A six-foot bronze golfer that marked the site of the South's first city-built golf course for Black players has vanished from its pedestal near Dallas Love Field, and the neighborhood that put it there is asking for help finding it.
The 300-pound sculpture stood in the 6700 block of Mabel Avenue in the Elm Thicket/Northpark neighborhood, beside a historical marker for Hilliard Memorial Golf Course. Dallas police told FOX 4 that a preliminary investigation found the statue was taken overnight on Sept. 24. The department received the theft report on Sept. 30.
As of Sunday, the statue had not turned up and no one had been arrested.
All that remains at the spot is the empty concrete base.
A short-lived course with a long reach
The golf course opened in 1950 and was the first municipal course in the southern United States built for African Americans, FOX 4 and People Newspapers reported. People Newspapers reported that it operated only until 1955, when it was bulldozed as Love Field expanded.
Neighbors dedicated the marker and the statue this past summer around Juneteenth, holding the dedication in place of the neighborhood's usual Juneteenth parade, People Newspapers reported.
"We wanted a way to capture that history and let the world and future generations know that this was here," Jonathan Maples, president of the Elm Thicket-Northpark Neighborhood Association, told the newspaper.