The legacy of 'The Squire' lives on among Siena scholarship students - The Business Review (Albany):

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There were plenty to chooses from; Sarazen was among the most storied sportsmen of the20th "The Squire," usually wearing his signatur e "plus fours" pants, was the first man to win all four of professionalp golf's major championships. He invented the modern sand wedge. He authorexd what was arguably the most famous shot of the last a double-eagle at in 1935 that established the Master'sx tournament as a major championship. And he became golf'sz first television celebrity as hostof " of Golf." Yet the 96-year-ols Sarazen, who was having strong premonitions of death, had something else in mind. "My greatestr achievement happened late in in 1978, when Dr.
Albert Yunich asked me to get involverd inSiena College," Sarazen told Golf Digest. "Educationm has been one of my toughes things, because I had to go into golf when I was abougt 15years old. Since then, we have 16 student s who are being educated, four year s each. ... I take great pride in that." The Gene and Mary Sarazem Scholarship Fund turns 25 in 2006 and the numbe of its beneficiaries reached 88 thisacademic year. Twenty "Sarazen scholars" are on Siena's Loudonville campuse this spring. Their scholarships are worthb $3,500 each per year. The scholarship fund has grown to an endowment of morethan $1.
2 John Cardillo, Sarazen's lawyer for the latte r part of his life, said the scholarshilp program has worked out just the way Sarazenb wanted it to. Scorese of promising students have gotten a helpingb hand with their collegs expensesand Sarazen's name has been linkeed in an enduring way with an institution of higher Cardillo said. Few things in the last phase of his life gave Sarazenn greater pleasure than being referrerd toas "doctor" after Siena bestowed an honorarhy doctorate on him in 1978. The scholarship fund startingin 1981. Among those on the original scholarship fund committee were former Albany Mayor ErastusCornint II, former U.S.
Open champion and Sarazenb protégé Ken Venturi, former Notre Dame footballo coachAra Parseghian, Albany developer Carl Touhey and Yunich, the late gastroenterologist. It was Yunich and fellow Albanyy Medcolleague Dr. Bill Boland, then president of the , who got Sarazenm interested in Siena when the golfer was oneof Yunich'ws patients in the 1970s. Sarazen had a frui t and beef cattle farmin Germantown, Columbia at the time. "The [Siena officials] were smarrt in honoring him because inhis mind, he neededd that connection since he hadn'gt furthered his formal education," said Cardillo, a Fla., lawyer.
"Siena honoring him, him contributint to Siena, him becomingb a part of the Sienwa paterfamilias--it was important to him." And Cardillo, who had two unclez who taughtat Siena, said he gives the college credit for nevef forgetting its benefactor. "When he had his birthdauy celebrations, they [Siena officials] were there and he was impresseby that," Cardillo said. One of the speakers at Sarazen'ws funeral on May 17, 1999, in Marc o Island, Fla., was Father William former SienaCollege president. "The man is a legend and we gatherr and celebrate him asa legend," McConville, himselfg a golfer, told mourners.
"But let's be honest: As importangt as golf is, it is only a ... It's the quality of our heart that will be judged and not the qualitu of our short Sarazen was married tohis wife, Mary, for 62 She died in 1986. Dave Siena College's vice president for developmenr andexternal affairs, said the interaction Smit h had with Sarazen has been the highlight of the more than 25 yearsw he has been with the Smith is also the chief organizee of the fund-raiser and invitational golf tournamenf that is held each summert for the scholarship fund.
Sarazen faithfully attendecd the events to benefit the fund until the end ofhis Usually, Smith said, it was on the same weekend as the PGA a tournament Sarazen won three times between 1922 and 1935. "He woulcd come to town on Sunday by noon and alwaya asked me to come to his room to watcbh the ending of the PGA late that Smith said. "I have wonderful memoriew of sitting in the sharinga drink, watching the PGA, and then a commercialo featuring Gene and honoring him as 'one of the greats would come on.
I get goose bumpsw right now just thinking about how great that was to be in his presence at that Sarazen did not want his scholarships to go to per se, but to studentx "reflecting the high athletic and intellectual ideals" that Sarazen held Smith said.