“Did You Know”
The Souchak brothers challenged Charlie Sifford and Howard Wheeler to a match!

In the summer of 1952 Howard Wheeler, Charlie Sifford and Nashville’s Teddy Rhodes were the three best Black golfers in the country. Rhodes had won the last three Negro National Championships, which was the championship of the United Golfers Association (UGA).

Due to an altercation with a White man in his hometown of Charlotte, NC in 1940, Sifford had been sent to Philadelphia to live with an uncle. In Philadelphia he found employment with Nabisco, and then he found a home playing golf at Cobbs Creek Golf Club. Owned by the city of Philadelphia, Cobbs Creek GC was a place where the Black golfers could play any day and all day.

At Cobbs Creek Sifford met Howard Wheeler who had won the Negro National Championship two times by then. Wheeler, who played cross-handed, didn’t look like a golfer to Sifford, but he found out otherwise when Wheeler took his money. Sifford continued to challenge Wheeler, taking Wheeler’s money at times. Wheeler decided, no more matches against Sifford and became his partner and mentor. In 1946 Wheeler took Sifford to Pittsburgh to play in his first Negro National Championship. Wheeler won. Wheeler was in a money game nearly every day at Cobbs Creek.

On weekends Cobbs Creek was crowded, so some of the Black golfers would venture out to Valley Forge Golf Club and Jeffersonville Golf Club, where their greenbacks were as welcome as the White golfers money.

In June of 1952 Mike Souchak graduated from Duke University. He turned pro and took a job as an assistant pro at Valley Forge Golf Club, west of Philadelphia. The professional at VFGC was Elwood Poore, the father of Pete Poore, one of Souchak’s teammates on the Duke University golf team.

Charlie Sifford’s biography, “Just Let Me Play”, mentions the time the Souchak brothers challenged him and Wheeler to a match at Valley Forge GC. Mike Souchak’s brother Frank was visiting him.

Frank and Mike Souchak grew up in Berwick, Pennsylvania and learned to play golf as caddies at the Berwick Golf Club. In the winter they played football and basketball. After high school Frank went off to the University of Pittsburgh where he played on the football team and found success. Frank lettered in football, basketball and golf. In 1937 he earned All-America honors as a tight end on Pitt’s football team which, was undefeated and national champion. He married into Pittsburgh’s Mellon banking fortune.

Mike Souchak was born in 1927. As a young boy he was nicknamed “Pitt” because he would say he was going to the University of Pittsburgh where his brother Frank went. After high school he joined the US Navy just as WWII was coming to an end. After two years in the Navy, he was ready to attend college. When the Pitt football team didn’t show interest in Mike, Frank called Wallace Wade the football coach at Duke University. Frank told Wallace Wade that his brother Mike was a better football player than he was. That was a bit of a stretch but close enough. Wallace Wade gave Mike a football scholarship. Mike played tight end and was the field goal kicker.

Sifford was 30 years old in 1952 and would have been on the PGA Tour by then, except for the PGA’s Caucasian Clause. He was on the verge of taking over the UGA’s tour and its championship. At the age of 41 Wheeler had now won the Negro National Championship five times and played in two US Opens but was losing his edge.

That summer day in 1952 Sifford and Wheeler picked up an easy $30 from the Souchak brothers. Sifford related “They were mad as anything.”

Later that summer Charlie Sifford won his first of what would be five straight Negro National Championships. After his fifth straight win he was given the trophy. He would win one more after that for a total of six. Even though he was past the age of 39 when he was finally allowed to play on the PGA Tour full time, he won tournaments on the PGA Tour and was a steady money winner. Wheeler also won six Negro National Championships and might have won more if not for four cancelations due to World War II. Rhodes would go on to win a fourth Negro National Championship, and later Lee Elder won four of the UGA championships.

One year later Frank Souchak finished in a tie for 9th in the 1953 US Open at Oakmont Country Club, where he was a member. He was the low amateur by four strokes. His drives were as prodigious as Mike’s. Years later Philadelphia Country Club members were still talking about some of Frank’s tee shots during the 1939 US Open on their Spring Mill Course. After serving as an officer in the US Navy during World War II, he went into the business of drilling for oil and gas. Frank and Mike won the 1967 Crosby Pro-Am at Pebble Beach and for 37 years Frank had a second home on the first hole of the Pebble Beach Golf Links. Mike Souchak won 15 times on the PGA Tour, while setting scoring records.

If the future could have been seen, Elwood Poore might have sold tickets to witness that match at Valley Forge Golf Club in the summer of 1952. The Valley Forge Golf Club is now 100 plus acres of apartment buildings, stores and restaurants.