The 1937 Interracial Match between Wilberforce University and Ohio Northern University
By Bob Denney
PGA Historian Emeritus
Eighty miles separating Ohio Northern University in Ada, and Wilberforce University in Xenia shrunk to almost the width of a backyard fence in April 1937.
Yet this was more than a neighborly mixer. Two schools came together with a mix of courage and a sense of history to stage the first interracial collegiate golf match in America.
It happened three years after the PGA of America installed a “Caucasian-only” membership clause in its bylaws, and race relations in the country were clearly divided. The landmark event contested eighty-nine years ago on April 27 marked a significant, though little-known step in the desegregation of American sports.
Wilberforce, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), defeated Ohio Northern, a predominantly white institution, in both matches played that year.
Each school fielded their respective first golf teams, but Ohio Northern was the only school to agree to play Wilberforce that season.
Making the Ohio Northern trip south from the campus in Ada on Route 68, the match was hosted by the former Fairmont Country Club near Dayton. Wilberforce’s Bulldogs posted a 9-3 victory.
Wilberforce was co-captained by brothers William “Bill” and Berry Powell, who formed the team on their own and became the de facto co-coaches that short, two-match season.
Bill would later write his own chapter in sport history by becoming the only Black to design, build, own, and operate a golf course in the country — Clearview Golf Club in East Canton.
The rematch took place on May 18, 1937, at Lost Creek Country Club in Lima, where in a driving rain, Wilberforce snapped the three-match win streak of the Polar Bears, 15-3.
William Powell wrote about the matches in his 2000 autobiography, Clearview: America’s Course (with Ellen Susanna Nosner):
“Our foursome was awesome. My brother Berry, Howard Broadus from Steubenville, Earl Galloway from Woodbury, New Jersey, and I were history in the making. It was the first interracial collegiate golf match in America and I’m proud to say we came away winners.”
Powell said following the rematch, that he “was so proud and full of promise.” But there was a caveat.
“I soon became increasingly and continually fatigued. I was diagnosed with an enlarged heart,” Powell wrote. “I left college and came home to heal myself through a self-cure of exercise. This condition was diagnosed before the draft and I still ended up enlisted.”
Powell went on to serve in the Army Air Corps in World War II, during which time he would enjoy postwar golf in the United Kingdom, walking the fairways without incident before returning home to face discrimination and scorn.
His bold move to build his own golf course, using the Servicemembers Readjustment Act of 1944 (a.k.a. the G. I. Bill), was denied by local banks that repeatedly claimed such a loan didn’t exist.
Powell marched on to receive the financial support of two local doctors and his brother, Berry, who took out a loan on his home. Powell’s dream of Clearview Golf Club opened first at nine holes in April 1947.
His helping guide Wilberforce University’s first golf team a decade earlier was enough proof to Powell that things could pivot if golf were the subject and not politics.
That historic match was filed away in dusty archives for a generation until April 13, 2002, when the two survivors from each school’s teams — Powell and Ohio Northern alumnus, the Hon. Judge Joe Mallone – met at Clearview Golf Club for respective ceremonial tee shots.
“”We were just glad to get anyone on our schedule,” said Mallone to the Ohio Northern Alumnus in 2002. Mallone was 87 when he met Powell again in the 2002 reunion. “As good as they (Wilberforce) were, I figured they had been playing all along.”
Powell added his reflection upon bringing the original match to fruition.
“We were very appreciative of Ohio Northern for playing us,” said Powell to the Canton Repository. “It was just ahead of the time.
“It occurred at a time of tremendous segregation. This was before Blacks began to be vocal about segregation and as a society we just accepted it. I am very proud to be able to bring something to Stark County, the area, that is this big to history.”
While Powell was the de facto coach and captain of Wilberforce’s two-match season, Mallone’s coach in 1937 was the late Clyde A. Lamb. He went on to guide five Mid-Ohio Conference championships between 1950 and 1954.
“I was there at the 2002 reunion, and had just started here maybe a year or two before that,” said Ohio Northern Athletic Director Tom Simmons. “It was really impressive and made you reflect. And now, we’re doing it again.”
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The celebration of the two trailblazing schools will take place July 17, in an alumni golf outing at Clearview Golf Club.
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“Ohio Northern’s founder, Henry Solomon Lehr, built this University on a foundation of faith and community,” said Ohio Northern University President Melissa Baumann. “Through time and circumstance, this foundation has held firm, underpinned by the values of the United Methodist Church to ‘open hearts, open minds, and open doors through active engagement with the world.’
“Nearly a century ago, ONU’s first golf coach and team lived these values. By extending a hand of fellowship to the athletes at Wilberforce during a time of deep racial division, they chose inclusion and community over status quo. It was, simply put, the right thing to do. That single act of courage by both teams opened hearts and minds in a way that has reverberated through generations.”
Simmons said he was energized by the latest reunion efforts hosted by Clearview Golf Club.
“It means so much to be a part of it once again,” said Simmons. “A lot of times we forget the things that people have gone through and how much our culture has had to change. I wish we had someone from those days to speak about it today. If put yourself back in that moment; that’s a big deal. It sure makes you appreciate how far we’ve come, but we still have a long way to go.”
Renee Powell, the LPGA/PGA Head Professional at Clearview Golf Club, recalls the steps leading to the 2002 reunion.
“My father told me about the 1937 matches in early 2002, and I checked with both universities at that time,” said Powell. “Both schools were unaware of the original matches, and I asked that each check their archives, and that we try to have a rematch.
“Ohio Northern changed its schedule quickly to face Wilberforce at that time, and be at our course.”
Each participant got special inscribed Titleist golf balls, and a medal designed by Powell.
“My dad was pretty excited that we had a rematch at the course that he built,” said Powell. “Ohio Northern won the match. (313 to 383).”
Two years ago, Wilberforce’s men’s golf program was suspended due to economics, and former coach William Ware, now guiding Central State University – just five minutes from the Wilberforce campus – had put his own money into the program.
“Back in 1937, both teams showed courage,” said Powell.
“The kids in 2002 really got a sense for the significance of the match,” recalled Simmons.
Wilberforce University Athletic Director Roosevelt Barnes is equally excited about reviving the golf program and the reunion outing.
“There also is history that our baseball team battled The Ohio State University in 1914, and lost a 2-1 game,” said Barnes of his current NAIA-affiliated school. “It speaks for the tenacity, to be innovative, and to find our place in history. In this case, it was the sport of golf.
“We are working as hard as we can to bring our golf program back,” said Barnes. “It has energized a spirit on campus.”
Ohio Northern Coach Chad Bucci shares the historic significance between the two schools.
“It’s a very important part of history and to break the color barrier, if you want to call it that, but it weas a special opportunity and something that should be celebrated,” said Bucci. “Back in 2013, I came in with maybe 10 guys and girls in the program and now we have 65 on the collective rosters.
“It is a reflection of support of the administration and how good Ohio Northern is in academics and how the job market has changed.”
Bucci was excited to learn that Wilberforce is working towards a golf revival on its campus.
“We better be the first team that they schedule once their program renews,” said Bucci.
For a closer glance at coverage of that historic two spring matches in 1937, the Dayton Daily News recorded the results:
Dayton Daily News – April 28, 1937
Match Date: April 27
Dayton Daily News – May 19, 1937
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