It’s a Who’s Who of outstanding human achievement, and Arnold Palmer’s place in this pantheon was ratified on September 12, 2012. Since America won its independence in 1776, there have been fewer than 150 recipients of the Congressional Gold Medal, so the honor bestowed on Mr. Palmer by the House of Representatives was, self-evidently, one of the highlights of his life
Ever tried to join an exclusive club into
Palmer receives the Medal from House Speaker John Boehner
which you can only be invited? Ever tried to fathom the logic that decides one person is worthy and another, seemingly as qualified, is not? Prior to the evolution of more formal qualifying guidelines, that’s how the leading golfers of a generation ago felt when it came to receiving their Masters invitations (or not). In this particular club, there’s no place for JFK, Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby or Clint Eastwood, but Robert Kennedy, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra and John Wayne all make the cut. The names of Abraham Lincoln and Dwight D. Eisenhower are conspicuously absent, not so Generals Ulysses S. Grant, Douglas MacArthur, Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson have been overlooked, but Harry S. Truman and Ronald Reagan are on the team. So are Winston Churchill and Simon Wiesenthal. Philanthropists, we have a few, most notably George Peabody and the reclusive Howard Hughes, but not yet Bill Gates or Warren Buffett. Religious leaders Mother Theresa, Pope John Paul II, Billy Graham and the Dalai Lama are among the honorees, as are the political hero and heroine of our time, Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi. Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, Charles Schulz, Robert Frost, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gerschwin, and Aaron Copland are among those who represent creativity, while the late Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, and the Wright Brothers, inventors of the airplane, are among the ordained adventurers.
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No one in their right mind would argue against the inclusion of these luminaries of human history and endeavor. Nor could there be any quarrel with the sports personalities who have received the Medal. Roberto Clemente was the Pittsburgh Pirates ace who died in a plane crash delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Jesse Owens was the man who defied Hitler at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by bagging four gold medals. Joe Louis was undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion between 1937 and 1949. Jackie Robinson was Major League Baseball’s first black star. Byron Nelson, ‘Lord’ Byron, was the golfer who won 11 successive tournaments, and 18 in total, in 1945. And now Arnold Palmer has joined this select company. Despite the absentees, this sounds like the top table for Heaven’s ultimate banquet. Leonardo da Vinci is preparing the canvas, Mozart tuning the violins, Shakespeare polishing the eulogies, and Escoffier plumping the vol au vents. Meanwhile, Groucho Marx at last yearns to join a club to which he doesn’t belong, and Orson Welles dreams more than ever of ‘Rosebud.’ The fact is, fewer than 150 people, or groups of people, have won the Congressional Gold Medal across its 236-year lifespan, and Mr. Palmer is one of them. Why? The story begins in 1776, soon after the United States achieved its independence from the British. Naturally, the nascent American nation wanted to bestow its appreciation on the man who had led them to their promised land: George Washington. So the Continental Congress Gold Medal was struck in his honor… and there it might have remained had it not been for the excellence of numerous outstanding men and women ever since. John Paul Jones, the Scottish sailor and rabblerouser, received the seventh and last Continental Congress Gold Medal in 1787. Then, after a 13-year hiatus, the first U.S. Congress Gold Medal (the official title remains to this day) was awarded to U.S. Navy hero Thomas Truxton. Palmer became the sixth athlete, and only the second golfer, to be nominated for the award, on 30 September 2009 (by Rep. Joe Baca from California), and received it on 12 September 2012, two days after his 83rd birthday. He was lauded in “recognition of his service to the country in promoting excellence and good sportsmanship,” and, well
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