A year ago, Tom Woodard was on hand as former Denver resident Joe Louis Barrow Jr., CEO of The First Tee and son of ex-heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, was inducted into the National Black Golf Hall of Fame.
In fact, Woodard had attended the last couple of NBGHF inductions and the accompanying golf tournaments. But the longtime fixture in the Colorado golf community was totally taken aback last September when he received a phone call telling him he would be enshrined into the NBGHF in 2012.
“It was a total surprise,” Woodard recalled in a phone interview this week. “When I got the call I said, ‘Wow, that’s pretty exciting.’ They do a good job. It’s first-class.”
Woodard, for the last five years the director of golf at the Foothills Park and Recreation District, was among three people to be inducted into the Hall of Fame last Saturday in Tampa, Fla. Joining him were Adrian Stills of Pensacola, Fla., and the late Ann Gregory of Gary, Ind.
Coincidentally, Woodard and Stills roomed together on and off for about five years while playing mini tours in Florida in the early 1980s.
“That was special to be inducted with Adrian,” said Woodard (pictured at right in photo with Stills and JoAnn Gregory Overstreet, daughter of Ann Gregory).
Woodard, a 56-year-old resident of Littleton, joins about 140 other inductees into the National Black Golf Hall of Fame. Among the more notable enshrinees are Charlie Sifford, Jackie Robinson, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Jim Brown, Louis, Lee Elder, Calvin Peete, Jim Dent, Jim Thorpe and Althea Gibson. Woodard, who early in his professional career played in some of the events on the old black tour run by the United Golfers Association, estimates he knows three-quarters of the NBGHF inductees.
Founded in 1986, the organization’s mission is “to recognize and honor the contributions of black golfers for their skills and to honor persons, regardless of race or ethnicity, who have done the most to promote golf in the black communities.”
On induction day, Woodard said about 200 people were in attendance and he received some national media attention, being interviewed by representatives of the Golf Channel and the USGA.
Woodard is gratified to see how, 50 years after African-Americans broke the color barrier on the PGA Tour, many blacks now hold very prominent positions in golf.
“When I was growing up, there were no black role models for me as far as (local) club professionals go,” Woodard said. “Now you have Joe Barrow leading The First Tee nationally. I managed the eight City of Denver golf courses (in the late 1990s until 2006). And a friend of mine is the director of golf for Tampa, Kennie Sims.
“Things have changed. Now there are a lot of African-Americans in positions of power.”
Woodard has been at the forefront among African-Americans in golf on more than one occasion. According to the National Black Golf Hall of Fame, he is believed to be the first black to earn All-American recognition as an NCAA Division I golfer (Woodard was an honorable mention pick as a University of Colorado senior in the late 1970s.) In addition, Woodard said he was the first black recipient of the Evans Caddie Scholarship.
Woodard played for 2 1/2 years on the PGA Tour in the early and mid-1980s and later competed in two U.S. Opens and a PGA Championship. He became a club professional in Denver in 1985. Since then, he’s had stints at Wellshire Golf Course (as an assistant pro), and as a head professional at City Park, Littleton Golf Club, South Suburban and Buffalo Run. For the last 15 years, he’s been an area-wide director of golf, first for the City of Denver, and now in the Foothills District.
In addition to his duties as a golf professional, Woodard was a co-founder — along with Dave Kolquist — of The First Tee of Denver.
“As a kid growing up at City Park, Tom Woodard was the man,” said Ed Mate, executive director of the CGA and like Woodard a CU Evans Scholar alumnus. “I remember following him on the PGA Tour when he was playing and when he came back to City Park he always got a hero’s welcome. His induction into the National Black Golf Hall of Fame is very deserving.”
