MAY 18, 2020
(Reprinted with permission by Morgan State University)
For more than three decades, Morgan State University Foundation, Inc. and Morgan’s Department of Intercollegiate Athletics have teamed up to raise money for Morgan State Athletics by having an annual golf tournament. The event, often patronized by Morgan alumni and local, regional and national businesses, raises funds for scholarships, facility upgrades and other expenses that fall outside of the Athletics Department’s annual budget.
Circumstance Sparks an Idea
Herb Brown, a beer distributor turned small business entrepreneur, became one of the tournament’s originators by happenstance. In the early 1980s, he and his friends and business associates often got together to play golf. But country clubs were very exclusive back then and were still resistant to African-American membership. Consequently, African Americans opted to use public golf courses. The public courses typically were constructed on recreation and parks properties by local governments and lacked the full-service comforts and regular upkeep of country club courses.
“You had to do everything yourself,” says Brown, describing public golf course culture. “At a country club, you pull (your car) into the front carriage circle, and they take your clubs out of your trunk. They provide you with a caddy. They even clean your shoes and clubs after you play. It is a very different experience at a country club.”
During the 1970s, Brown often golfed with a friend named Nick Mangione, a successful, local masonry contractor. In the late 1970s, Mangione acquired enough money to buy a 36-hole golf course and private country club in Ellicott City, Maryland. The property was called Turf Valley, and one of the first things Mangione did after taking over the enterprise was to allow African Americans to become members and play golf.
Through the years, Mangione and his family built Turf Valley into Howard County’s only full-service resort and conference center. The property now has a 171-room hotel, a pro shop, a 10,000-square-foot ballroom, a full-service European spa, an 85-seat amphitheater and a fitness center.
Once Turf Valley was under Mangione’s management, Herb Brown began inviting his golf buddies to play there. One day, Brown’s entrepreneurial mind launched an idea for a golf tournament.
“The tournament was just for fun,” Brown says, and to help expose blacks to the country club lifestyle. “Places like Turf Valley had real sand, unlike the mud or stones that were often found at municipal courses. All the guys that I played with never had a chance to experience the beauty of playing at a country club.”
The Rise of the MSU Foundation Golf Tournament
By the eighth year of Herb Brown’s golf tournament (circa 1988), his event had become a coveted invitational. Anheuser-Busch and Valentine and Sons were major sponsors, and more than 140 African Americans from all over the Mid-Atlantic region came to play. The husband of Morgan’s head of Advancement at that time, Mary Robinson, enjoyed playing in Brown’s tournament, and his excitement over the sport, and the couple’s friendship with Brown, sparked an idea for Mrs. Robinson. She reached out to Brown and asked him to help her create a tournament to raise funds for Morgan State’s Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. The event would be a way for her Advancement team to raise additional money for the Athletics Department, which had been forced to cut its winning lacrosse program recently because of a lack of funding.
Herb Brown decided his successful golf tournament had fulfilled its purpose in its current form.
“Why not give it an even greater purpose?” he thought.
So, in 1989, Herb Brown accommodated Mary Robinson and Morgan State by offering to convert his eight-year-old event into the first annual Morgan State University Foundation Golf Tournament. It would be the Baltimore HBCU’s premier springtime event.
“The golfers’ responsibility is fun raising, while the Foundation’s responsibility is fundraising,” Brown advised.
Herb Brown and Chuck Thomas: A Dynamic Duo
Charles M. (“Chuck”) Thomas, a former golf pro who has helped run the operations of many Maryland area golf tournaments — including Herb Brown’s tournament — was also recruited by Robinson to help convert and run the new, Morgan State-branded golf event.
Brown and Thomas, who is a longtime member of the board of the Baltimore Municipal Golf Corporation, worked with the Morgan State University Foundation to run the outing, with fundraising as its new focal point.
“I said I would help, but I told Mary (Robinson) I needed volunteers,” Thomas recalls. “Mary got us about a hundred volunteers, but none of them knew anything about golf!” Thomas adds with a chuckle.
And so, the teaching began. Although most of the volunteers did not know the sport, they still worked enthusiastically to benefit the cause.
Today, the Morgan State University Foundation Golf Tournament is still run by an all-volunteer committee, including a few MSU Foundation and Morgan State Athletics personnel; Morgan State alumni; and other golf enthusiasts and Morgan State supporters. Among the committee members are Nick Mangione’s son, Peter Mangione; and Chuck Thomas and Herb Brown, who are both 95 years old.
Golf’s Life Lessons
Asked why he likes golf, Thomas says the sport is unique: it is both a social engagement tool and a way for players to challenge themselves.
“No other sport gives you business advantages,” Brown chimes in. “You have the undivided attention of the person that you’re playing golf with for a number of hours. Golf is about relationships and is a relationship builder.”
“The game gives you goals that you may never accomplish,” Thomas concludes.
“You never can be perfect at it, and yet, as in life, you continue to try.”
About the Writer
Morgan State University senior, scholar-athlete and Women’s Basketball forward Dawn Gipson says she learned much from the interviews she conducted to write this article, which was a journalism/public relations writing project for the Morgan State Athletics website.
“As a Morgan State student-athlete, I had always heard about the golf tournament…,” Gipson says. “This writing project has helped me to understand how the (MSU) Foundation Golf Tournament came to be and why it’s important.”
“It was an honor to speak with Mr. Chuck Thomas and Mr. Herb …,” Gipson adds. “It was good to learn about the impact they’ve had on helping Morgan State Athletics, and the important role golf has played. The Morgan State University Foundation Golf Tournament is more than just a tradition. It’s a big part of our Morgan State history.”
ABOUT MORGAN
Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a Carnegie-classified doctoral research institution offering more than 126 academic programs leading to degrees from the baccalaureate to the doctorate. As Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University, Morgan serves a multiethnic and multiracial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. For more information about Morgan State University, visit www.morgan.edu.
