By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
LANDIS ó Cancer survivor and Korean War veteran Wally Gaither shakes his head when he sees healthy teenagers riding golf carts.
ěItís the walking that keeps you young,î Gaither said.
Gaither turns 80 years young today, and his amazing athletic career continues.
Shooting his age in golf isnít an issue for Gaither, not if he adds two nine-hole days together, but he doesnít play 18 all at once anymore.
ěShot 35 on the front nine at McCanless the other day from the gold tees, and thatís a tight course,î Gaither said. ěBut like I said I like to walk when I play golf, and after prostate cancer, 12 holes at a time is my limit now.î
When he was a spry 70, Gaither says he routinely shot 70s for 18 at McCanless.
Most of Gaitherís athletic exploits came before comprehensive stats were kept, but he may be one of the more versatile athletes in county history.
Besides winning prestigious golf and bowling tournaments, he played on championship teams in basketball, baseball and fast-pitch softball, back when fast-pitch softball was huge here in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
He also remains a pretty fair fisherman.
ěIíve probably caught as many sheepshead as anyone alive,î said a cheerful Gaither, who owns a condo ě42 steps from the beachî near Fort Fisher. ěThey counted 68 fish one day, way over 100 for that weekend.î
Gaither went to school at old Granite Quarry High, which was consolidated with Rockwell to form East Rowan in 1959.
Gaitherís high school glory days were in the late 1940s. He graduated in 1949.
ěThat was the Rowan County League,î he says, rattling off the names of Graniteís conference foes Mount Ulla, Cleveland, East Spencer, Woodleaf, Rockwell, China Grove and Landis in a matter of seconds. ěLandis was the big rival.î
Not Rockwell?
ěLandis,î he repeated. ěBecause when I played, Landis had Bill Sells and all those Cross boys. Seems like we played them one time when one Cross was catching, one Cross was pitching, and their daddy minor league slugging legend Leonard ěHolyî Cross) was doing the umpiring. They were pretty hard to beat.î
Gaither started two summers for the Rockwell Legion team and also made the Salisbury team twice.
The toughest baseball pitcher he encountered was scary Gerald Blackburn, who flung bullets for Kannapolis American Legion teams that won state titles in 1946 and 1947.
ěThe only pitcher I never did get a hit off of,î Gaither admitted.
Gaitherís forte in baseball and softball was playing the infield.
ěI was blessed with a good pair of hands,î he said. ěI loved playing second base, loved to turn that double play more than anything. Even when I was 52 years old, playing slow-pitch softball, I could still turn it.î
A lot of times, Gaither played shortstop, because he was the best infielder on his team, but whenever he was paired with a natural shortstop beautiful things happened.
ěI had a chance to play second with Larry Taylor at shortstop at Rockwell,î Gaither said. ěHe was a great one and went a long way in baseball.î
Taylor played five seasons of Double A ball in the Cincinnati Reds organization (1954-58).
The Postís Horace Billings wrote a story about Gaither that compared his fielding wizardry to that of Brooklyn shortstop Pee Wee Reese and New York Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto.
ěI told Horace that he really knew how to butter a fellow up,î said Gaither, chuckling at the memory.
Gaither played shortstop and often led off for powerful Cartex Mill fast-pitch softball teams, coached by Junior Barnes. Gaither had four hits and scored four runs the night Cartex, behind ironman pitcher R.T. Winecoff, won the 1960 city-league title by beating Cannon Mills in a doubleheader.
Cannon, which had pitcher Marvin Ladd, was Cartexís biggest rival, while High Pointís Donnie Hunt was the toughest hurler Gaither faced.
ěAnd I saw some good pitchers,î Gaither said. ěWe played in that 10-team Piedmont League one year, and I saw nine pretty good ones.î
Gaitherís fondest memory of his fast-pitch days involved an older fellow who carved beautiful miniature bats at the softball games and handed them out to the wives of Cartex players who clobbered home runs.
ěMy wife asked me why she didnít have one of those bats,î Gaither said. ěI told her that was because I was a leadoff man, and my job was to get on base, not to try to hit that longball.
ěWell, she got herself a bat that night. I hit one out in left field between two power poles.î
The most successful teams Gaither played on at Granite Quarry were in basketball. Granite went 14-0 in 1948 to win the county crown. Gaitherís brother, Larry, led the county schools in scoring that season and was Honorable Mention All-State.
ěFor someone to be considered for All-State was unusual for a school of our size,î Gaither said. ěWe had 180, maybe 190 students, but we played in the big tournaments in Winston-Salem and made two quarterfinals and one semifinal. Our coach was Armi Tomani, the best I ever played for. He was tough, really got us in shape.î
Gaither said basketball was the ěNo. 1 thing in his life for 13 years,î and he got a scholarship to Elon.
ěWell, a three-quarters scholarship, and they told me I could get the other quarter by making the golf team or the baseball team that spring, and I knew there were only two guys I couldnít beat in golf,î Gaither said.
But he didnít stay in school long.
ěI was on the honor roll, but I wasnít really studying for anything that I wanted to do,î he said. ěI really didnít want to go in the Army, so a bunch of us went and enlisted in the Navy. I did three tours in Korea. I chased a Russian sub, picked up downed pilots, did some shelling. I enjoyed the Navy experience very much.î
Gaither was a terrific bowler in the 1960s. In 1962, he won the association championship in a major tournament held in Charlotte and qualified for national events.
ěI averaged 187 and got to go to Charlotte for the association tournament,î Gaither said. ěAll the towns had bowling leagues, but Charlotte was the one sanctioned by the association, so all the best bowlers from the smaller towns had to go there. People made a fuss and were all upset because they let a pro into that tournament, a fellow named Trumbull, but I won by 19 pins. I had a 600-plus series and won the scratch and the handicap. I was proudest of winning the handicap. When you average 187, you donít get much of a handicap.î
Gaither found more individual success in his competitive golfing career. Heís won numerous tournaments (including a CGA event at the Country Club of Salisbury) and senior events, but winning the Corbin Hills club championship in 1973 provided his fondest memory.
After beating medalist Gene Snider in the first round and Bill Eaton in the second, he holed a 35-foot putt on the final hole to edge Jay Duke in a semifinal.
In the final against Harold Holder, Gaither trailed by three holes at the turn, but he surged with two birdies and six pars over the next eight holes to win 2 and 1.
His greatest athletic agonies also came in golf. He qualified for the championship flight of the prestigious Labor Day Four Ball three times and made the semis once.
ěI never lost by more than one hole,î Gaither said. ěLost to Harry and Charlie Welch in the semis because Harry made two of the greatest pars Iíve ever seen ó up and down both times after hitting it over the green,î Gaither said. ěBut thatís all right. At that time, Harry and A.D. Dorsett were the best golfers this county had ever seen.î
Gaither spent his early working years with T&F Barbecue, and heís spent the last 54 ó no kidding, 54 ó selling Bowes Seal Fast auto parts.
ěStill selling products and still have a few customers,î Gaither said.
It must be all that golf ó and all that walking. It keeps him young.