Fifty years ago this spring, four special teenagers put Russellville High School on the state sports map by winning the Kentucky High Athletic Association state golf championship. It not only was Russellville’s first state championship in any sport but it came in a sport that had always been dominated by big-city, primarily private schools.
Friday night, the four starters—seniors Gerry Switzer and Tommy Threlkeld, junior Hal Freeman and sophomore Stewart Wheeler—and their coach, the late Ron Beckham, will be inducted into the Russellville Alumni Association Athletic Hall of Fame.
That will come between games of the second Clash of the Cats of the season with Logan County visiting Jim Young Gymnasium. The game at RHS always pays honor to long-time RHS Athletic Director Wayne Mullen and Principal Mickey Meguiar, who coached Panther basketball in the 1970s.
The state champion golfers have the distinction a half century later still to be the only RHS team to win an overall state championship. The other four state champion teams—1975 boys track and 1980, ’83 and ’90 football—all won Class A titles. Two straight boys basketball teams in 2000 and 2001 came close, but each lost in the Final Four at Rupp Arena.
The golf team was expected to be a contender as the season began. The undefeated Panthers played in the prestigious Louisville Invitational Tournament, finishing fifth in it during the early season/ As the late local golf historian Jim Lyne wrote, “This (state championship) was not some overnight fluke.”
All four had grown up on the Russellville Country Club golf course, and they had golf lineages. Wheeler’s dad Joe had won more RCC club championships than anyone else before Stewart passed him. The mothers of Threlkeld and Freeman, Lisle Threlkeld and Wilba Ruth Freeman, were among the club’s best female golfers. Most of the golfers had traveled repeatedly to Clarksville Country Club to take lessons from highly regarded golf pro Leon Butler.
They came from families who had sufficient income to allow their sons to practice golf most days rather than having to get a job. Instead, golf had become these guys’ vocations. Of the seven players on the team, three—Wheeler (Joe), Joe Gran Clark (Granville) and Buck Forcum (Jim Lyne)—were the sons of attorneys. Threlkeld’s dad, Dr. T.G. Threlkeld, was a physician. Switzer’s parents (Ron and Martha) owned and operated the legendary Tastee Treet drive-inrestaurant. Freeman’s parents (S.J. and Wilba Ruth) owned the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. Tommy Riley’s dad (Carroll) was co-owner of Riley-White Drug Store.
Buddy Linton, an excellent golfer himself, had built the team and worked with these boys from their youth. He had to give up coaching, however, when he became principal of the elementary school after the 1969 season.
Named as his replacement was a nice young teacher named Ron Beckham. He was a graduate of North Warren High School and WKU. The 27-year-old taught drivers’ education and p.e. His wife Lillian was the RHS chemistry teacher, and they had three young children, ages 5 and under. The Beckhams only stayed at RHS two years.
Coach Beckham told local sportswriter Tom Kirkpatrick, “Mostly I was (the golf team’s) driver, match arranger and chaperone.” He also did a good job of keeping volatile young players calm and convincing them not to let a disappointing shot or a bad break bother them on their next shot or hole.
The players had a lot of experience playing pressure-packed golf tournaments. Switzer was the first high school golfer to win the Russellville Country Club championship. Threlkeld and Freeman had won state youth championships while Wheeler had won a multi-state junior tournament.
The impressive balance among the starting four was a key. They averaged 37.7 strokes per nine holes on the season and 38.5 at state. During most nine-hole matches, all four of them shot sub-40 rounds. You never knew who would be medalist on which day.
For example, in the late season, Freeman shot a 35, Switzer 36, and Threlkeld and Wheeler 37 each against Park City. The next day, Switzer shot 36, Wheeler 37, Threlkeld 39 and Freeman 40 in beating Central City. Earlier in the season, Wheeler shot 34 against Scottsville while the other three had 35’s.
In the regional tournament at Park Mammoth, RHS beat second-place Scottsville by eight strokes. Switzer shot 71, Wheeler 76, Freeman 77 and Threlkeld 80.
Two days later at Glasgow, the Panthers romped to the SKY League championship. They shot 291, an eye-popping 26 strokes better than second-place Glasgow and 29 fewer than third-place Bowling Green.
The state tournament was played at Fort Knox. The Panthers led the 36-hole tournament with a 307 the first day. Switzer had shot 74, Wheeler 76, and Freeman and Threlkeld 77 each. Great balance!
On the second day, all four players shot sub-80 scores again, but there was no margin for error. The biggest moment came when the youngest player, Wheeler, landed in the bunker on his approach shot. Then uncharacteristically, he failed to get his first chip shot to stick on the green and the ball was still nowhere near the hole. But Wheeler hit the shot of the tournament, chipping to within 18 inches of the cup. His putt for bogey translated into a one-shot state championship win for the Panthers.
Russellville shot 310 on the second day and 617 for the tournament. Louisville Trinity finished second, just one stroke behind the Panthers. Louisville St. Xavier, which had won seven previous state championships, was fourth.
Switzer had a two-day total of 151, Wheeler 154, and Threlkeld and Freeman 156 each. In eight rounds, no one had shot an 80. Every stroke was important. In fact, in 16 rounds of nine holes, no one had recorded a 40.
Switzer and Wheeler played college golf well for WKU and UK, respectively. Freeman played for Florida State as a freshman and then transferred to Vanderbilt. Among the reserves, Riley played golf for UK and then played professionally on satellite tours. Wheeler appeared to be headed for a professional career before an automobile accident while he was in college damaged his vision. Freeman became a teaching pro and was working at a club in Michigan when he met his wife Jennifer.
Team members have been successful as adults. Wheeler and Clark became attorneys in partnership with their fathers. Threlkeld was a respected state leader in health care before his retirement. Freeman went into the family business and then started one of his own. Switzer had a good career in industrial offices and is retired from Logan Aluminum. Riley started a major business and sold it in a seven-figure deal. Rusty Page, who moved into a starting role after Forcum transferred to a private school, is a physician in Lexington.
Here’s a look at their golf careers:
Gerry Switzer was regional golf medalist and the state champions’ number one player and top scorer at state in his senior season in 1970, averaging 75.5 strokes per 18 holes at state. He also qualified for the state individual golf tournament. Switzer had become the youngest Russellville Country Club champion two years earlier at age 15. He later won the championship a second time and has been a regular in tournament championship flights ever since. He played golf four years for Western Kentucky University, usually as a starter. He graduated from WKU with a degree in accounting and worked in industry offices until retiring from Logan Aluminum. He has three sons—Adam, John and Scott.
Tom Threlkeld was a starter on the Panthers’ 1970 state championship team, consistently averaging in the 30’s per round. He had won the Jaycees’ state championship in 1969. He was also a star football player for RHS as a member of the 1966 state finalist team and a co-captain and fullback of the 1969 regional finalist team which ‘lost’ in a scoreless tie at Tompkinsville. Known to almost everyone except his mom as ‘Bull,’ Threlkeld was All-SKY, All-WKC and Honorable Mention All-State while playing for Coach Stumpy Baker. After graduating from the University of Kentucky in 1974, he went to work for the UK Organ Donor program and then was a leader of the Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA), which he helped found in 1987. He and his wife of 40 years Carolyn have a son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.
Hal Freeman was also a starter on the Panthers’ 1970 state championship team, consistently averaging in the 30’s per round. As a junior, he was runner-up for medalist in the WKC. He was state Junior PGA champion in the 13-14 age group. A talented young competitive swimmer, he later concentrated on golf and basketball. He was the starting center for Coach Wayne Mullen’s teams his last two years, despite standing at most 5’11”. In high school he was well-known as an actor, co-starring as Peter in The Diary of Ann Frank. He played golf for Florida State University before transferring to Vanderbilt. He became a golf instructor at Harder Hall Golf Camp in Florida where he had been a camper himself several years. He also became a golf teaching pro. He was an owner of the Russellville Coca-Cola Bottling Company and founded the Beverage Industry Recycling Program. Now retired, he and his wife Jennifer have two grown sons, Cole and Sam.
Stewart Wheeler was often medalist in matches for the state champion golf team. He averaged scoring 77 strokes per round in the state tournament. He also qualified for the state individual golf tournament. Just a sophomore at the time, he had already won the multi-state Junior TVGA, the South Central, and the SKY League championships. He had become the youngest champion of the Russellville Country Club. Later he passed his dad Joe as the winningest RCC champion, a title he won 13 times. He was a four-year starter for University of Kentucky golf, tying for the number one seed as a freshman and earning UKIT medalist in 1973, playing with and against future pros. As an adult, he has been TVGA champion and is a three-time senior champion of the prestigious Olde Stone course in Bowling Green. A Russellville attorney, he and his wife Nova are parents of five children—Brian, Hamilton, Tristan and Allison Wheeler and Ethan Wills.
A reception for the inductees, their presenters and families will be held during the early part of the girls game, and induction ceremonies will be conducted between games with John Brett Reynolds doing the announcing.