Dodgertown
Spring’s Eternal at Dodgertown
The Sporting News list of 100 Most Powerful People in Sports for the 20th Century, December 1999
- Pete Rozelle
- Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis
- Roone Arledge
- Branch Rickey
- Marvin Miller
- David Stern
- Rupert Murdoch
- Avery Brundage
- Ban Johnson
- Muhammad Ali
- Walter O’Malley
- Steve Borstein
- Phil Knight
- George Halas
- Babe Ruth
- Walter Byers
- Lamar Hunt
- Ted Turner
- Paul Brown
- Michael Jordan
- Jackie Robinson
- Pierre De Coubertin
- Juan Antonio Samaranch
- Donald Fehr
- Tex Rickard
- Roy Hofheinz
- Horst Dassler
- Red Auerbach
- Bill France Sr.
- Arnold Palmer
- Al Davis
- Birch Bayh
- Billie Jean King
- Paul Tagliabue
- Charlie Finley
- Clarence Campbell
- George Steinbrenner
- Peter Ueberroth
- Bert Bell
- Jacob Ruppert
- Dick Ebersol
- Mark McCormack
- Al Neuharth
- Tex Schramm
- Bill Veeck
- Arthur Ashe
- Howard Cosell
- Fathers Theodore Hesburgh and William Beauchamp
- Don King
- Connie Mack
- David Falk
- John Wooden
- Andre Laguerre
- August Busch Jr.
- Peter Seitz
- Roger Penske
- Wilt Chamberlain
- Jack Nicklaus
- Bill France Jr.
- Bowie Kuhn
- George Preston Marshall
- Ed Barrow
- Abe Saperstein
- John McGraw
- Larry MacPhail
- Dick Schultz
- Gary Bettman
- Adolph Rupp
- Walter Brown
- Jesse Owens
- Deane Beman
- Phog Allen
- Wellington Mara
- Charles Comiskey
- Eddie Robinson
- Knute Rockne
- Arch Ward
- Jerry Jones
- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
- Bobby Orr
- Art Rooney
- Alan Eagleson
- Pele
- Bud Selig
- Tommie Smith and John Carlos
- Pat Summit
- Laurence Tisch
- Bobby Jones
- Tiger Woods
- Leigh Steinberg
- Henry Iba
- Bill Bowerman
- Anatoli Tarasov
- Albert “Happy” Chandler
- “The Voices of Baseball” — Mel Allen, Red Barber, Vin Scully, Harry Caray, Jack Buck, Ernie Harwell,Bob Prince, Etc.
- Sonny Werblin
- Ed and Steve Sabol
- J.G. Taylor Spink and C.C. Johnson Spink
- Wayne Gretzky
- The Famous Chicken
ABC Sports ranks the Top Ten Most Influential People "off the field" in sports history as voted by the Sports Century panel in December, 1999
- Branch Rickey
- Pete Rozelle
- Roone Arledge
- Marvin Miller
- Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis
- David Stern
- Avery Brundage
- Walter O’Malley
- George Halas
- Mark McCormack
Attendance 1953-1957 Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Milwaukee Braves

Under the purview of Director of Dodgertown Peter O’Malley, the Dodgers completed arrangements to purchase 110.4 acres of airport land, building and improvements for $133,087.50 from the city of Vero Beach, when final approval by the Federal Aviation Agency transpired on September 23, 1964. The agreement benefited the city’s general fund as the land would go on the tax rolls. The monies collected from the sale were to be “deposited in the Airport Fund for general aviation improvements and maintenance.” Three years prior, the city had guaranteed annual payments of $12,000 to the Airport Fund on behalf of the Dodger lease to satisfy the FAA which disagreed with the terms of the government’s original deed.William Jackson, Vero Beach Press-Journal, September 24, 1964 The city finalized arrangements for the Dodgers to become the only major league club in Florida to own their own spring training grounds on March 16, 1965, when O’Malley and Vice President and part-owner James Mulvey presented a check to Vero Mayor Jack D. Sturgis.
In succeeding years, the Dodgers were successful in purchasing additional acres (some 340 more) of Vero Beach land to expand the base of operations. Careful maintenance and use of the land made the Dodgers popular friends of the surrounding Vero Beach community.
Still faced with racial prejudice in the South, O’Malley had African-American players who were unable to play golf in their free time at one of Vero Beach’s two golf courses. In 1953, he had designed a pitch and putt golf course around the man-made lake with input from the players so that they could use it in spring, 1954. But with limited holes and space for that course, O’Malley decided to do what he felt was right — to build and maintain his own course, adjacent to Holman Stadium and the lake on the Dodgertown property. In 1965, he hired two minority coaches — African-American Jim Gilliam, a likeable former Dodger player and Preston Gomez of Cuban descent. The nine-hole course, named Dodgertown Golf Club, opened in 1965 and was available to the Dodger players, as well as the public. As an avid golfer himself, O’Malley could be found with Dodger players and executives on the links in his free time. To best aid his game, he personally oversaw the design of the course and the placement of its sand traps!
Two of O’Malley’s top competitors on the links were his good friends Dr. Jim Priestley, the internationally renowned surgeon at Mayo Clinic and Jim Mulvey, part-owner of the Dodgers and President of Samuel Goldwyn Productions in Los Angeles. As the boss and with a twinkle in his eye, he could get a bunker placed overnight to discourage these opponents.
“Those stories are true,” said Peter O’Malley. “For instance, Dr. Priestley would always kind of push his ball off to the right of the fairways, maybe 180, 200 yards. So my dad would think, ‘That would be a good place to put a trap.’ I remember one night when he did that. He called over the grounds guys and before you knew it they had the hoes out and sand, and the next day there was a trap.”Peter Kerasotis, Dodger Blues, Golf Journal Magazine, March/April 2002
O’Malley would take an early morning ride around the Dodgertown complex and say “Good Morning” to employees busily preparing for the business of the day. At each of the games, Kay O’Malley had her trusted official scorebook in which she kept score of every game.
Seven years later, O’Malley expanded the golf interests of the Dodgers to include a piece of property adjacent to 43rd Avenue and 26th Street to an 18-hole course, called Safari Pines Country Club. The course featured a rare par-6 hole of nearly 667 yards. Subsequently, the name of the club was changed to Dodger Pines Country Club. In addition, 50 mobile homes were placed around the course, providing the Dodgers with a source of revenue to help offset the expenses of owning their own spring training camp.
After baseball, one of Dodgertown’s most popular activities for players and executives alike was golf. Walter O’Malley built two golf courses on the Dodgertown property (a nine-hole course in 1965 and an 18-hole course in 1972). This John S. Dykes illustration celebrates the golfing fun at Dodgertown.
A postcard of the Dodger Pines Country Club, which included a par-6, 667-yard hole designed by Walter O’Malley.Copyright © Los Angeles Dodgers, Inc.
In 1953, Walter O’Malley designed a nine-hole pitch and putt golf course. Kay O’Malley, holding the flag, is joined by
(l-r) Elizabeth Hickey, Edna Praeger, Evit Bavasi, May Smith and Lela Alston.Walter O’Malley takes a swing on the Dodger Pines Country Club course as Manager Walter Alston stands behind him with an unidentified man.