The History of MacGregor 1829-1979

[drewspin]

Copyright 1979 by Robert D. Rickey

A few years ago, I received from Reid Gorman, who was at the time the president of MacGregor, a fascinating history of MacGregor from 1829-1979 copyright 1979 by Robert D. Rickey. I have scanned it into PDF and attached it for you MacGregor fans to read.

About the Author

Bob Rickey is a third generation in sports. His father,
Clarence, is remembered for creating the industry's first
complete line of "Pro only" equipment. Bob's grandfather,
Flint, was a cousin of baseball's famous Branch Rickey and
worked for him many years as a manager in the St. Louis
Cardinal organization.

Bob joined MacGregor on a full-time basis in 1946 after
finishing college at Northwestern University and serving
in the military. He had previously worked in the old Dayton
plant during the summers of high school and college, but his
first full-time job was as Advertising and Promotion Manager
of the MacGregor Golf Company. A few years later, he was
made VP-Marketing Pro Golf Division, the position he held
until Brunswick acquired the company in 1958. He continued
to head-up the Pro Golf 'Division until the late 60's when
the separate Golf and Athletic Divisions were combined and
he became VP-Marketing of Brunswick Sports, in which he
was responsible for all product lines.

In June of 1974, Rickey took early retirement and set-up his
own sports management consultant firm in Cincinnati, which
Included returning to his original field, writing. In 1977,
Rickey won a national writing award in a contest MacGregor
sponsored annually; his article was appropriately about
Tommy Armour. In addition to these activities, Rickey was
secretary of the Golf Writers Association of America.

[persimmonpal]

Fascinating read.. Thanks for posting!!

[dbringans]

Thanks Drewspin - a most interesting read. Especially the sections about how they organised their sales force.

[Bella Woods]

Thanks for the post drewspin, it will make for good reading in between tax returns!

[drewspin]

Thought I would bump this thread, given the discussions of MacGregor classics and some newcomers to the forum in recent months.

Cheers,
Drew

[tembolo1284]

Love macgregor. Along with hogan these were my first 2 sets of irons. A damn shame what they let happen to the hogan brand. Hopefully macgregor fights back. Such a lovely history.

[LYG]

Drewspin...thanks! Great read.

[freddiec]

Great document !! Also proves how MacGregor was and always will be one of the best golf companies who produced products that were designed by leganday players like Penna, who seemed to always have tradition and high quality in mind. I like the part where they talked about the Armour Silver scot clubs, being inspired by Armours old Spalding clubs and clubs from Scotland. Those were the days when clubs were clubs.

[hawk59]

Thanks for posting. I've gotten my info from Maltby's I&P Guide. This will be a nice addition to my reading on MacGregor.

[Jimmac914]

Many thanks Drewspin for the time and effort.