38th annual KILLEBREW-thompson memorial golf tournament

Killebrew-Thompson Story
Even when he knew he was dying of
leukemia, Danny Thompson wanted
only one thing: To be judged as a
baseball player, not as a victim of an
incurable illness. Now, thanks to one
of its founders, Harmon Killebrew,
who judged him outstanding as a man,
the Killebrew-Thompson is fighting
back against the cancers that killed
them both.
Thompson was a big league
shortstop. Big league in every
sense of the word. He played
the tough position for the
Minnesota Twins during the
first half of the 1970s, and
he kept on playing it after
he learned, in the spring
of 1974, that he had leukemia.
Doctors at the Mayo Clinic and the
University of Minnesota medical
school attempted to hold the
illness under control. Danny became
the second person in history to take
a series of experimental injections
to partially immunize him against
the illness.
He continued to play baseball.
During the 1975 season he led all
American League shortstops in batting
average and played well enough that he
had hopes of making the All-Star team.
Danny died in December 1976, leaving
a wife, two daughters, a commendable
major league playing record, and a
former teammate who didn’t want
Danny Thompson’s life, and death, to
go unnoticed.
That teammate was Harmon
Killebrew, the 20-year veteran
who spent most of his career with
Minnesota and stands fifth on the
all time list of home run sluggers.
When Danny died, Harmon promptly
wrote out a $6,000 check for leukemia
research. But he didn’t think that was
enough.
Killebrew retired from baseball
after the 1975 season and went into
the estate planning and insurance
business with former Idaho
Congressman Ralph Harding. Until
they went into business together
they didn’t know each other and
had little in common—a Democrat
and a Republican, a politician and a
ballplayer, and Harding knew little
about baseball. Killebrew hasn’t let
him forget the day he asked, “Who’s
Nolan Ryan?”
from 1976 to 2013,
the Killebrew-Thompson Memorial
Golf Tournament
has helped raise over $26 million
for Cancer research.
But Ralph went east each year to
play in the Vince Lombardi Memorial
Golf Tournament, which raises
money for cancer research, and when
Harmon sat down one day, he told
Ralph about Danny Thompson, and
said, “I wish I could do something in
his memory.” Ralph had the idea: A
golf tournament to raise money for
the fight against leukemia.
So they scheduled it at Sun Valley,
which has two 18-hole golf courses
(Sun Valley and Elkhorn) designed
by Robert Trent Jones, and they went
to work to promote it.
The arrangements could not
have gone better. Harding used
his political contacts to bring to
Idaho the nation’s best-known
amateur golfer: Gerald Ford. “I love
to play golf,” Ford said. “And it’s a
good cause.” Ford’s opening-round
foursome included the late Speaker of
the House Thomas “Tip” O’Neill of
Massachusetts. Killebrew went to the
baseball world. Mickey Mantle and
his son flew up from Dallas with Brad
Corbett, owner of the Texas Rangers.
Jim Lemon and Bob Allison showed
up.
The tournament itself turned out
to be a rousingly happy occasion. And
the tradition endures
In 2006, Founder Ralph Harding
passed. And in the tournament’s 35th
year Harmon Killebrew, founder and
friend, was lost to esophageal cancer.
In dedication to his memory, the
Board of Directors changed the name
to the Killebrew-Thompson Memorial
Golf Tournament.
Harmon was truly a gifted man.
He not only was one of the greatest
baseball players of all time, but he
had a knack for creating memories
for the millions of people he met
along the way.
And now, those teammates and
friends to one another more than
thirty years ago are joining their
names together for the fight to
eradicate cancer’s horrible diseases.
“And The Tradition Endures.......”
HARMON KILLEBREW • JuNE 29, 1936 – MAy 17, 2011
He Hit 573 Home runs.
10 38th annual KILLEBREW-thompson memorial golf tournament He toucHed countLess Lives.