DR. MICHAEL COOPER
December-February 2013
Blog: “Purposeful Celebration”
We all have a pet project, organizations, and/or events we are passionately involved with. This month I’d like to invite you to a celebratory weekend of golf activities that is personal and purposeful.
The Mid-Winter Golf Classic weekend will be held in Tampa, FL March 14-16, 2014. The weekend features the National Black Golf Hall Of Fame (NBGHF) dinner and induction ceremony, the Advocates Invitational Pro Tour, the Mid-Winter Amateur Golf Classic, and the Legends Youth Golf Clinic. Proceeds from the weekend will benefit youth programs, education, and the NBGHF.
The National Black Golf Hall of Fame, in its 28th year, will honor Robert “Pat” Ball, Jimmie DeVoe, Ethel Funches, Gerard M. Peterson and the Royal Golf Club with a dinner and induction ceremony on March 15, 2014 at the Embassy Suites Hotel (USF) in Tampa, FL. Ball, DeVoe and Funches will be honored posthumously.
Robert “Pat” Ball was a legendary golfer on the United Golfers’ Association (UGA) winning its national pro titles 1927, 1929, 1934, and 1941. He was also a premier golf instructor, club pro, and entrepreneur. Ethel Funches, a member of the historical Wake-Robin Women’s Golf Club in Washington D.C., won more UGA women’s championships than any female before or since.
Jimmie Devoe became the first African-American to compete in the Los Angeles Open in 1944 and later became the first African-American to gain membership in the PGA of America in 1962 shortly after the “Caucasian only” clause was removed from the PGA of America’s by-laws in 1961. He is credited with being the golf instructor for such celebrities as Nat King Cole, Joe Louis and Althea Gibson.
Gerard M. Peterson, before the removal of the “Caucasian only” clause, successfully challenged the city of Hartford, Connecticut to pressure the Keney Park Men’s Club at the city’s public golf course to accept “Negro” golfers as members of their Association. He also was the first Black to serve on the USGA Senior Amateur Golf Committee.
The Royal Golf Club of Washington, D.C. was founded in 1930 and is the longest continuing club for African American men in the United States. In the mid-30s, the Royals along with the Wake-Robin Women’s Club persuaded the then Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, to have Langston Golf Course constructed specifically for people of color by the National Park Service and federal funds were used for this purpose.
This will mark the fifth season for the Advocates Invitational Pro Tour, a series of golf competitions designed to identify talented golfers of color, and to ultimately increase the number of African American professionals on the PGA Tour. The 36-hole competition will be Saturday and Sunday, March 15-16, 2014 at historic Rogers Park GC, in Tampa, FL. The pro series is sponsored by the Advocates USA, and the PGA TOUR. Advocates USA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to mentoring and generating opportunities for African American individuals and communities.
It was at Rogers Park that minority golfers gathered and celebrated throughout the 1960s and ’70s. Then, the Mid-Winter Open welcomed professional and amateur golfers of all nationalities, and gave them an opportunity to showcase their talents in a festive environment. The event was an important part of what was affectionately known as the “Chitlin Circuit,” a series of events sponsored by the United Golfers Association, an organization dedicated to African American golfers. The legacy of the Mid-Winter continues, and its heritage will again be commemorated through the above mentioned activities.
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What are you doing to help bring diversity to golf? Are there things we can do together to accelerate the process? Please contact me to share your thoughts and opinions.
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ABOUT MICHAEL COOPER, PH.D.
Dr. Michael Cooper is the Assistant Dean and Campus Director at Springfield College-Tampa Bay campus. He can be reached at urbangolf@aol.com and mcooper2@springfieldcollege.edu.
