Golf Cart Parade - February 8th - 5:00 pm

Babe Ruth Golf Cart Parade ✫ February 8, 2025 ✫ 5:00pm
Suggested cart decorations: Baseball, Golf, Roaring '20s, Teams (Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, etc.), Patriotic (National Pastime), Babe's birthday (130-years-old) or don't decorate - just wear a baseball cap and toot your horn to honor the Bambino! 
Azaleas are starting to bloom, so decorate with flowers like it is the Rose Bowl.
Spring training begins February 12th, let's celebrate the new season. 
Goal: 60 Carts to equal Babe's Single Season Home Run Record.
contact: azaleaassociation@yahoo.com

Parade Begins

Azalea resident Blake Emory's new lifesize statue:

"BABE RUTH CALLS HIS SHOT"

 WILL BE AT THE PARADE SITE ON FARRAGUT

Parade Route:


Tri-panel Brochure with More Cart Decorating Ideas:

Cover: Centennial Parade
Back: Kids and Kubs
Inside fold: New Lifesize Statue
click on image to enlarge

Inside:
click on image to enlarge


Patriotic Themed Cart


✫ FEBRUARY 8, 2025 ✫ 
GOLF CART PARADE STARTS AT 5 PM
FARRAGUT DRIVE, AZALEA ✫ PARTICIPANTS LINE UP AT 4:30
GOLF CARTS ONLY: NO CARS, TRUCKS, TRAILERS, ETC.

⭐⭐⭐ Grand Marshal: Tom Stevens, Babe Ruth's Grandson ⭐⭐⭐
Three generations of the Ruth family will be joining us from around the country

contact: azaleaassociation@yahoo.com

It's Babe Ruth's birthday and we celebrate the 100th anniversary of his arrival in St. Pete and The Jungle!

It was an annual tradition, Babe Ruth's return to the Jungle Country Club to celebrate his February birthday and to spend weeks enjoying his favorite pastime – golf. While fans up north were enduring blizzards and cold waves, the news of Babe Ruth playing golf in Florida raised hope that spring and a new season of baseball were just around the corner. 
Babe Ruth was much more than a baseball star – he was an international celebrity, the greatest of his era. Athletically gifted and charismatic, he dominated the media. Over the course of a century, the name "Babe Ruth" has not lost its magic. It's doubtful it ever will.

"This parade is going to put The Jungle back on the national map." 

‒ Tim Reid, St. Petersburg Committee to Commemorate Babe Ruth

Sponsors:
Azalea Neighborhood Association
St. Petersburg Committee to Commemorate Babe Ruth
Emory Arts
Discover Florida Tours
Florida History Council

The parade begins at 5 pm on February 8, 2025 and will travel on a historic route in The Jungle, along the former creek that Babe crossed hundreds of times while golfing in St. Pete every spring. Participants will line up at 4:30 at 13th Av N and Farragut Dr in the Azalea neighborhood.

The parade promotes awareness of west St. Pete's history:
  • Former home of a Tocobaga village where historical tours are available.
  • The landing spot of the Spanish Narváez expedition in 1528. Four of the explorers were the first Europeans to cross the continent to the Pacific Ocean.
  • Historic neighborhoods with brick-paved streets and Mediterranean-style homes.
  • The Jungle Prada building, built in 1924, home of the Gangplank speakeasy.
  • The Jungle Country Club Hotel where Babe Ruth was a regular guest. The hotel is now Admiral Farragut Academy, a school that has graduated two of the twelve men to walk on the moon.

Babe Ruth Weekend Celebrations - February 6-9, 2025

Link to other Babe Ruth weekend events:


Babe Ruth riding a parade float at the 1939 New York World's Fair

The Jungle Country Club
St. Petersburg, Florida, 1916-1944
The Jungle Country Club Hotel
The Jungle Country Club was a historic golf course and hotel located in the Jungle section of St. Petersburg, Florida. The golf course opened in 1916 and is notable for being Babe Ruth's favorite winter course ‒ he played well over 100 rounds here. Ruth was one of the most popular golfers of the Roaring Twenties. He made the Jungle golf course famous by coming here every winter. Anyone who read a newspaper or went to the movies was familiar with the Jungle Country Club. The golf course property and hotel are in the Azalea neighborhood. The hotel is listed on the St. Petersburg Register of Historic Places and is now Admiral Farragut Academy.

1925: BABE RUTH ARRIVES IN ST. PETE


This is a colorized photo of Babe Ruth arriving in St. Pete in 1925. Second from the left is Al Lang, the president of the Jungle Country Club. It was Lang who persuaded the Yankees to train in St. Pete. Having Babe Ruth and the Yankees in town every spring boosted tourism and Lang looked forward to the publicity of having Babe Ruth on the Jungle golf course.

MARCH 1925: BABE RUTH ON THE JUNGLE GOLF COURSE

1925: Babe Ruth, Al Lang and Yankees manager Miller Huggins at the Jungle Country Club

There is a unique connection between Babe Ruth and the Azalea neighborhood. At the height of his fame, during every spring for over a decade, he was a guest at the Jungle Country Club Hotel (now Admiral Farragut Academy) in Azalea and played hundreds of rounds of golf on the Jungle course.

1934: BABE RUTH'S DOUBLE EAGLE

Babe Ruth double eagle. Left, Charley Segar of the New York Mirror, right sportswriter Fred Lieb

Babe Ruth had a passion for golf. When he came to St. Pete for spring training, reporters followed Babe’s every move and the Jungle Country Club became famous throughout the country. Ruth remembered the double eagle (scoring 2 on a par 5) on the 17th hole of the Jungle course as one of his greatest achievements. He scored the double eagle after hitting a 250-yard drive with an iron and then a 220-yard shot. The feat was so rare that when the New York Times reported on the story it was the first time the newspaper ever used the term "double eagle."

1931 AT THE JUNGLE HOTEL

Babe and Claire Ruth on Jungle Golf Course
1931: Babe Ruth with wife Claire in front of the Jungle Hotel

Babe Ruth observed many birthdays on the Jungle golf course. He celebrated on February 7th, but later in life he learned that he was born on February 6th. Here he is at the Jungle Hotel in 1929. The cake is decorated with sports figures.


1934 Scorecard

The foursome includes Babe Ruth and Jungle golf pro John Buchanan
Links to articles about Babe Ruth: