“Pushed Me Out of the Way”: Larry Bird’s Stoic Persona Humbled Golf Legend Mark Calcavecchia in First Meeting

You could have 13 PGA titles but it takes a lot more to get a ‘hi’ out of Larry Bird. He could be the friendly Hick from French Lick one moment and an intensely competitive athlete the next. One golf legend found that out in a stinging fashion. Over three decades ago, Kenny Rogers hosted pro athletes, musicians, and Hollywood stars at his ranch for a televised weekend of golf, basketball, and fishing. Michael Jordan was often the scene-stealer at the Kenny Rogers Weekend Classic. It was not only an occasion to enjoy Rogers making Jordan trip, but also for the basketball and golf worlds to intersect. Just not always in the way we’d expect.

Some things went down behind the scenes that now seem funny. Back then, golf star Mark Calcavecchia might have been awkward around Larry Bird. The Celtics icon’s mood was hard to gauge when he was at Rogers’ ranch. Calcavecchia had missed the memo.

“I had just won the British Open and I kind of thought I was a little bit of a big deal,”Calcavecchia recalled with reference to his 1989 PGA title. It was his earliest most notable achievement. So allow him to feel chuffed walking into the Beaver Dam Farms for the Kenny Rogers Classic Weekend in 1989.  While hanging out with the likes of Jordan and Gladys Knight, he ran into Bird.

“I was in the kitchen looking in the refrigerator for something to eat and Larry Bird walked around the corner. I’m a big fan of his. I said, ‘Hey, Larry. Mark Calcavecchia.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, whatever,’ and kind of pushed me out of the way. That was my first introduction to Larry Bird,” Calcavecchia recalled.

Now that can be interpreted as a lot of things. Maybe after 3 NBA championships, 2 NBA Finals MVPs, 3 MVPs, 12 All-Star appearances, and three international gold medals into his career, Larry Legend didn’t think Calcavecchia was a “big deal” or it was just his introverted nature. Or he was in a hurry to get back to a game where Rogers was bullying a team of NBA champs. Maybe he was still embarrassed by his jumper getting stuck in the rafters from the year before. Perhaps the avid golfer didn’t think the PGA champ was all that. Bird’s temperament was just that unpredictable. Calcavecchia could take comfort that it was not him and he’s not been the only one on the receiving end of Larry Legend’s cold shoulder.

Larry Bird left celebrities stung

Calcavecchia could turn to Kevin Costner for consolation as two people who got snubbed by Bird. The Hollywood superstar’s encounter pre-dated the Kenny Rogers Classic Weekend. The Celtics and Lakers‘ rivalry was at its peak. Costner’s mistake was to visit the Celtics locker room before the game ended.

He wanted to congratulate the team and hype them up. But Bird didn’t acknowledge Costner the entire time. Moreover, when Costner struck a conversation with Kevin McHale, Bird didn’t let the team get carried away with the celebrity. “Let’s get this going; if we lost, we’d have been outta here a half hour ago,” Bird told the team while Costner was right there.

That was Larry Bird for you. It didn’t mean he disliked anyone. He was just, to put it mildly, intense.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud, Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub, and more, watch this video.