ROCKFORD (Illinois) — Nearly 3 feet tall. Four tiers. Each winner is recorded on dozens of silver nameplates engraved with engravings. Five silver figures decorate the sides and top.
These golf trophies are no longer given out.
TJ Baker said, “The old-school aspect of it is interesting.” He added that it was “his top priority” after winning the Greater Rockford Men’s Classic for the second time in a row last year. “That’s what makes it great.”
The Men’s City travelling trophy was missing for more than a decade. Robert Dofflemyer, who won the tournament’s 96th title last week for the third time in 11 years, had no idea the trophy even existed.
Dofflemyer stated, “It is very unique.” “I can’t recall ever seeing it before. The women’s award is nice. “I’m sure I have seen it.”
It’s because Hui Chong Dofflemyer and Melissa VanSistine (his mother) both displayed in their homes the ornate and large women’s trophy as two-times winners of the Women’s City, which has been around for 98 years.
Few golfers were aware that the men also had their own trophy to travel with, along with the smaller trophy given each year to the winner.
John Rabideau, the tournament coordinator, was able to resurface this trophy. He asked Jamie Hogan who has won nine Men’s City titles, a record. Hogan replied that he believed so, but did not know where to find it.
The Rockford Men’s City travelling golf trophy had been lost for more than a decade. It was rediscovered in 2022 and awarded again. Photo: Matt Trowbridge/Peoria Journal Star
Rabideau replied, “I don’t believe anyone knew.”
Rabideau was able to find the right place.
Rabideau, the Rockford Park District’s spokesman, said: “I thought that if the item was anywhere to be found it would probably be in the Webbs Norman Building.” “I found it down in the basement. It was sitting on a desk.
It just needed a little cleaning up. The plates didn’t look good. The wood looked shabby. I removed all the plates and polished them. It was necessary to sand, buff, shine, etc.”
The trophy has been enlarged. It is a living testimony to Men’s City’s history with nameplates for each winner since 1977. Rabideau was unable to update the trophy in recent years and had to find out who would be making new nameplates.
He found another Men’s City Trophy shortly after presenting the restored trophy to TJ Bakker 11 months earlier.
WREX TV has sponsored the trophy since 1977. The Rockford Register Republic, the forerunner to Rockford Register Star and sponsor of the original trophy, presented from 1928 until 1976, sponsored it.
Mike Johnson won the third Men’s City title of his four in 1976. He kept it in his basement for many years until last year when he returned it to the Park District, just after the other trophy had been rediscovered. The trophy is displayed at Sandy Hollow Golf Course next to the fireplace.
Rabideau stated, “I had no idea there was another one prior to this one.” “Mike came up with it out of nowhere.”
The trophy is much smaller than the traveling award but is still very old-school and contains a list of previous winners.
Rabideau explained, “I took it apart a month earlier, cleaned it and put it back together.” “We had to reattach the statue to the top because there was some weird thing weld with that didn’t work anymore. So, we drove a stake into it. The statue is now fixed and looks good.
It was more worn out than the traveling trophy. “It may not look as nice as the current traveling trophy, but it is polished as best as possible.”
Contact: [email protected], @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge, who has previously covered sports in North Dakota and Vermont, has been covering Rockford Register Star sports for more than 30 years.
