Bob Hope - Sports

Sports

Hope was an avid golfer, playing in as many as 150 charity tournaments a year. Introduced to the game in the 1930s while performing in Winnipeg, he eventually played to a four handicap. His love for the game—and the humor he could find in it—made him a sought-after foursome member. He once remarked that President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave up golf for painting – "fewer strokes, you know." "It's wonderful how you can start out with three strangers in the morning, play 18 holes, and by the time the day is over you have three solid enemies," he once said. A golf club became an integral prop for Hope during the stand-up segments of his television specials and USO shows. In 1978, he putted against a then two-year-old Tiger Woods in a television appearance with James Stewart on The Mike Douglas Show. The Bob Hope Classic, founded in 1960, was the only FedEx Cup tournament that took place over five rounds. Now known as the Humana Challenge, the 2012 tournament was played in four rounds on three different golf courses. The tournament made history in 1995 when Hope teed up for the opening round in a foursome that included Presidents Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton – the only time that three presidents participated in a golf foursome.

Hope had a brief career as a boxer in 1919 fighting under the name Packy East. He had three wins and one loss, and participated in a few staged charity bouts later in life.

Hope bought a small stake in the Cleveland Indians baseball team in 1946 and owned it for most of the rest of his life. He appeared on the June 3, 1963, cover of Sports Illustrated magazine wearing an Indians uniform, and sang a special version of "Thanks for the Memory" after the Indians' last game at Cleveland Stadium. Hope bought a share of the Los Angeles Rams football team in 1947 with Bing Crosby and sold it in 1962. He would frequently use his television specials to promote the annual College Football All-America Team. Players would enter the stage one by one and introduce themselves, and Hope, often dressed in a football uniform, would give a one-liner about the player or his school.