National Minority Junior Golf Scholarship Association

Black Enterprise, Sept, 1996 by Bobby Clay

It was one of those moments that generally goes unrecorded in the annals of history. Three men breaking bread in a nondescript Miami restaurant, taking a welcome break from the day-to-day demands of their existence, yet each very aware that there is still much in life that they hope to accomplish. They share many a common bond, being black men as they are, but nothing will unify them faster this night than a discussion over dinner about the plight of America's black youth.

For the past 14 years, one of the men has steadfastly given his heart and soul to the task of helping complete and utter strangers. His has been a one-man show and he has worked tirelessly and without pay--"out of the love my heart" he is prone to saying--for the advancement of blacks in, of all things, the game of golf.

In 1995 Bill Dickey raised $108,000 through his National Minority Junior Golf Scholarship Association (NMJGSA) and was able to provide $72,800 in financial aid to 55 needy college students. All told, Dickey estimates that by the end of 1996, the NMJGSA will have given out over $400,000 to 286 applicants--the lone criterion for scholarship consideration being that a youngster must have played golf at some level.

These are among the accomplishments which inspired organizers of the Black Enterprise/Pepsi Golf & Tennis Challenge to designate the NMJGSA as one of the two primary charities to benefit from the tournament, now in its third year.

But Dickey isn't exactly a spring chicken anymore. He turned 68 last year, and the two men with him on this particular night know that there is absolutely no one prepared to follow in his footsteps. One of the other men is no stranger to the predicament. For the past four years, John F. Merchant has been organizing golf symposiums, weeklong think tanks, if you will, designed to create a free interchange of ideas between the movers and shakers of the industry. In the wake of the uproar at Birmingham's Shoal Creek Country Club in 1990, it was Merchant who became the first black man to sit on the executive committee of the United States Golf Association (USGA).

On this day, however, history may well remember Leroy Richie as the most important of the threesome. For it was Richie, General Counsel of the USGA and Vice President/General Counsel for Automotive Legal Affairs at the Chrysler Corp., who suggested on this night that perhaps Dickey and Merchant should consolidate their efforts. Dickey and Merchant then quietly went about the business of getting the 501C3 organization on its feet, and this June, after a year of fundraising, the National Minority Golf Foundation began conducting business with Merchant as president and CEO and Dickey as chairman.

"This organization was formed to help involve more blacks and minorities in junior golf, college golf, employment opportunities and business opportunities," says Richie. "One of the first things we'll do is catalog minority junior golf programs that presently exist so that the different programs can share information. We will also do some funding of inner city junior programs."

Merchant says the organization also will make the NMJGSA a priority. "One of the things we'll be able to do is staff the Dickey program and have someone learn from the carry on what he's been about," says Merchant. "This man has been doing this for 14 years. Most of us make speeches and half the time blame `whitey' for everything. This man just went out and did it. He is to black golf, in my opinion, what Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus were to white golf."

Although Dickey relies on contributions from Black Enterprise/Pepsi Challenge and other sources of corporate funding, his main fundraiser is the annual East/West Golf Classic. The popular 54-hole tournament is held in Phoenix each January and pits the best amateur golfers in the West against those from the East. Last year 280 golfers teed off in the event, enabling Dickey to raise a record $140,000. That's a huge jump from the $1,500 in proceeds from the inaugural tournament.

"I just knew this was something I wanted to do," says Dickey, who retired from the real estate and insurance business in 1982. "More needs to be done to get youngsters involved in the game."

Richie couldn't agree more and says that the National Minority Golf Foundation is an idea whose time has come. "What some people fail to realize is that golf teaches discipline, respect for others, self respect and honor," he says. "These are all qualities that we want our kids to learn. And if we can teach this in the context of a sport, then that's great."