EAST MOLINE, Ill. — As an East Moline native and a former local sports reporter, there are few people who know the John Deere Classic like Craig DeVrieze.
In honor of the tournament's 50th year, DeVrieze wrote a book chronicling the history of the tournament.
"This is a major league event in a minor league community," said DeVrieze. "There's five times. Five very, very, near death experiences. And every time, just a little bit of magic happened."
Magic Happened: 50 Years of the John Deere Classic is Devrieze's ode to a community that wouldn't quit.
"It's a story of my hometown, it's a story of the Quad Cities, it's a story of the people who fought really hard and really long to keep this thing around," said DeVrieze. "It's really a tribute to the Quad Cities and their "can-do" spirit and their willingness to roll up their sleeves and do the work."
With more than 150 interviews, DeVrieze reveals and relives the challenges the tournament faced over the years, including several points at which it looked as though the tournament would cease to exist.
"It's those really taught and dangerous moments- the five times that the tournament was on it's deathbed," said DeVrieze. "And we kept this thing alive in a really delicate time in the Quad City economy and that again, is just a total tribute to the people who love this community."
One of those times was more than 20 years ago, when tournament officials were attempting to convince John Deere executives to become the naming sponsor of the tournament. It was a meeting, as DeVrieze tells it, that changed history.
'In fact, [the John Deere representatives] stood up at one point and said, 'thank you for coming, we know that you're here to ask us to do this, [but] we have reasons that if we were to sponsor this event, and it were to go away, we have a lot of employees in the Quad Cities, we have a vested history in the Quad Cities. We feel like if this were to go away, it would be a stain on our reputation and our home'. And, Duke Butler, he stood up and said, 'Well I can think of reasons [the tournament] wouldn’t’ leave. First, we could build a TPC course here and John Deere Turf and Golf equipment could be the official equipment of the TPC network.' And the [John Deere] folks famously said, 'Can you sit back down?' And they began to cobble out this agreement. And it just kind of- boom!- came into his mind and it became 23 years of John Deere Classic sponsorship under Deere and Co."
It was that meeting that established John Deere and Co as the title sponsor of the Classic.
"It's a story that really resonates across every community in the Quad Cities and a lot of people could've told it but I was lucky to be the one to do it."
DeVrieze's book is available for sale at the TPC Deere Run pro shop and at the tournament.