Saving Grace

Years of neglect still show, but new drainage has eased flooding.

In 1913 leading citizens of Detroit's Jewish community sought a playground of their own and the lush property near Redford Township provided seasonal recreational pursuits: golf in spring, summer and fall; cross country skiing in the winter. They hired prolific Scottish architect Tom Bendelow to design the first nine holes, which had sand greens, and named it Phoenix CC. It opened in 1914 as another symbol of a faith of people rising from the potential of immigration to the spoils of American citizenship.

Seven years later the course was sold to the city of Redford and renamed Redford G&CC. Ross, already making a name for himself in Michigan with several stellar designs—notably Detroit GC (1916) and the famed South Course at Oakland Hills (1918)—remodeled the initial nine and completed the project, adding grass greens. He continued his amazing run in the state by designing Bloomfield Hills (1922) and Oakland Hills' North Course (1924). In 1925 he designed Dearborn CC and Rackham GC, where Joe Louis learned the game under the tutelage of longtime head pro Ben Davis, and finished Western G&CC two years later.

Oddly enough, the club's short-lived Jewish ownership might explain why there never was a proliferation of Jewish culture and community in the area surrounding the golf course known as "Old Redford." While Jewish synagogues, businesses and residences flourished in other parts of northwest Detroit, Old Redford was virtually devoid of any Jewish presence. That's because the Jews played there but few lived there, according to Robbin L. Andrews, a self-proclaimed historian, golf enthusiast and retired manager of forestry and ground maintenance for the city of Detroit.

"While the well-maintained houses around the course were occupied by white-collar white people—perhaps Jewish, perhaps not—people of European heritage came up from Tennessee and Kentucky and inhabited the poorer part of the community," says Andrews, who worked for the city for 33 years. "As you traveled east, you came upon the dominant Jewish community."

Old Redford developed a blue-collar mentality that fostered separatism. By 1945, when the city of Detroit purchased Redford G&CC for $174,000, those attitudes were firmly entrenched and remained so well into the tumultuous 1960s. "Blacks weren't really welcome anywhere in northwest Detroit until the Civil Rights Act in 1964," says Andrews. "The riots of '67 helped, too."

Head professional Mason saw the potential.

Urban renewal, spearheaded by Mayor Jerome Cavanagh in the '60s and early '70s, and closely monitored, for fair treatment of those most affected, by iconic Mayor Coleman Young after that, ignited the real explosion of blacks moving from the inner city to the northwest part of Detroit. Federal government purchases of land needed for the expansion of several expressways, including I-75, I-94 and Highway 10, put enough money in the pockets of black families to finance the move.

Of course, not everyone was happy about the migration. "My family moved to northwest Detroit in 1964," Andrews says. "I remember being called the 'N-word' many times walking down 7 Mile."

The racial tension had changed little in and around Redford Township by 1989 when members of a hate group burned a cross in the front yard of two white female roommates who had a black son and black boyfriend, respectively.

"How do you like your front lawn?" yelled one of the four young perpetrators from a passing car. "Move!"

Meanwhile, the golf course was in a slow but steady transition, too. In 1979 the city council voted to change its name to Rogell GC in honor of councilman and former Detroit Tigers star shortstop Billy Rogell. His claim to fame, besides leading the Tigers to the 1935 World Series win over the Chicago Cubs, was beaning Cardinals pitcher Dizzy Dean—and knocking him unconscious—in the '34 Series. One of the more creative headline writers wrote of the incident the next day: "X-Rays of Dean's Head Show Nothing."

The name change did about as much to diversify the club's clientele as if it had been named after another Tiger legend, Ty Cobb.