PHOTO GALLERY:  THE 1970s

Men's Golf Written History: The 1970s

JIM STORY '73

I played on the golf team during three of my four years at Rose; one of the years I had 12 hours of lab per week with A-chem and P-chem courses.  My freshman year of golf was in the spring of 1970.  Jim Carr was the coach and we had only six players on the team.  Three were seniors – Tom Merrill, Fred Krampe, and one little guy whose name escapes me.  The other three were freshmen – Joe Pognant, myself, and a third Keven (I don't remember his last name).  The small senior and Kevin could not break 90 on their best day, but the other four of us were fairly competitive.  We practiced and played our home matches at Rea Park (I presume it is still there) and played a lot of our away matches in Indy at various courses. 

One treat we got during freshman year was to play at Crooked Stick when it first opened.  Coffin was underwater as it usually was during the spring and the home team snagged us an opportunity to play Crooked Stick.  The course tore us up, but the bent grass fairways were something to behold.  We all came away saying that it should host a PGA major at some point in time…and we were correct.  The other treat was the two-day NAIA tournament at the end of the season.  I doesn't sound like Rose is part of NAIA now, and maybe that doesn't exist as a conference any more, but back then it was held at a course in Marion.  Loads of fun, but we were not too competitive as a team.

I couldn't play during the sophomore year due to the heavy course load, but came back to the team my junior and senior years.  Those teams had a few more players on them and most could break 80 on any given day.  Some of the names I remember are Bill Olah, Rex Mook, Jay Ludlow,  a guy named Jack,…  I guess I don't remember many names.  Anyway, Jim Carr had retired I believe, and the new coach was Jess Lucas, one of the professors of psych, etc.  He was really good guy and played pretty well if I remember correctly.  For sure he was the best player of any high school or college coach I had prior to that time.  I don't remember a whole lot of specifics from those years and have only one photo to share.  Jay Ludlow sent it to me a few years ago.  I've attached it to this e-mail.  In case you want to put a face with my name, I'm the guy on the far left of the photo.

That's about all I can conjure up about Rose golf, but it was a fun time and a pleasant break from the complexity of the Chem Eng curriculum.

BILL CRELLIN '75

Golf was definitely in the back seat of sports back in my day, waaaay in the back.  Our only practice equipment was a net down in the old Fieldhouse (the B-52 bomber hanger).  And the net was set on dirt, as the entire floor was dirt.  They had large wooden blocks that latched together to form the basketball court.  I have been in the new Fieldhouse/Sports complex once at a Homecoming.  Let me tell you, it is in a completely different world than what we had.  And, I just remember we did have some video camera, probably Super 8, I remember it was really big & sat on a tripod.

I was only on the golf team for 2 years, the spring of '74' and '75' seasons.  Long story, but Coach wanted me to cut my hair, & my looks were more important than my golf at that time, so I walked away freshman & soph years.  Jess Lucas took over as Coach & by then hair length was not an issue.  I was always one of the guys at the tail end of the team (#8 or #10 something along those lines)  Missing those 1st 2 years hurt me & I wish I could go back & get a hair cut...  But, we can't turn back Father Time.

But I do have a few good stories.  Rex Mook, was our #1 in '74' (maybe Bill Olah, not sure, I think they altered between # 1 and #2).  Rex went to high school in New Albany, IN & played in high school with Fuzzy Zoelller.  So Rex tells the team that Fuzzy is stopping over in Terre Haute & will play a practice round with us.  I was all excited, as everyone was.  Fuzzy was a newcomer, but we had heard his name.  Rea Park on S. 7th Street was our home course.  So Fuzzy shows up at Rea Park, no shoes, no clubs, gets some rental clubs out of the clubhouse & shoots like a 69 in gym shoes.  I was in one of the groups behind Fuzzy, so didn't see it up front & personal.  But, wow, we were impressed.  Please corroborate my story with Rex Mook, I probably have details wrong.  He probably doesn't remember me.  I was only on the team for 1 year while he was there & like I said, I was a scrub.

Another good story was playing in a $10 skins game at Rea Park on Saturday mornings.  A lot of local guys played & many of them were not that good.  I made some good beer money there.  But, the funny part was that I would show up sometimes & not have the $10 with me. That made me play harder, & as far as I can remember I never had to borrow a ten at the end of the day.