Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 27, 1994 TAG: 9408310026
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press PARK CITY, Utah
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Yancey collapsed minutes before he was to play in the opening round of the $500,000 Senior PGA Franklin Quest Championship at the Park Meadows Golf Course. He twice left the practice range with chest pains.
Yancey's caddy, Jon Fister, said that just before 10 a.m., Yancey hit about 10 practice balls and ``complained of discomfort in his chest and arm.''
He asked for aspirin, but Fister took him to the first aid tent where his blood pressure registered as slightly elevated. Yancey said he felt better, returned to the driving range and hit five or six more balls.
Experiencing more pain, he returned to the first aid tent and collapsed as he was being given oxygen, Fister said.
Paramedics performed CPR and Yancey was taken by ambulance to the Park City Family Health and Emergency Center at 10:25 a.m. He received emergency treatment from a center doctor and two nurses who arrived by helicopter from the University of Utah Hospital. He was pronounced dead at 10:55 a.m., said spokeswoman Margie Offret.
Yancey, who had been staying at Fister's home in Salt Lake City, 25 miles west of Park City, had complained of chest pains Tuesday night and on Thursday night said he was very tired and went to bed right after dinner.
``It's a real tragedy,'' golfer Tommy Aaron said. ``He'd had a tough time all his life dealing with his mental illness. He had a great career on the regular tour, but he never played out here to that level.''
Aaron said other players had told him that Yancey had complained of chest pains over the past three days.
``Things like this make you realize that a missed 3-foot birdie is not that important,'' Aaron said.
A seven-time winner on the PGA Tour with $690,337 in earnings, Yancey joined the Senior PGA Tour in 1988 and earned another $404,625 through 1993. The Chipley, Fla., native resided in Roswell, Ga.
Yancey was diagnosed as manic depressive in 1975. In a 1992 interview, he said he had accepted medication and psychotherapy as lifelong treatments for the mental illness. He recommended that other sufferers do the same.
Yancey had some bizarre episodes of delusion and knew all about being ``off the wall.'' He said his diagnosis came after he climbed a ladder at New York's LaGuardia Airport and started yelling that financier Howard Hughes had given him money to find a cure for cancer.
Yancey had his first manic-depressive episode in 1961 as a senior at West Point and spent nine months in a psychiatric hospital at Valley Forge, Pa. The Army discharged him and he joined the PGA Tour.
Yancey had used his position as a member of the Senior PGA Tour to arrange speaking appearances around the country to discuss manic depression and the need to seek medical treatment and psychotherapy.
by CNB