Chapter 2 – Temple Terrace Outdoors Assumes Control (1956)
When the Korean War ended in 1953, the City’s future began looking brighter as families started moving back in and the city began unburdening itself from years of heavy debt.
With golf back in vogue, the City Council soon found themselves spending more time on golf course decisions than on other, more critical, municipal matters; so, in January 1956, when seven civic minded (or maybe naïve) residents offered to lease and run the golf course, the city was receptive. What motivated these brave souls to undertake such a monumental task is unknown, but there are stories about them “wanting to replace sand spurs with actual grass” and wanting to become members of a “private club”.
The group was certified as a “for profit” corporation by the State of Florida on July 7, 1956, under the name Temple Terrace Outdoors Inc., to “purchase, lease, hold, manage, develop and operate all types of outdoor recreational facilities and equipment, including golf courses, swimming pools and fishing piers and camps.” Their venture was initially capitalized with $10,000 raised through the sale of one hundred shares of stock, at $100 per share.
It’s important to note that investing in this adventure would not be like investing in a McDonald’s franchise where you sit back and watch while a well-oiled machine prints money for you. No, they were negotiating to assume total responsibility for a golf club with crumbling physical infrastructure and a golf course with unhealthy grass, literally maintained with a “hand” driven irrigation system.
They would, however, reap the “benefits” of assuming a very small payroll, primarily because there were very few employees. There was a Club Pro, Basil Brook, his Assistant Wiley Watkins and occasionally one or two others in the pro shop. There was a Greens Keeper, Ed Frick and his regular crew of four or five, including “Big John” Brinson. The crew would periodically be supplemented with short-term help on an as needed basis. There was no kitchen staff, because there was no kitchen; there was no bar staff, because there was no bar (Actually there was alcohol available in the pro shop, but Basil Brook had the “bar concession” as part of his contract); there was no front office staff because there was no front office and understandably there was no General Manager because there was generally no one to manage.
With the lease came responsibility for not only the golf course, but for the city swimming pool complex. The pool was a popular place, generally accommodating more than a 1,000 people a month; however, from a financial perspective it was not exactly a cash cow.
The pool had a part-time staff of two employees and was open to the general public for 25 cents (or less) per person. But it was also home to the City of Temple Terrace Swim Team, as well as teams from the University of South Florida, Hillsborough and Chamberlain High Schools, a couple of local junior highs and even an elementary school. Unfortunately, most of those teams paid little or nothing to use the pool. The pool complex did generate limited revenues by booking private parties at the pool and the associated swim room where, for instance, the Red Cross held adult training classes.
During months the pool was closed, there was a $25 a month agreement with Fritz Felentzer to hold his daytime dance classes in the Swim Room and a $5 a month agreement with a local Methodist Church to use the room as a nursery. (I found no reference to what would happen if both groups showed up at the same time.)
The expense side of the pool’s ledger was a veritable maintenance nightmare of leaky and clogged drains with broken showers, toilets, furniture, fixtures, partitions and diving boards in constant need of repairing or replacing.
In truth, from a financial standpoint at least, this was probably not the best investment these guys ever made. On day one, their sources of funds were totally overwhelmed by their uses of funds. On the expense side of the ledger, they were acquiring a golf course and a pool in need of very large infusions of cash, and their revenue “stream” was more of a “trickle”.
Pool revenues were substantially collected in quarters and golf course revenues were limited to the daily greens fees because the Pro’s contract also gave him the rights to all the pro shop merchandise sales and 100% of the golf cart rental revenues, although he was required to buy or lease the carts himself. As a wise man once said, “If your income is less than your outgo, your upkeep will be your downfall.”
So, who were these Magnificent Seven?:
Dan C. Meyer – President (15 Shares) * 307 Bannockburn Ave
E. Ward Cole – Vice President (15 Shares) * 405 Deer Park Ave.
Norman S. Dudley – Treasurer (14 Shares) 302 Belle Terre Ave
L.W. Van Slyck – Secretary (14 Shares) 406 Bon Air Ave
C .A. Phelps (14 Shares) 508 Druid Hills
Thomas J. Albers (14 Shares) 419 S. Glen Arven Dr
G.C. Le Heup (14 Shares) 718 Downs Ave
*It’s unclear whether Meyer and Cole each acquired an extra share because they led the effort or because they drew the short straws.
When the dust settled, TTO held a first-year lease agreement with the city for one dollar, giving them control of and responsibility for the golf course, the pro shop, the clubhouse (or empty room) and the swimming pool facilities located behind the original clubhouse on what was then part of the campus of Florida Christian College. Leasing all of that for a dollar probably looked like a better deal when they made it than it did a little later on.
They immediately began raising more capital by offering 140 additional shares of stock at $100 each to 140 prospective new members. Over the next few months, while negotiating a “real” lease with the city, they actually sold 146 additional shares and accumulated a waiting list for a few more.
They went after the new investors very quickly for two reasons. They knew it would take additional monies to get the job done and who better to get it from than the eventual members of their private club; however, just as important was the fact they also realized there was a lot of work to be done and no one but them to do it.
They couldn’t afford to be adding staff on day one, and someone had to keep the books, do the payroll, pay the bills, recruit members, develop and implement a construction program for a new clubhouse, pro shop, maybe even a swimming pool and everything else they would discover was necessary to be successful. These guys definitely weren’t lazy; most of them probably spent more time working on their “club” job than they did on their “day” job; but there was plenty to be done, and after all, they were also the Board of Directors, they needed someone to “direct”.
The first Annual Stockholders meeting for the election of officers was held on June 10, 1957. It was decided to begin recruiting members for the new club by offering five separate categories of membership. Paying monthly dues wouldn’t begin until the Club became private in June of the following year; before that date, everyone would pay daily Green Fees. In fact, at the same meeting they set those fees at $2.00 before 5:00 pm and $1.25 after.
Members were also recruited early so the Club could begin collecting Membership Initiation Fees right away. The categories of membership being offered were Senior Voting, with a $300 Initiation Fee: Intermediate (under 22), Ladies and Non-Resident Golfers (Outside of Hillsboro County) Memberships with Initiation Fees of $150 and Social Memberships with a $125 Initiation Fee.
- Among the initial applicants for Senior Voting Membership were two Charter Members that officially joined on August 1, 1957, and, to this day, continue to grace the Club with their presence:
Robert and Maryrose Owens (Membership Card #222)
Dr. Ernest and Sylvia Traina (Membership Card # 141)
“No Extension of Deadline for Country Club Membership”
Such was the front-page headline in the September 26, 1957, edition of the Temple Terrace News:
“Per Perry Gibbons, Chairman of the Temple Terrace Golf & Country Club, It was announced early in July that October first would be the final date for Initiation fees to be posted at the $300 rate. It is the thinking of most of our Board that the Initiation fee should be much higher than that in effect for the present offering. Most of them are considering a $400 fee and some are holding out for a higher amount. Whatever the outcome of our deliberations, it is a definite fact that no $300 applications will be accepted after the deadline. The present low fee ($300) was agreed upon in order to enable all residents of Temple Terrace to take advantage of the offering without financial strain. The organization has provided a time payment plan so that no Terracites or their close friends will be prevented from joining.” (Would that be considered a not too subtle marketing plan? “Terracites”?, maybe that’s why we stick so close to our friends!)
- September 15, 1957, Board Meeting – Approved $300 for the repair of the septic tank at the pool after the city agreed to pay half of the cost.
- November 21, 1957, Board Meeting – Approved a $15 budget for advertising in the Temple Terrace News and a $15 budget for drafting floor plans of a proposed clubhouse.
For the first twelve months the club operated as a totally public golf course, but in the background was heavily focused on preparing for the conversion to a private club with membership commitments from about 300 members and a building program for a new Clubhouse. The golf course was being improved by moving towards a full irrigation system and a viable hierarchy for club governance via Committees chaired by Board Members was being implemented.
Club Pro Basil Brook had been an invaluable contributor in every step of the process: but, on April 15, 1958, just prior to the conversion to a private club, he announced his retirement. Fortunately, he was also one of the original 140 Stockholders in TTO and as such would become a Charter Member of the new Club and continue to provide his expertise through involvement on Committees.
The new Club Pro Wiley Watkins and his assistant Barney Rackley were given a two-year contract. Wiley had known Basil since 1934 when he worked for the Club as a caddy. After graduating from FSU, he went to work as Basil’s Assistant in 1953 and had been at the club ever since. Basil was an amazing man, but Wiley had the knowledge and experience to be an excellent replacement.
The Amazing Basil Brook
Up to this point in Club history, its most valuable asset had been Basil Brook, the oldest of three brothers born in England. His father, a golf course builder, had moved the family back and forth “across the pond” several times building golf courses. The final family move was to Tampa in 1925 where Basil Sr. helped by his three boys who were already making names for themselves in local golfing circles, built the Davis Island Golf Course on what is now the site of Peter O. Knight Airport.
Basil graduated from Tampa’s Hillsborough High School in 1927 and immediately “struck out on his own” by taking the Club Pro job at a course in Bartow Florida. He spent the next several years playing professional golf and holding Club Pro positions at courses in Florida and Michigan. As fate would have it, all three brothers would pursue Club Pro careers.
According to an article in the Tampa Tribune, “Brook came to work at the Temple Terrace course after making a successful PGA tour in 1932. At the peak of his game, the local pro won the Cherry Blossom Open in Michigan and finished in the money in several tournaments with sub-par performances.” (My guess is the reporter who wrote that last statement wasn’t a golfer)
Basil accepted the Temple Terrace job, sight unseen, his memories of the course being from its early “land boom” years when Jim Barnes was the Pro and the club was hosting PGA tournaments. The Great Depression actually hit Temple Terrace in 1926, earlier than in many parts of the country and according to Basil, when he arrived at his new job he discovered, “There was no grass, no water, no fertilizer, no machinery and no customers.”
Undaunted by the situation, he immediately went “all in” on his new job, not only working to turn the course around, but also buying up local real estate at fire sale prices believing the club would return to its glory days and the city would once again flourish. When Basil retired, he was quoted as saying that at one time or another; he owned as much as eight hundred acres of Temple Terrace real estate.
He was first hired in 1932, and it would be many years before the city or the golf course would fully recover from the Great Depression, but Basil did his best to turn things around. However, barely two years after taking the job, and only three months after his marriage to Mary Jane, Basil was faced with a lifestyle adjustment that would have devastated most golfers. While driving down 40th Street on his way to the golf course, Basil was in a serious automobile accident and his left arm was severed at the shoulder.
Six weeks later, twenty-four-year-old, newly married Basil Brook, left the hospital, committed to the same dream he had always held; to play golf, to teach golf and to live a life of golf.
He left Temple Terrace temporarily to work at the Rocky Point Golf Club in Tampa where the job afforded him more time to relearn the game playing with only one arm; however, in 1938 when the Mayor of Temple Terrace called, Basil not only agreed to take his old Club Pro job back, he agreed to assume the additional role of the Temple Terrace City Manager. He served in both roles for nine years until 1947 when he was replaced by H.P. Wardell as the City Manager, a job that by that time had been expanded to also include the Chief of Police and Fire Chief’s responsibilities. (I assume being “stripped” of the non-golf responsibilities didn’t devastate him.)
He would continue in the Club Pro position until his retirement in 1958. His golf game? According to Basil, at retirement, he could shoot “between 75 and 85”. According to his friends, “in his early eighties he was still breaking 80.”
