Johnie F. Stapp, the WAR years and a New Life as a Professional Golfer--1941--1946

1941-1946

Johnie F. Stapp, The War Years

1941 notes from personal scrapbook

Before the war began my father, Johnie Stapp, enlisted. He was stationed at Camp Robinson, Little Rock, Arkansas. The only story I ever remember from him was when they learned to march through the swamps of S.E. Arkansas and Louisiana. He told me that it honestly scared him to pieces, because he could just imagine all of the snakes in the trees. Then one day a snake fell on one of his companions. Although it did not kill him, nor dad, I've never forgotten that picture he described. (No wonder I tell stories.)

"Tough Soldiers Balk at Wet Links" 

The Division golf tournament opened last Sunday as six soldiers waded through rain soaked links in three 18-hole  matches.... Pvt. John Stapp, Medical Detachment, 137th Infantry, defeated Pvt. Pat Shelton, Headquarters Company, 137th, two and one at Fair Park. 

Rain forced postponement of other first round matches. Twenty-two golfers are entered in the championship tournament. All matches are being played on Little Rock links. 

1941  August 12    "Golf Champion" 

Pvt. John Stapp of Wichita, a member of the 137th Infantry, today was crowned golf champion of the 35th division. Stapp won the title in yesterday's championship flight when he defeated Pvt. Richard Logger of St. Louis, 4 and 3. Logger is a member of the 138 Infantry. 

1942 February 20  "Wichitan in the News"

Johnie Stapp formerly of 35th Infantry division made a hole-in-one at Fair Park Municipal Course in Little Rock. He played with Lloyd and Bill DeBacker. 

1943 January 

Lieut. John Stapp is visiting his parents. Stapp, formerly stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland will be stationed at Camp Santa Anita, in California as a staff and faculty. Stapp received his commission on September 26, 1942, and met his future wife, my mother, Helen.

1943 March "Man O' War" Military Newspaper

Lt.Stapp shot a 73, three over par 70, to win Low Gross for officers in the Camp Santa Anita Cup. Stapp received a 14" engraved cup.

1943 April 16  

In the officers and non-commissioned officers event, the team of Lt. Stapp and Pvt. Danner snared the golf titles. "Salute the winners, the Turfbirds",  of the Camp Santa Anita golf tournament. You might as well for one of them raises a highball anyway you look at it." Stapp's score of 73,72,71,73=289 is a strong show. 

1943 August 10 L.A. Times

Lt. Stapp takes the coveted Arcadia Crown. The first man to win the Arcadia City Championship at Annandale Country club, by shooting a 69. 

1943 August 20 by Jack Curnow

"Snead's Navy Golfers Play Army Team"

Sam Snead, who needs no introduction to the golfing world will head a contingent of blue-jackets from San Diego Navy Base today against a soldier outfit from Santa Anita Ordinance Camp in a 10-man play over the sporty county-owned Santa Anita links in Arcadia.

Backing up Slamming Sammy will be an Alhambra product Bill Nary, the long-hitting ex-Rancho Santa Fe pro who joined the Navy several weeks ago....

Heading the Ordinance golfers will be Lt. Johnie Stapp, ex-Kansas golf pro who has been right on his stick lately. He'll have the team of Col.F.G.Bryan, Capt E. H. Christensen.......

The match starts at 2 pm and is open to the public. Off the early dope, the blue-jackets figure to nudge the soldiers.

1943 October    L.A. Times by Mel Gallagher

Lloyd Mangrum, one-time Texas caddy who develop into one of the leading golf professionals of the nation, arrived home last week from his summer links tour prepared to enter the Southern California Open October 15,16, 17.  

The stylish clubbing Mangrum, a mainstay of Walter Hagen's Ryder Cup team for the past two years will be a strong favorite for this Arcadia tournament title. He has shown a liking for the stretching Santa Anita par 70 layout, having spread-eagled an open field there two years ago. ....

1943 October 12 L.A. Times by Jack Curnow

"Mangrum-Bassler Card 63s in Pro-Amateur"

Harry Bassler, Fox Hill pro, and Lloyd Mangrum of Monterey Park, traveling pro, served warning on the large field entered in this weekend's Southern California Open, when they fired identical 68's in the pro-am tourney. Three teams tied for third place money with  65's; Pro Eddie Hobit and Frank Horton, 32-33; Lieut. Johnie Stapp and Joe Mabley 34-31; and Ray Haines, assistant pro to Ellsworth Vines at Southern Country club and Fred Clark, Jr. 32-33. 

1943 October 14  L.A. Times by Jack Curnow

"Southland Open Takes Tee Today"

The big guns start firing today in the Southern California Open at Santa Anita Golf Club in Arcadia. The 72-hole medal play affair; which has lured a big field of local favorites and many newcomers now here in the war work and military service, gets under way with 18 holes of play. ....

At the halfway mark Joe Kirkwood, Jr. lead the field with 70-71....Lieut. John Stapp with a 74-72; 

**At this point in Santa Anita dad has become friends with Sammy Snead, Lloyd Mangrum, and Johnny Bulla, George Fazio, Byron Nelson, Ed Dudley (who was MGCC's first golf pro).  Ray Beardon, head pro at Santa Anita and Ellsworth Vines, pro at Southern California Country club. He and mother often shared stories of Elly Vines, who had been the national tennis champion before turning golf pro.

*Note: Johnie spent the remainder of the war years in the Pacific Islands. After the war he remained in Japan for several months, helping with the closure of the war and  communications with the Japanese. During that time he became close friends with Dr. Seturo, a Japanese doctor at the Tuberculosis Sanatorium.

I followed up on the doctor he befriended after the war. This is a clip from my story. Dr. Seturo's niece writes: 

"Your father's friend, Dr Seturo, was a very talented person. After graduating from medical school in Japan, he was studying at the University of Bern in Switzerland.

His son, Mitsuko's father, was also a doctor. He went to North China as a medical doctor. At the end of the war he was interned in Siberia and missing forever It was a really sad story." 

To read more of this World War II story please click on this link Touching Lives

Helen Stapp, Arcadia, Ca. 1946

1946 May 25 

My mother, Helen Weaver, who met her future husband, Johnie while he was home on leave in Wichita, Ks., married him on May 25 at the Little Church of the West in Las Vegas. Their first daughter, Letty, was born December 26, 1947.

Johnie returned from the war and began working at the Santa Anita Golf Course as a teaching pro. He actively taught golf lessons to students in the various college campuses around Santa Anita. During this time he met many of the Hollywood stars who played the Santa Anita course and bet on the races at the Santa Anita Racetrack Park.

It was through his golf at Santa Anita that he met Bing Crosby and Johnny Weissmueller. In January 1947 he attended the Bing Crosby Tournament being held at Pebble Beach. Knowing this from my father's stories I researched to the best of my abilities any kind of list or story that might show when he played. (If newspapers are not online then the records remain on microfilm or microfiche in area libraries.) I did not find any list of players, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading articles from all over the United States telling tales of the Clambake. I also discovered that in the late 1940's Crosby Tournament was so popular that it was carried on the radio.

Picture of Johnny Weismuller, Tarzan, from Stapp family photos.

From 1937--1942 Bing Crosby held his tournaments at Rancho Santa Fe near San Diego. After the war in 1947 Crosby moved his tournament for more money and larger gatherings to Pebble Beach, California. The nickname "Clambake" came from the early days when Bing gathered the players on the beach for an authentic "clambake" with food, entertainment, and drinks for everyone.

 Bing Crosby Tournament History

 The Crosby Clambake

**I had hoped to find my father's connection to George Coleman, Jr. through the stories on Bing Crosby's Tournament. Johnie would have been invited to the clambake by Crosby since he knew him personally from his work at Santa Anita. I know that he attended the tournament at least one more time before moving to Miami.  He already knew George Coleman, Jr. before moving to Miami. So I am guessing they met in California. 

In our first year in Miami (1954) dad bought a dark green 1952 Oldsmobile from George Coleman, Jr.  It was a supped up engine, and  became a race car. We traveled to California in that car when I was too young to remember anything but looking out the car window and seeing the road drop off in a cliff. I also experienced dirt track racing in that Olds.

This same car 52 Oldsmobile photo became a well known speedster before Johnie bought the Muntz from Lou Newell in 1959 or 1960. The speedster Olds took Johnie and Doc Robert Baron to California in a single day or less, so the story goes. Of course, the same story can be told about Johnie and Doc Jackson traveling to California in 24 hours. I do not recall which Pro-Am's they played in but it seemed to be fun and profitable for dad's teams. 

Johnie F. Stapp, the Wichita Years, 1926-1940

1926-1940 Johnie F. Stapp

The Wichita Years

by Letty Stapp Watt

 

The great Ken Venturi once said, " My father taught me that the easiest thing to do was to quit. He'd say, 'It doesn't take any talent to do that.'"

Luckily, for my sister and me our father, Johnie Stapp, believed this mantra and took it to heart. When his arms were severely burned in his teenage years it was a doctor and nurse at St. Francis Hospital in Wichita, Kansas who taught him to first hold a golf club, and then to swing a golf club. Without that form of physical therapy my father was destined to be a janitor, for his hands were twisted and curled from the burns.

The bandaged burns and several surgeries left both of his forearms drawn at forty-five degree angles, and his finger tightly curled inwards. It left him unable to hold a pencil, handle tools in the garage, or do much more than rake leaves. One of his doctors was a golfer and took an interest in his young patient. In the beginning, the golf was prescribed for therapy. The doctor taught him how to grip the club properly, which meant painful gripping and twisting to his hands and wrists. While still in the hospital dad practiced how to grip a club, giving his hands and arms the muscles needed to once again become useful. When he was released from the hospital he would meet his doctor on weekends at a nearby golf course. Eventually, he learned to swing the club. While the recovery was painful, it also proved a new playground for the then sixteen year old. The pro at Sims Parks suggested that Johnie become a caddy, which would give him an opportunity to make money, and play golf one day a week.

 For the full story on his recovery please click on my "Literally Letty" blog site: 

<https://literallyletty.blogspot.com/2011/07/pro.html>

Johnie Stapp, the Caddy:

Young curly headed Johnie Stapp is the middle back caddy. 

Johnie became a caddy in 1925 at Sims Park, Wichita Country Club, Crestview Country club, and several other courses as events needed caddies. By 1928 he was playing in the area caddy tournaments. In this 1929 photo Tully Meyers, top left defeated dad 3 and 2 in a 36 hole match play for the City Caddy Championship.

1926

 

During the "dust bowl" years Johnie drove to Hutchinson, Kansas to play at Carey Park. He was considered one of the straightest shooters in the
field. In 1933 he won the Fiesta Golf Tournament at Carey Park. The newspaper wrote that Johnie Stapp, a turf cutter from Wichita, excelled in putting, giving him more birdies than the other players.

One of his favorite stories told of the time that he and his sister drove to Hutchinson from Wichita in a dust storm. "The wind and dirt blew so terribly that Sis had to get out of the car and walk along side of it, pounding with signals on the hood of the car to keep me on the road." His mother and sister, agreed that the story was true, although possibly exaggerated. 

In 1933 Johnie, playing at Crestview in the Caddy Championship, Johnie shot a 77, which gave him medalist honors and a birth in the Kansas State Amateur Championship.

In 1934 Johnie, playing in the Wichita City Championship was medalist with a 70, but was beat in match play. In 1934 he set the course record at Westlink Golf Course with a 67. 

He continued to play in all caddy and area amateur events in Kansas until 1936. From 1936-1939 Johnie earned a living by repairing golf clubs, selling golf clubs for a company during those years, and as a mechanic at a local service station.

1940 June 20 Wichita Eagle

Stapp turned out to be the darkhorse candidate for the Kansas State Amateur. Stapp is a former well-known city and state tourney player. Just 28 now, he has been out of golf for four years, but has hit a 68 and 69 in rounds of golf at Sim Park regularly in practice. He may be the one to watch. 

In the early Pro-Am a Kansas City pair of R.N. Bumps Barnes, professional from Quivira CC and his partner Woody Owens, won with a net 65, beating out the next lowest pair of W.L. Myers and Johnie Stapp of Wichita.  This pair furnished a 66 in style as hot shooting amateur, Johnie Stapp turned in a 69, two under par. (The team won $69.)

...As the newspaper went to press with scores from the morning round of Thursday's qualifying the afternoon round sees Billy Jones just off the pace of the morning's lowest score. John Stapp, another amateur who shot in the sixties Wednesday, is scoring low now and may set the qualifying pace. 

1940 June 21 Wichita Eagle

In the first round of match play in the Kansas State Amateur at Sims Park in Wichita, local man Johnie Stapp defeated Ed Beard 4 and 3. 

*Stapp was defeated in the third round by Bob Kellogg. 

1940 June 30 Wichita Eagle "Sports notes...

Watching Bob Kellogg one-iron Johnie Stapp out of the recent state tourney, Doc Lampkin says he got a good lesson on the one-iron. 

It looks as though Johnie Stapp will have his hands full when the one-day invitation tournament at Echo Hills get underway July 14. A number of hotshots, local and out-of-town have made reservations already. Prizes totaling almost $300 will be given.

1940 Fall notes from scrapbook

Athletes to camp. Wichita will see more and more of its sports figures going to military duty. Johnie Stapp well known golfer reports to Camp Robinson, Monday. Johnie will take his golf sticks along however, and hopes to get in some rounds. He's in the medical unit. 

Pvt. John Stapp of Wichita, Kansas is a member of the 137 Infantry at Camp Robinson, Little Rock, Arkansas.