LIVING LEGEND JOURNAL PHOTO BY ALUE BROWN Haddock. who .... won three rNItiona. champion.hip. and 15 ACC titles and who h.. coached 23 All-America at Wake Forest. will retire at the end of this season. _~who"" thrM lMItIonei chemplo......... end 15 ACe tItIea end who h_ coeched 23 AII-AmerIcM at Welte Foreat. will retire at the end 01 tllie ..-on. Haddock Made Coaching Golf a High-Profile Career esse Haddock saw his first golf as his substitute. He was the natural, ob­ said. "It was a painful time for me, match from the back of a pickup vious and only choice. very painful." truck hau.ling fertilizer to his fam­ That was 23 All-Americas, 15 ACC ti­ Wake Forest's 1992 publicity bro­ J . s tobacco farm in Pitt County. tles and three national championships chure annointed Haddock a DYing legend. Two months from now, Haddock will ago. That was after Arnold Palmer but Some folks believe that Haddock ­ load up his luxury sedan and roll down before Wake Forest became synonymous even more than Houston's Dave Williams the highway toward Florida, toward re­ with dimpled white balls, before Jay Si­ - invented the golf coaching profes­ tirement from a menial job that he trans­ gel and Lanny Wadldns and Curtis sion. fonned into a consuming, high-profile Strange. ~ "It's his whole life," Strange said re­ career. faddock bas coacMd the team every cently. "He cares so much about it. Golf coach was once considered a year since then except for 1977, when a That's neat. It wasn't a passing fancy contradiction in terms. You could play dispute with Athletics Director Gene for him, ajob. It was his family." golf, but you didn't coach golf, at least Hooks over money and power prompted David Thore said that Haddock led not in any conventional way. The golf Haddock never knocked the system, Haddock to sign on at Oral Roberts with a firm hand. "He was very much a Icoacb secured a large vehicle :or two" but he chauged it.soon aftertaldng over University. He was rehired after fonner father image for a lot of us," Thore out a travel advance, bo.l8ttt ba'in- ' "in 1960 when Bones McKinney discov­ players lobbied the administration. said. "He was pretty strict. We feared Iburgers and dawdled while his young ered that modem basketNll required "Your wound heals and you just Lwin"p~ pursued their diversion. spring recruiting. Haddock had served.. hope tllere's very little scar," Haddock See IAWUIU, ..... II .­ MnNSTON~EM JOURNAL Sunday, May 3, 1992 "I was so mad, it was one of the that 400 yards was the distance few times I couldn't talk," Haddock from the tobacco bam to the field. JUWLINGS said. "I reached down and grabbed Haddock grew up in the Wmter­ f4aIJ •• f... PIp 81 the cards. I tore 'em up and threw ville township just outside Green­ 'em. I started giving it to 'em: 'If ville, the oldest of four sons. His biro, but the fear was in a good way. you so and sos think you can play parents, Robert and Maybelle, af! demanded respect, and he got golf, I can probably go get the cad­ worked hard to maintain a decent His biggest asset was knowing dies at Old Town and beat you. I standard of living. " I was the little ~ow to handle people and motivate know they can play tonk better than boy that came out of the Depres­ ·em." you can.'" sion, but they were the people that . Haddock has his name plastered Haddock soon turned his atten­ lived in the Depression," Haddock 4p the school's unusual golf center, tion to recruiting. He bad only one said. ere players \ and one-half scholarships. He Times got even tougher when he can hit 4-irons ... : picked up a pocket-sized copy of was 15 and his father lost every­ . der cover of Ir·,~__ . Golf Digest. The cover featured a thing except the farm by speculat­ j:"rage bays . ­ teen-ager who had shot phenome­ ing in cotton futures. d;lring rain­ 4., \ nal scores at a tournament in Colo­ Haddock played baseball and _ nns. He be­ rado, Jay Sigel. basketball at Winterville High lPngs to four ~ Haddock mentioned to a Wake School, where kids went barefoot­ ~ of fame, Forest staff member that Sigel was ed in the late spring. He wore shoes .d he belongs the kind of player he hoped to re­ only when going to Rose Hill Bap­ to the past, to cruit but the man dismissed this tist Church. the school's notion as an absurd fantasy. Had­ His mother had attended college roots in Wake i ~ dock stewed. for one year. He still doesn't know County. He was AIIIIOUI PAWD Sigel played in the Bing Crosby why he picked Wake Forest about even able to handpick his succes­ Pro-Am at Pebble Beach, Calif., the time the 30 kids in the Class of sor, Jack Lewis Jr., an early star that winter. Haddock phoned him '44 graduated. • and the associate head coach the in Monterrey. "The call cost $3 and "It was a new life for me," Had­ past three seasons. some cents," Haddock said. dock said. A few months later, Had­ Scott Hoch and other alwnni en­ "Months later at a social, I was dock was dra(ted and assigned to dorsed the transition plan soon af­ made fun of. One of our fInancial duty in Ge~y, where the fight­ ter Haddock outlined it to President officers got on me for being callous ing had ended. Thomas K. Hearn Jr. and two trust­ with the telephone, calling Monter­ After returning to Wake Forest's ees in the Firestone Cabin at Au­ rey. As.far as I know, that was our old campus, Haddock took a job in gqsta National Golf Club during a first expense in recruiting." the athletic department to help pay M:..sters stonn delay. "Jack's going Sigel committed to Houston but for his education. He ran errands to do a greatjob, but Jesse's one of eventually transferred to Wake For­ for Athletics Director Jim Weaver a kind," Hoch said. est and became the cornerstone for and Murray Greason, the basket­ Haddock, 65, is a unique fellow, the first outst.aI¥:ling teams. ball coach. He drove Peahead a trafty, gt!nial man who kept spot­ Walker, ~e renowned football t~ his openings until he advanced ••• coach, to· catch the Silver M~teor !rem gofer to golf figurehead. Haddock turned Palmer's friend­ train out of Raleigh. "He's a character, a real-life char­ ship, fame and loyalty into an asset. Haddock organized team manag­ acter," Wadkins said. "He's always Palmer passed through Wmston­ ers, ran the equipment room and had these sayings and a funny way Salem after the second of his four helped the trainer. And he moved o( putting things, but he has al~ Masters championships in 1960, up as he methodically advanced to­ said what players needed to hear, and Haddock convinced him that a ward graduation in 1952, taking whether, they thought so at the time prominent golf program would courses in the spring and summer. or not. And his competitiveness has help the school. Palmer called his "I finally worked my way from the been underrated." agent and promptly donated the bottom of the gym to the offices at The promotion may not have first $500 to a scholarship fund the front of the gym," he said. seemed like such a giant step at the named for his roommate, Buddy Haddock swung his first golf club time. Haddock was named head Worsham, who had died in a car at the Paschal Golf Course near coach on March 13, two days be­ wreck during their college days. campus. He also monitored a fore Wake Forest opened the sea­ The scholarship - often mistak­ boarding house where Palmer and son in chilly College Park, Md. enly called the Palmer scholarship Worsham lived on the second floor, The team stayed in a huge room - became a centerpiece in Had­ just above him. Contrary to popular at Byrd Stadium with two bare light dock's recruiting pitches. "Arnold legend, Haddock never roomed bulbs and 15 bunk beds. "The Palmer came to school here," Had­ with Palmer. Chicken House," they called it. dock told prospects who developed Haddock set the tone for his The boys kept talking about gold­ into PGA millionaires. "If it w;lS coaching career during his frrst trip en arches, and they coaxed Had­ good for Arnold, couldn't it be good to Maryland, but that was hardly dock into feeding them at the first for you?" the last time he stomped his foot in McDonald's restaurant he had ever Palmer, Wadkins and other golf­ protest. seen. At dusk, the players persuad­ ers of various achievement return Few players can remember any ed Haddock to let them visit Wash­ almost every year for a pro-am. specific rules. "Basically," Thore ington, where the burlesque show GolfIng alwnni have pledged $3 said, "it was Haddock's way or the at the old Gaiety Theater offered million toward endo~ the pro­ highway. Back then we were more sights worth reciting on campus. gram, and the goal has been raised scared, but now we know how big­ lie set 10:30 p.m. as the curfew, to $7 million. hearted a guy he is, that he's more and at 11 he was standing at the Haddock stands in the middie of talk than action.