Calkins: Why Fred Smith saved the Memphis golf tournament. (Hint: It wasn’t about the golf.)
FedEx founder and executive chairman Fred Smith, who died on June 21, was not a golfer, but believed in supporting the golf tournament. “It was about a heck of a lot more than golf to Fred. It was about Memphis and St. Jude,” said FedEx St. Jude Championship chairman Jack Sammons. (Andrew Harnik/AP file)
Geoff Calkins
Geoff Calkins has been chronicling Memphis and Memphis sports for more than two decades. He is host of "The Geoff Calkins Show" from 9-11 a.m. M-F on 92.9 FM. Calkins has been named the best sports columnist in the country five times by the Associated Press sports editors, but still figures his best columns are about the people who make Memphis what it is.
So Fred Smith didn’t play golf and he didn’t particularly follow golf. But he not only embraced the FedEx St. Jude Championship — he is the reason it is still in Memphis today.
Why?
“He believed that St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital was our handshake to the world,” said Jack Sammons, the chairman of the tournament. “And he believed it was important that the state’s largest company demonstrate its support for a tournament that is televised on a global basis. It was about a heck of a lot more than golf to Fred. It was about Memphis and St. Jude.”
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