Venice Davis, “The Great Wall of Champions on Jackrabbit Road”,
Touchstone, Flight. XIX (2000), 39-47.
This article examines the development of the Cypress Creek Golf Course and Champions Clubhouse and the factors that necessitated the construction of a sound attenuation wall along FM 1960. In the mid-1950s, two professional golfers, Jimmy Demaret and Jack Burke, Jr., decided to become partners in a golf course in Houston. A lawyer friend suggested that they buy five hundred pieces of land along FM 1960, which was about twenty-two miles from Houston. Although Demaret and Burke purchased the land, they did not plan to build their golf course there at the time. They changed their minds after learning that the new Houston Intercontinental Airport and the new I-45 interstate highway would be nearby.
Construction began in May 1957, and the Cypress Creek Golf Course opened on November 1, 1958 for the first five hundred members. The official grand opening was on April 21, 1959 and was attended by over six thousand people who came to see celebrities such as Bing Crosby, Mickey Mantle and Ben Hogan. Due to Demaret and Burke’s celebrity status, many celebrities and professional athletes became members of the Champions Golf Club.
Burke and Demaret then decided to build a subdivision for their members. Construction of the Champions subdivision began in 1960, and many celebrities, such as Farrah Fawcett and Steve Elkington, have owned homes there over the years. The subdivision and golf course created an economic boom for real estate. Land prices increased dramatically when investors bought the available land along Jackrabbit Road.
Due to population growth, Demaret and Burke began building a second golf course in the spring of 1963. The official opening of the Jackrabbit Golf Course was in April 1964 and was attended by celebrities such as Bob Hope and Phil Harris. The Cypress Creek course was rated one of the top ten golf courses in the United States and has hosted many international tournaments, including the 1967 Ryder Cup and the 1969 US Open. The Jackrabbit course, while never hosting a major tournament, it was ranked in the top thirty courses in the US.
Until 1969, the area around the Champions subdivision did not have many commercial businesses, forcing residents to travel to Houston to shop. Later, Joe McDermott, a real estate developer, purchased fifteen acres at the corner of FM 1960 and Champions Drive to build Champions I, the area’s first major shopping mall. In the 1970s, it added Champions II, III, IV, and V. Increased traffic caused FM 1960 to be widened from two lanes to four in the early 1980s, and this began to cause a noise problem for drivers. Champions residents. When plans to widen FM 1960 to seven lanes to relieve traffic congestion were discussed in the mid-1980s, a Champions resident, Darel Wayhan, began petitioning for the construction of a sound attenuation wall. Despite initial opposition to the wall, the Houston city government completed the wall in 1991. Although the wall caused minor complaints from residents, it has been beneficial to the subdivision and the golf course in many ways.
In addition to reducing traffic noise, the wall has reduced periodic flooding of the golf course. Additionally, the wall protects golfers from harassment by passing motorists and protects pedestrians and motorists from errant golf balls. The wall also contributed to the increase in the market value of homes in the Champions subdivision.
