that he managed Southern Pines GC in Southern Pines, N.C., back in the 1930s and ‘40s when it was owned by Mike Sherman, a Connecticut native; that he became close to Norman and spend countless time with the ball-striking wizard.
Back before ESPN when Peter Fox was a newspaper man at the Hartford Times, he bought the radio rights to broadcast from the old Sammy Davis Jr. Greater Hartford Open. He chose the perfect running mate in this endeavor – Jack Burrill. Lord, the fun they had.
Truth is, in a life that deserves accolades for his role in bringing ESPN to fruition and for introducing Thursday and Friday golf to TV audiences, and for his notable books explaining “Natural Golf” and the mystique of Moe Norman, what Peter Fox cherishes the most is his forever friendship with Burrill.
“Writing about my friend and mentor Jack is like trying to cook with Julia Childs,” Peter Fox eulogized at Burrill’s funeral in 2006. “Many enjoyed JRB’s golfing prowess. Many enjoyed his beautifully sculpted phrases. He was at his best in combination – writing about golf.”
Peter Fox, we’re sure Burrill would have countered, is at his best when surrounded by golf. It’s been a marvelous journey, for him and for golf.
