Courtesy of Alabama State Athletics
TOLEDO, Ohio | Alabama State University, an HBCU in Montgomery, Alabama will see Assistant Men’s and Women’s Assistant Golf Coach Robert Clark inducted into the African American Sports Legends Hall of Fame at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 15th in Toledo, Ohio.
“I am so happy for Coach Clark and his family in the recognition of his life-long excellence in sports. Congratulations!” Head Golf Coach Quincy Heard stated.
Clark has been with the Hornets and Lady Hornets HBCU golf program since 2011. The Lady Hornets have won the SWAC Conference Championship in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2021, and 2024 and the men have won SWAC Championships in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.
Clark’s golf career started in 1965, working up to being accepted as a Pro Golf Association of America apprentice in 1993, under the tutelage of PGA Professional Byron Wood. He was elected as a member of the PGA of America in 1993, becoming the first African American PGA Professional in the state of Oregon. Now he’s a member of the African American Sports Legends Hall of Fame.
After just one year of being a professional, Clark founded the Portland Youth Golf Association (PYGA); a PGA-recognized golf school. This was a golf school aimed to give the children of Portland a chance to live out their golfing dreams.
PYGA teaches four principles: Life Skills, Character Development, Academic Success, and GOLF. For the next 17 years, the volunteer instructors, teachers, and I serviced the youth of Portland. His professional peers in the Pacific Northwest Section PGA voted him the JUNIOR GOLF LEADER OF THE YEAR from 2000-2005. He also mentored the second African American PGA Professional Oregon and current Alabama State Head Golf Coach, Quincy Heard.
Clark graduated from Central Catholic High School in Toledo, Ohio, and on to attend the University of Toledo for two years before transferring to HBCU Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, earning his B.S. degree in education degree.
During multiple careers, he taught 6th grade in Toledo for a couple of years, worked at A&P Food Corporation; the largest food chain in the world at the time, General Electric Corporation, Owens Corning Fiberglass, Ruben H. Donnelly Adverting Corporation, The Principal /Financial Group and Horace Mann Insurance Corporation.
Robert Clark started playing golf in 1965, and after four years passed, his scores were good enough that he felt to become a professional golfer.
Established in 2004, The African American Legacy Project of Northwest Ohio is a 501(c)3 organization that pledges to stimulate intellectual, socioeconomic, and participatory growth in communities wherein African Americans reside.