Oley Humphreys - A Look at the Man
When I told Caroline Humphreys that I wanted to put together a chronicle of the history of the Oley Humphreys Open, she hesitated. Only because so few people today know who Oley was. I told her that is exactly why I wanted to write about him and our tournament. So I asked her for a few tidbits about Oley’s golf past. She shared the following:
• As a young man he was actually offered a scholarship to play golf at Yale University.
• When he lived in Tennessee, he played in a golf tournament in Knoxville. After it was over, he was so mad about the way he played, he decided to walk home as punishment. And he did, back to the town of Etawah, 50 miles away!
• Oley practiced golf at the driving range incessantly, mostly after he got off work until dark.
• He also played by himself a lot, never using a golf cart. He always walked the course, carrying his clubs on a pull cart. And Caroline adds, “Consequently, he had the best looking legs around!” It was not until after he retired that some of the courses insisted he utilize a golf cart.
• Caroline also mentioned that when their daughter Nancy was 2 years old, she remembers walking the entire golf course while pushing Nancy in a stroller for the entire 18 holes.
• Oley started Nancy playing golf at the age of ten. As a youth she starred on the Eau Gallie High School Golf team.
• Caroline recalls the it was a common thing for Oley to play 18 holes of golf in the morning and think that he hadn’t done anything. So, in the afternoon, he played 18 more! But Caroline added, “ Whenever I took him shopping with me and we would be walking in the mall he would complain that all this walking was killing him!”
After I collected some of these tidbits, I asked her if she could find anything of his belongings. Well, this was 17 years after his passing, and she had given everything away. She looked one last time and came across a scrapbook that Nancy had been keeping. I opened it up and started reading the articles and was totally overwhelmed. I came across dozens of newspaper articles Oley had cut out and saved. This was a snapshot of his golf life starting with his youth. The scrapbook was filled with articles about the events that Oley participated in. I love and appreciate sports history and, in my view, Oley deserves to belong to a piece of sports history. Why do I say that? Well, for starters, as a youth in Etawah, Tennessee, he won the city golf championship! This was a par 64 course and he finished with scores of 64-67-65-59. He was only 15 years old! He won the tournament three consecutive years! These articles were more than 65 years old and were faded and worn. Some of the pictures he was in showed him in apparel that was identical to what Payne Stewart wears on courses today. Allow me to share some of what the newspaper writers wrote in his day about him:
• As a young man he was actually offered a scholarship to play golf at Yale University.
• When he lived in Tennessee, he played in a golf tournament in Knoxville. After it was over, he was so mad about the way he played, he decided to walk home as punishment. And he did, back to the town of Etawah, 50 miles away!
• Oley practiced golf at the driving range incessantly, mostly after he got off work until dark.
• He also played by himself a lot, never using a golf cart. He always walked the course, carrying his clubs on a pull cart. And Caroline adds, “Consequently, he had the best looking legs around!” It was not until after he retired that some of the courses insisted he utilize a golf cart.
• Caroline also mentioned that when their daughter Nancy was 2 years old, she remembers walking the entire golf course while pushing Nancy in a stroller for the entire 18 holes.
• Oley started Nancy playing golf at the age of ten. As a youth she starred on the Eau Gallie High School Golf team.
• Caroline recalls the it was a common thing for Oley to play 18 holes of golf in the morning and think that he hadn’t done anything. So, in the afternoon, he played 18 more! But Caroline added, “ Whenever I took him shopping with me and we would be walking in the mall he would complain that all this walking was killing him!”
After I collected some of these tidbits, I asked her if she could find anything of his belongings. Well, this was 17 years after his passing, and she had given everything away. She looked one last time and came across a scrapbook that Nancy had been keeping. I opened it up and started reading the articles and was totally overwhelmed. I came across dozens of newspaper articles Oley had cut out and saved. This was a snapshot of his golf life starting with his youth. The scrapbook was filled with articles about the events that Oley participated in. I love and appreciate sports history and, in my view, Oley deserves to belong to a piece of sports history. Why do I say that? Well, for starters, as a youth in Etawah, Tennessee, he won the city golf championship! This was a par 64 course and he finished with scores of 64-67-65-59. He was only 15 years old! He won the tournament three consecutive years! These articles were more than 65 years old and were faded and worn. Some of the pictures he was in showed him in apparel that was identical to what Payne Stewart wears on courses today. Allow me to share some of what the newspaper writers wrote in his day about him:
“Out of all the golfers in the world, Oley Humphreys of Etawah should take something of a prize. He is so anxious to play in tournaments that he hitchhikes half of the time in order to go places and swing clubs. He worried for weeks about the Louisville trip, 316 miles away. After he did get there and enter the tournament, they disqualified him for cleaning his ball on the green.”
“Oley Humphreys, brilliant young golfer from Etawah, yesterday turned in a 71 at the municipal course in the qualifying round of the Artisto Tournament, sponsored by Sears and Roebuck.”
“An Etawah High schoolboy, Oley Humphreys has for three consecutive years won the Etawah City Golf Championship. Young Humphreys is well known in golf circles throughout Tennessee and Kentucky.”
“Foremost in the aggregation are Oley Humphreys and Lloyd Foree, both ex-stars of a picked Springbrook Golf and Country Club team. These two boys are rated among the best intercollegiate golfers in the state and great things are expected of them by their admirers. Humphreys, kingpin of the crew, has been a title-contender in nearly every tournament held in east Tennessee for the last four or five years. Small and wiry as he is, Humphreys hits a terrific wood shot and has an accurate short game that has carried him through many exciting matches.”
“Oley Humphreys, brilliant young golfer from Etawah, yesterday turned in a 71 at the municipal course in the qualifying round of the Artisto Tournament, sponsored by Sears and Roebuck.”
“An Etawah High schoolboy, Oley Humphreys has for three consecutive years won the Etawah City Golf Championship. Young Humphreys is well known in golf circles throughout Tennessee and Kentucky.”
“Foremost in the aggregation are Oley Humphreys and Lloyd Foree, both ex-stars of a picked Springbrook Golf and Country Club team. These two boys are rated among the best intercollegiate golfers in the state and great things are expected of them by their admirers. Humphreys, kingpin of the crew, has been a title-contender in nearly every tournament held in east Tennessee for the last four or five years. Small and wiry as he is, Humphreys hits a terrific wood shot and has an accurate short game that has carried him through many exciting matches.”
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Oley graduated high school in 1930. He went to Carson Newman College and Tennessee Wesleyan College where he played on their golf teams. After serving four years in World War II, he met Caroline in 1946 and they married in 1947. He did not play golf those years in the service, but they moved to Florida in Eau Gallie and he started playing golf again. Oley was instrumental in the organization for local tournaments in Brevard. Other articles indicate he had at least four holes-in-one in his career with two others taken away due to unusual circumstances.
After reading these articles, I came away with a unique perspective of Oley Humphreys. I found myself wishing I had associated with him on the golf course because he could have transformed my game into a successful one. I also have an appreciation for someone of his level of sports attainment, as I have tried to be the best at other sports which I have participated in. One thing is for sure, we could not have named our tournament in honor of a more worthy and outstanding golfer than Oley Humphreys. - Gary Tuggle |