Herman Sani, the namesake of an Iowa signature golf tournament, was an early 20th-century businessman who saved Hyperion Field Club from bankruptcy during the Great Depression.

Nearly 80 years later, three Coppola brothers led by Echo Valley Country Club owner Mike Coppola are, if not saving, at least reinvigorating the Herman Sani Tournament’s scholarship fund with a $250,000 contribution.

The Coppolas’ contribution, announced this week by Iowa Golf Association director Bill Dickens, creates a new base of strength for the Herman Sani Scholarship Fund, which has been creating opportunities for college-bound Iowans since 1958.

You don’t have to be a golfer to receive one of the fund’s four annual $2,000-a-year grants for up to four years. But many recipients have been, including local pro J.D. Turner, who received the inaugural award in 1958, and PGA player Steve Spray.

Turner was one Golf Digest’s Top 50 Golf Instructors and for many years was the club pro at Des Moines Golf and Country Club. Spray played on the PGA Tour during the 1960s and ’70s. Both early recipients later won the Herman Sani Tournament — Spray in 1972 and Turner in 1974 and 1984.   

To appreciate the generosity of brothers Mike, Arthur and Ed Coppola, it helps to know the background of Sani and the tournament that was created at Hyperion to honor him 65 years ago.   

Sani became an Iowa golf legend, not because of his athletic skill, but because of the dramatic way in which he saved one of central Iowa’s earliest golf courses and because of his efforts to help young people.

Local golf historian Bill Reed wrote that Sani was born in Italy on July 12, 1884, the son of Eugenio Sani, a schoolteacher who immigrated to Des Moines in 1892. 

Young Sani was a newsboy, shined shoes and sold programs at the ballpark, according to Reed. Later, he studied civil engineering and worked for the city street department, eventually becoming the chief inspector. 

In 1916, Sani went to work for a paving company that laid a brick road to Camp Dodge during the months leading up to U.S. involvement in World War I. Later, he owned the company.

Sani loved to play golf and was an early member of Hyperion Field Club, which opened its golf course in 1910.

In 1926, he helped plant trees along Hyperion’s fairways. According to Reed, Sani’s engineering background “allowed him to build, rebuild and make golf course improvements all over Iowa.”

Sani was also an early officer of the Iowa Golf Association, serving as secretary-treasurer beginning in 1926.

During the Great Depression, Hyperion fell behind on its property tax payments and in 1936 was to be sold for back taxes, Reed wrote. 

“Herman Sani showed up and paid the past due taxes,” the historian wrote. “Then he reportedly tore up the bill on the Polk County Courthouse steps. There was no record of him being reimbursed.”

The tournament that carries his name was created in 1950 and quickly became “one of the cornerstones of Iowa golf,” said IGA’s Dickens. “It’s one of the few with open competition between amateurs and professionals,” he added. 

The Sani Tournament was always played at Hyperion until a scheduling problem caused it to move in 2013 to Echo Valley Country Club, which now rotates with Hyperion as host of the event. (This year’s 54-hole Sani Tournament will be played Aug. 7-9 at Echo Valley.)

The new venue exposed the Coppolas to the Sani history, and the scholarship fund captured their interest. The fund had suffered from a lack of interest, and the IGA launched an endowment drive two years ago. 

“The Coppolas’ generosity is a giant step toward fully endowing our scholarships,” Joe Kehoe, president of the IGA Foundation, said in a news release announcing the family’s gift.