The Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame is a non-profit corporation established in 1991 by the Tennessee Golf Foundation. [1] The hall of fame is located at the Golf House Tennessee [2] a 21,000 square foot golf complex [3] in Franklin, Tennessee (near Nashville), which houses administration all of the state's golf activities, including pro golf, amateur golf, women's golf, junior golf, and turfgrass research." [4] [5]
Induction in to the hall of fame includes one or more of the following criteria for Tennesseans: [1]
The first inductees in 1992 were Lou Graham, Cary Middlecoff, Mason Rudolph. [6] As of 2019, the hall included 51 members, including Sarah Ingram, Ted Rhodes, Katherine Graham, Toby S. Wilt, Jean St. Charles, Dick Horton, Marguerite Gaut, and Vince Gill. [1]
Chapel Hill is a town in northeastern Marshall County, Tennessee, United States. The town was named after Chapel Hill, North Carolina, by settlers from that area. The population was 1,717 as of the 2020 census.
Franklin is a city in and county seat of Williamson County, Tennessee, United States. About 21 miles (34 km) south of Nashville, it is one of the principal cities of the Nashville metropolitan area and Middle Tennessee. As of 2020, its population was 83,454. It is the 7th most populous city in Tennessee. Franklin is known to be the home of many celebrities, mostly country music stars.
Vincent Grant Gill is an American country music singer, songwriter and musician. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman of the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a vocalist and musician have placed him in high demand as a guest vocalist and a duet partner.
Cumberland University is a private university in Lebanon, Tennessee. It was founded in 1842. The oldest campus buildings were constructed between 1892 and 1896.
Fred Russell was an American sportswriter from Tennessee who served as sports editor for the Nashville Banner newspaper for 68 years (1930–1998). He was a member of the Heisman Trophy Committee, president of the Football Writers Association of America and a member of several sports-related Halls of Fame. He served for nearly 30 years as chairman of the College Football Hall of Fame Honors Court, a group responsible for selecting College Football Hall of Fame members. Known for his sense of humor and story-telling ability, Russell authored several books about sports and sports humor. Over his career he wrote over 12,000 sports columns under the title, "Sideline Sidelights".
Phillip Edward Fulmer Sr. is a former American football player, coach, and athletic director at the University of Tennessee. He served as head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers football team from 1992 to 2008, compiling a 152–52 record. He is best known for coaching the Volunteers in the first BCS National Championship Game in 1998, defeating the Florida State Seminoles. Fulmer was the Volunteers' 22nd head football coach.
Richard Paul Anderson is an American former professional football player who was a safety for the Miami Dolphins of the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons during the 1960s and 1970s. He played college football for the Colorado Buffaloes and was recognized as a consensus All-American. He was selected in third round of the 1968 NFL/AFL draft, and he played for his entire professional career for the Dolphins.
Franklin Road Academy (FRA) is a private co-educational Christian school for students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12 located in Oak Hill, Tennessee. The school was founded in 1971 and originally affiliated with the First Christian Church before it became a separate incorporated organization in 1982. FRA has been described as a segregation academy, like other schools established after a court ordered Nashville public schools to expand desegregation busing.
Interstate 65 (I-65) is part of the Interstate Highway System that runs 887.30 miles (1,427.97 km) north–south from Mobile, Alabama, to Gary, Indiana. In Tennessee, I-65 traverses the middle portion of the state, running from Ardmore at the Alabama border to the Kentucky border near Portland. The route serves the state capital and largest city of Nashville, along with many of its suburbs. Outside of urban areas, the Interstate bypasses most cities and towns that it serves, instead providing access via state and U.S. Highways. The Interstate passes through the Highland Rim and Nashville Basin physiographic regions of Tennessee, and is often used as the dividing line between the eastern and western portions of the former.
Henry Horton State Park is a state park located near Chapel Hill, Tennessee. It was constructed in the 1960's on the estate of the former Governor of Tennessee Henry Horton. The park offers various outdoor recreational activities.
The East Central Tigers are the athletic teams that represent East Central University, located in Ada, Oklahoma, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Tigers compete as members of the Great American Conference for all 11 varsity sports.
John Graham Vowell was an American football player for the Tennessee Volunteers, of the University of Tennessee. He was the school's first All-American. Vowell was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame for 2017.
Bradley Walker was a Nashville attorney who, in his youth, was found to be naturally proficient at virtually any sport he tried, including football, baseball, track, boxing, tennis and golf— in all these sports he either set records or won championships or awards.
Rogers Caldwell was an American businessman and banker from Tennessee. He was known as the "J. P. Morgan of the South." He was the founder and president of Caldwell and Company and its subsidiary, the Bank of Tennessee. He was the president of the Tennessee Hart-Parr Company, which sold tractors in the Southern United States, mechanizing agriculture, and the president of the Kentucky Rock and Asphalt company, which built infrastructure and roads in Tennessee. With his friend and business associate politician Luke Lea, he owned newspapers in Tennessee.
Katherine Rowena Graham was an organizational leader in women's amateur golf and a member of the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame. Her contribution to golf was her administrative and officiating capabilities more than her individual golfing skill. She was chairman of the United States Golf Association (USGA) Women's Committee 1987 and 1988, the highest volunteer position in women's golf. The committee conducts or supervises golf tournaments for women, mostly amateur events and selects the Curtis Cup members.
Sarah LeBrun Ingram is an American amateur golfer, a member of the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame and the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. She is a former All-American golfer at Duke University who became a three-time winner of the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur. Ingram represented the U.S. on the Curtis Cup team in 1992, 1994 and 1996. She is a member of the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame. In 1993, Golf Digest, Golfweek and Golf World named her either number one amateur or Amateur Player of the Year. At age 30, despite winning many titles, she made the decision not to turn pro. She gave up her golf career because she wanted to raise a family and also because of a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. After a 20 year interval of not playing the sport, in 2018 she agreed co-chair 118th U.S. Women's Amateur and was tapped to serve as (non-playing) captain of the 2020 U.S. Curtis Cup team. She began playing again and won the 2020 Tennessee Women's Senior Amateur, then won the 2021 Ladies National Golf Association Senior Championship.
Richard J. Horton is an American golf administrator who was inducted into the 2019 Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame. Horton served for 35 years as the executive director of both the Tennessee Golf Association (TGA) and the Tennessee Section PGA. He was one of the first fifteen full-time PGA Section executive directors in the U.S. and he gained national attention by bringing together golf's formerly competitive and often-contentious factions: professional golfers (PGA) and amateur golfers (TGA). He became executive director of both organizations and eventually was able to put all of the state's collective golf operations under one roof.
Toby Wilt is an American businessman and golfer. He is a member of the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame and the Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame. He was one of the founders of the Golf Club of Tennessee and was director the Tennessee Golf Foundation (TGF) for its first 19 years. In 2013, he was paired with Brandt Snedeker and the duo won the 2013 Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Golf Tournament. As of 2018, Wilt continued his enduring annual role as the "starter" on the first tee for Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club before an international television audience.
Willow Plunge was a privately-owned American swimming pool and recreational area in the middle Tennessee town of Franklin, near Nashville. The pool was in operation for over four decades during the mid 20th century. When it opened in 1924 it was the largest concrete swimming pool in the South and remained in operation until 1967. It featured two adjoining pools that were fed by a local spring. Sanitation was accomplished by replacing the pool water with fresh spring water on a regular schedule. The business was profitable, even during the Great Depression (1929–1939). In the 1930s it became one of the most popular and best equipped swimming pools in the United States according to the Tennessean. After 43 years in existence, the pool was closed in 1967 and a historical marker is all that remains.
Golf House Tennessee is the name given to an ante-bellum house in the suburbs of Nashville, Tennessee that serves as home of the non-profit "Tennessee Golf Foundation" and houses the offices all of the state's golf associations. The historic house is the focal point of a 15 acres (6.1 ha) sprawling complex that administers amateur golf, professional golf, women's golf, junior golf, turfgrass research, and the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame, among others.