Jimmy Vickers, who won the 1952 NCAA individual title while at the University of Oklahoma, died Monday at the age of 91. Vickers, who lived in Indian Wells, California, made many contributions to golf throughout his life as both a player and a member of various advisory boards.
Vickers was born in Wichita, Kansas, on Dec. 10, 1928, and grew up among four brothers and three sisters. Golf was the family game. Vickers had to get past LSU’s Eddie Merrins, who would eventually become famous as the head coach at UCLA (even guiding the Bruins to the NCAA team title in 1988), to win the NCAA title in 1952.
Vickers sank a long putt on the final hole at Purdue Golf Course in West Lafayette, Indiana, to defeat Merrins.
We lost a great man today and one of the best Sooners, Mr. Jimmy Vickers, 1952 NCAA Golf Champ. Jimmy knew how to entertain a room as well as anyone and was loved by all. We will miss him dearly, Rest In Peace Jimmy @OU_MGolf pic.twitter.com/Pnleuj1CO2
— ryan hybl (@OUgolfHYBL) January 7, 2020
Vickers remained an amateur throughout his life. He won the 1950 Western Amateur and was runner-up to Joe Conrad in the Trans-Mississippi Golf Championship in 1953. He won the Colorado Amateur in back-to-back years (1948 and 1950), as well as the 1964 Kansas Amateur.
For all this, Vickers was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Kansas Golf Hall of Fame in 1993.
“I relish the amateur game,” Vickers told NCAA.org in May 2013, “Everything I ever wanted to do in the game of golf, I was able to do.”
Vickers served on the board for the Trans-Mississippi Golf Association, Western Golf Association and the Evans Scholarship Board while also continuing to support the Oklahoma golf program throughout his life.