Ben and Valerie had just finished the West Coast Tour with two wins and two second place finishes for Mr. Hogan. It was February 1949, when the Hogan’s left Flagstaff, Arizona and headed to their new home in the nicest part of Fort Worth, Texas. They got on the road to head to their first home. Valerie was so excited. It was her childhood dream to one day live in this home and Ben had bought it for her for Valentine’s Day.
It was a great ride heading back to Fort Worth. Playing on the radio was “I Can’t Get Started With You” and as that large Cadillac was weaving its way down out of the Arizona mountains into Texas, a heavy fog descended around them. The visibility was down to about 8-10 feet, and as he was driving, Ben couldn’t control the car that was sliding all over the road. Ben stopped and got out of the car only to end up on his backside as the road was a sheet of ice.
Ben got back into the car, and as they crawled their way home, they entered a low bridge that once on there was no way off. It was steel railed the whole length. Ben looked up and saw four lights coming at him through the fog and before he realized it, a Greyhound bus was passing a fruit truck on this two lane bridge. With no escape, he leaped and covered his wife as the bus struck the car, pushing it over the bridge to the side of the chasm. Had Ben not covered Valerie, he would have surely died as his steering wheel went through the drives seat. The whole engine was at their feet.
Passing service men saw the horrific accident and jumped out to help the Hogan’s. Ben was just barely alive and moaning. They got him out and laid him on the ground. Ben’s body covering Valerie’s saved her life. She sustained some scratches, bumps and bruises, but her husband took the brunt of the force from the accident. An ambulance came from Van Horn, Texas to take Ben to the emergency room.
Reporters mobbed the scene as they brought Ben’s seemingly lifeless body to the hospital. A report asked one of the EMTs, “Is that Mr. Hogan?”
The response was, “It was Mr. Hogan. He has passed.”
The reporter rushed to the phone and wanted to be the first to report that the great golf star, Ben Hogan had died in a horrific car accident in Van Horn, Texas. The whole country thought Ben was dead.
Jimmy DeMaret and Porky Oliver jumped in their cars to comfort Valerie. When they got their, Valerie was in tears in the waiting room, and Jimmy asked,” Are you ok? We understand he has passed.”
Valerie could just barely speak. “No, he’s still alive. He still has a spark of life in him.”
That spark of life lasted him through a 12-hour operation and no doubt the surgeon had performed a miracle. The doctor told Ben he would never walk again and he would never play golf again. But the doctor didn’t understand just who Ben Hogan was.
When Ben got home, he moved all of the living room furniture to the middle of the floor and began walking in a circle, using that furniture as support so he wouldn’t fall. He walked around that room until the carpet wore through to the hardwood floor that lay beneath.
16-months later, Ben won the 1950 US Open at Merion Country Club. He became one of the greatest comebacks in sports history.
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