Ely Callaway 2001 Deaths

Ely Callaway

golf visionary responsible for turning the Calloway Golf Co. into the world's biggest clubmaker and introducing the "Big Bertha" driver to weekend golfers; after a 30-year career in the textile industry, he bought a small golf company called Hickory Stick for $400,000 in 1984; through technological breakthroughs like his patented bore-through design and oversized irons, he increased Callaway sales from a modest $5 million in 1988 to $800 million a decade later; resigned as president and CEO on May 15. He died of pancreatic cancer.