During my days as a student at Arkansas State (approximately midway through the Silurian Period), the A-State men’s golf team was housed in Delta Hall, where I befriended them. A relationship with me held value because I owned a car and the majority of A-State golfers were Canadians far from home. We’d pile into me and my brother’s 1973 Monte Carlo for hedonistic trips to The Kingsway or Roy’s or, when we felt ambitious, Tunica. We never had much beer money. We never had any gas money. We talked like royalty, though.

If my friends were talented golfers, I didn’t know. We concerned ourselves with talking to girls (which happened rarely and the storylines generally concluded with rejection), drinking Coors and re-watching a worn VHS copy of the bull-riding classic “8 Seconds.” While the group was largely Canucks, the team also featured a wild-eyed Texan, a cagey South African and an Englishman – the latter would host afternoon teas in the dorm hall communal shower, the spouts turned to their hottest to create a kind of redneck steam room.

At that time, sports was a bit of a niche hobby at Arkansas State. The football program had just entered what we know call FBS, and basketball was the only sport that drew much of an audience. The golf team was a motley crew, mostly ungoverned and habitually rowdy. It was through them I became acquainted with Mickey’s Big Mouths. It must be noted, with pleasure, that two of these legendary players have been inducted in the Arkansas State Hall of Honor.

Fast forward thirty years and the Red Wolves Men’s Golf team is making its first trip to the NCAA Division I Golf Championships. Per A-State men’s golf tradition, the team is an international soup from Sweden, England, Texas, Germany and Australia (plus a Jonesboro native for authenticity). The squad’s 24-under posted at the regional in Arizona set a program record, with the team finishing ahead of blue-blooded dorks like West Virginia, Alabama and Clemson. Head coach Mike Hagen has placed the program among the game’s elite, and golf is now a premiere sport at Arkansas State.

The NCAA Championship, hosted by Texas, will be held May 29-June 3 at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California. I know my friends from our Delta Hall Days will be devoting all of its beer-generated positive waves to the program’s success.

IMAGE: Mark Taylor, Arkansas State