COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Jack Nicklaus came home and was forced to do the one thing he has avoided for four decades. He had to reminisce.
There was no getting around it, however, on Monday night when he and his wife, Barbara, and three of their five children cut the ribbon to officially open the Jack Nicklaus Museum on the campus of his alma mater, Ohio State University.
"I remember walking through the facility for the first time last summer and it was just a scattering of memorabilia and you could see the idea of what was going to happen. I was getting emotional even then," Nicklaus, 62, said haltingly in an emotion-laden, 20-minute speech that spoke volumes about how overwhelming the occasion was to him. "It's an opportunity to look back on life's accomplishments and the memories that you've had.
"But I've never been a reflector," he added, assertively. "I've never gone back and looked back at things, I always looked to the future. I always looked to climb mountains, always kept trying to get to the top. Once you get to the top there's only one place to go and that's down the other side, and I never wanted to go down the other side. I still want to climb that mountain. I always wanted to be the best I could be at whatever I did. To have it all here in front of me, what's happened to me through the years is pretty special. I'm obviously humbled."
About 1,000 invited guests and a range of the game's dignitaries attended the grand opening ceremonies on an unseasonably chilly day that Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman proclaimed, "Golden Bear Day." Former LPGA Commissioner Charles Mechem hosted the affair, which was broadcast live on The Golf Channel. PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem, former Royal & Ancient secretary Sir Michael Bonallack, and longtime Nicklaus friend and competitor Gary Player were among those who paid tribute to The Bear, who this week hosts the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
The museum, covering 54,000 square feet, contains thousands of golf-related artifacts including clubs, scorecards, bags, trophies, medallions and photos, as well as many non-golf items.
In addition to the golfer who won more than 100 worldwide titles, including a record 18 major championships, there is information about the family man, the sportsman, the humanitarian, the author, the golf course designer, the businessman and the global citizen. There are many personal items dating all the way back to Nicklaus' birth on Jan. 21, 1940. Thanks to his mother, Helen, and Barbara, museum visitors will see memorabilia Jack himself never would have considered preserving.
"Thank goodness both of them were pack rats," Nicklaus joked.
"This museum represents a little more of Jack Nicklaus the man and not just Jack Nicklaus the golfer," says Gerald Goodson, the executive director. "Our goal is to present the whole man and preserve his legacy."
A common theme among the speakers was Nicklaus' commitment to excellence, his devotion to his family, and his integrity and sportsmanship.
Player said Nicklaus is "a man who has contributed much to history," and Bonallack added, "no one has upheld the traditions of the game and the ideal of sportsmanship better than Jack Nicklaus."
Finchem lavished high praise on the Golden Bear as the ideal role model for all golfers as well as one of the central figures in the formation and prosperity of the PGA TOUR.
"Jack's competitive success contributed so much and was so instrumental in lifting what we now know as the PGA TOUR from some kind of second-tier sport to a primary sport in the United States," Finchem said. "Jack came along at a time when television was taking an interest, and it was his challenge to Arnold Palmer and Gary Player and his prowess over the next 30 years that carried this sport to where it is today.
"But most importantly from a PGA TOUR perspective," Finchem added, "was the role model Jack was and is for players coming into the sport. He hasn't been perfect, he didn't win every tournament, but over the last 40 years, every time he set foot on the golf course, he has conducted himself in a way that you would want our players to conduct themselves."
[ news index ]
