USGA President Fred Perpall adds name to list of those who broke down barriers for good of the game

Get to know a little more about some of the most notable pioneers in the game.

Founded in 1894, the United States Golf Association is woven into the fabric of the game here in America. It’s rare when a nearly 130-year-old organization makes history, but that’s precisely what the USGA did last week with the election of its new president.

Fred Perpall will serve a three-year term as the 67th president of the governing body, where he will lead the USGA Executive Committee, an all-volunteer, policy-making board that provides strategic direction and oversight to the association’s full-time staff. The significance? He’s the first Black man to hold the position.

After his nomination and subsequent election, Perpall is the latest to add his name to a long list of individuals who have broken down barriers for the good of the game through the USGA. From the figures preserved through the collections at the USGA Golf Museum and Library to modern day champions, celebrate Black History Month and get to know a little more about some of the most notable pioneers in the game.

Tennessee baseball history: Head coach Bill Wright

Tennessee baseball history: Head coach Bill Wright

Tennessee first fielded a baseball team in 1897 and Vols Wire takes a look at some of the program’s most successful coaches.

This installment will look back at the career of Bill Wright.

Wright was the Volunteers’ head coach for 19 years and served in that capacity between 1963-81.

Wright played both basketball and baseball at Tennessee. He later played for Duke while serving in the military in North Carolina.

A graduate of old Knoxville High School, Wright remains the program’s longest tenured head coach. At Tennessee, he compiled a head coaching record of 408-308-2.

Before becoming UT’s head baseball coach, Wright served in the same capacity at Knoxville’s West High School. He coached both the Rebels’ baseball and basketball teams.

Bill Wright, Knoxville News-Sentinel, February 23, 1971

Wright returned to Tennessee in 1960 where he was hired by Bowden Wyatt to become UT’s first full-time academic advisor for athletes.

Wright passed away in 2011 at the age of 87.

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Remembering Bill Wright, the first Black player to win a USGA Championship

William Wright, the first Black player to win any of the championships contested by the U.S. Golf Association, died on Feb. 19. He was 84.

William Wright, the first Black player to win any of the championships contested by the U.S. Golf Association, died on Feb. 19. He was 84.

In 1959, at a time when integration was in its infancy and pre-civil-rights movement, Wright, who went by Bill, beat Frank Campbell, 3 and 2, in the 36-hole final of the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship at Wellshire Golf Course in Denver.

Then a 23-year-old senior at Western Washington University, Wright barely qualified for match play at Wellshire Golf Course in Denver, shooting 149 to make it by a stroke. Wright never trailed in any match that week. Don Essig III, the 1957 champion, put up the toughest fight. He lipped out an eagle putt on the 36th hole of their semifinal match and lost, 1 up.

“I never played a match against anyone who putted as well as Bill did,” Essig said in 2009 of Wright, who had 23 one-putt greens.

As soon as Wright entered the clubhouse, smiling victoriously, a server said a man was holding on the telephone for him. Wright put down his trophy and picked up the phone.

“How does it feel to be the first Negro to win a USGA championship?” a reporter from Wright’s hometown of Seattle asked.

Wright slammed the phone down in disgust.

“It shocked me,” he recalled to Golfweek. “Being the first of my race to win, it never crossed my mind.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzuqx2fvr_8&feature=emb_title

Wright endured his share of racial intolerance in golf. He faced obstacles such as joining a men’s club in Seattle so he could establish a handicap. Another time, he was kicked out of the Seattle City Amateur without explanation after shooting 68. Being the only Black player in the field, Wright knew why he wasn’t welcome.

“He felt so thrilled to be the best golfer that day, not the best Black golfer,” said Wright’s wife Ceta, of his historic victory in Denver in an interview with the Seattle Times. “And, of course, afterward he realized that he was a barrier breaker and that was important to him. It was important to everyone, really, and especially in the Black community.”

Born in Kansas City, Mo., on April 4, 1936, Wright became serious about golf in high school. He hit balls and shagged them at Seattle’s Jefferson Park, the same public course where Fred Couples learned to play. In 2009, the two met and shared a chuckle when they realized the same head pro chased them off the course back in the days when they jumped the fence.

Wright was the individual medalist at the 1960 NAIA championship, and made one more serious run at the Publinx title, losing in the semifinals in 1961, but he got over the defeat quickly.

“Had I won, I would’ve missed my wedding in Chicago the next day,” Wright said.

He and Ceta, a retired schoolteacher, were married for more than 50 years. Wright turned pro in the early 1960s but didn’t have the financial backing to play the PGA Tour full time. So, he taught school in the Watts district of Los Angeles, including during the race riots of 1965.

Wright played the Tour intermittently in the 1960s. In search of a steady paycheck, he managed several auto dealerships in Southern California. He continued to compete and played in five U.S. Senior Opens, including the 1983 event at Cherry Hills CC in Englewood, Colo.

Wright visited the USGA headquarters in 2012 for a symposium on Black players in the game, and became emotional seeing his name engraved on the James Standish Trophy, which was awarded to the champion of the APL, in the USGA Golf Museum’s Hall of Champions.

In January 2017, Wright suffered a stroke, which took away his ability to speak, and he was bedridden the rest of his life, his wife said. He died in Los Angeles, where he continued to teach golf in his later years at The Lakes at El Segundo Golf Club, a nine-hole executive course and practice range near Los Angeles International Airport. When class wasn’t in session, Wright took pride in maintaining his game and still hit four “big tubs” of balls daily.

Said Wright: “It keeps me young.”

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