Harry Smith Retired To The Caddyshack

Harry Smith, retired

Harry Smith went to elementary school just a mile from where I live. He learned how to golf at the site of a previous Dairy restaurant that is even closer.

He went on to Reading for high school and of course good ole PSU to study more lucrative pursuits than what I did. This allowed him to succeed at finance and family and retire early. 

Of course, this meant more golf. Just not the golf we expected. He found himself in the Caddyshack for his son Holden in the 2023 Amateur Disc Golf World Championships. 

www.pdga.com

Let's hope he is a bit better than Kramer's caddy who cost him and Jackie Chiles millions by advising "Go for the green."

Holden was in a tie for the lead after Round 1,and is currently 3rd after 2 rounds. Canadian smoke and torrential rains have wreaked havoc of the schedule. Let's hope he can hang on and find a few more birdies with the help of Harry. 

Oops! I was following a different Smith. Holden finished at +5 on the other course. Still great, hanging with the world's best. (But - 7 in the 4th Round!) 

Birdie from a treacherous lie.

 

A Group Officer* Was There! 2022 B1G Ten XC Championships in Ann Arbor

 The Women placed 6th (of 14) at the event and the Men placed 9th (of 12).

Men:

Women:

 Kileigh Kane led the race past 1 mile and eventually finished 20th as the #1 Lady Lion.

 

And apparently, the Big Ten and Michigan authorities are OK with drones.  As opposed to how I was treated by the various authorities at PSU .  My criminal acts captured the only drone video of a Penn State XC meet a few years ago when Syracuse ruled the Blue/White course.

*All photos by Harry Smith.

2016 Spiked Shoe Invitational

Whine And Dine

 First up, the announcement by Clark Haley of the one-time rules change for the 20th Annual Coach Harry Groves Golf Tourney brought howls of protest from the "real" golfers among us.  The cacophony from the rabble rose to such levels at our reception, that I was worried there would be intervention by the authorities.

 

Announced as a 2 club maximum for each golfer in the foursome, it was soon amended to 3 clubs per golfer.  Still, chaos reigned.  Clark held firm at the 3 club maximum and not the "3 clubs and a putter" demand from the influential group of Fuller Brothers!

The anonymously sponsored open bar added to the general good cheer throughout the night.  The night concluded with a putting contest win by Mike McCahill.

The dawning of a new day led eventually to the start of the Coach Groves Golf Tourney.  While this was happening, an intrepid group continued the traditional climb of Mt. Nittany (started by Spouse the Better) followed by a trip to the Creamery.

Rain held off until well into the outing, and the torrential rains only lasted for one hole, followed by summer-like heat and humidity.  We always see a myriad of conditions on the Mountain View Country Club, although conditions were excellent overall.  The brief shower came over Skimont (or whatever it is called now), as if Bear Meadows knew that PSU distance runners were there and just wanted to say hello.

The 3-club maximum for each golfer led to strange shots throughout the day.  Try putting with a 5-iron! My "bag" consisted of a 5-iron, a pitching wedge and a putter; my 3 best clubs.  None of which I can still hit on a consistent basis.  I did, however, have a number of shots that counted and saved par a few times for our foursome.  The new rules added a fun element, and brought a new strategy and synergy to each foursome.  This format brought everyone closer together, which has always been one of Clark's stated goals.  

The longest drive was recorded by philanthropist Ken Brinker.  The longest putt of more than 22 feet was recorded by co-director Harry Smith (garnering the Smith family another year with the purloined Golden Putter).  Tim Brown placed his shot closest to the pin on the ninth hole.  The furthest traveled alum was Brian Boyer, who brought his family from Vienna Austria!

Overall, scores turned out better than anyone had predicted and there was a tie between 2 foursomes at one-under par for the victory.  The rules for ties were eventually thrown out and it was decided using a complex formula involving Elon Musk's new Twitter algorithm and the volume of whining from each group.

The foursome of Paul Mundy, Harry Smith, Gary Black and  Tom Shiffer were given the nod and will have their names engraved on the cherished "Cup".

The Awards Dinner was held at The Hyatt Place Hotel, and entailed a very good spread of grilled chicken, flank steak, baked potato bar and all kinds of other things.  The chocolate cake was especially enjoyed by Tourney Winner Paul Mundy. We had an inspirational speech from former XC and Track and
Field captain Che Arosemena, now attending the Army War College in Carlisle.

Throw-Up Thursday

 15 years ago...

Virtual Penn Relays And A Big Announcement

Got this from Matt Groves and Harry Smith via the internetty thingie.  Check it out.  You can join the team or just watch.  That's almost exactly like real life!  Be careful if you sit in the 2nd turn (And THERE ARE ONLY 2 TURNS ON A TRACK, EVERONE) stands, that's where the virtual Jamaicans and Virtual Fraternities sit!

Virtual Penn Relays

Participation Form Here

And in news that really isn't news, the 19th Annual Track/XC Reunion and Coach Groves Golf Tourney have been canceled.  I know everyone was assuming that anyway, but Clark Haley, with advice from the other idiot Officers of the group officially pulled the plug this weekend.

 

(Maybe) The Definitive Berwick Marathon List

Following Brian Boyer's submission of the all-time best performances by Nittany Lions at the Berwick Marathon "Run For The Diamonds", several astute group members pointed out some errors. Imagine that, this blog getting a few facts wrong!  There's a first time for everything.

One of those "slighted" by the post submitted an updated listing, citing animosity between his high school and Brian's suburban Reading High School.  Kinda sorta like a Hillbilly Feud or something.

So here is the new listing, which I again amended by highlighting those who took home a diamond.

 Here's a video of one of the battles in that high school feud featuring Brian Boyer and Harry Smith. They fought after the prettiest Lehigh Valley girls back in the day.

Putting On The Alumni Reunion And Golf Tourney Is Hard Work

Some of you may not know how much work that Clark Haley and Harry Smith put in nearly all year in preparation for our annual get-togethers.  For nineteen years, Clark has handled chores beyond what you would expect, and Harry came on board maybe 15 years ago to take some strain off the Group's Founder.  Many people contribute, and all contributions are very much appreciated.

I do very little work on these things, as my job is to "herd the cats" toward the event with my ramblings on this blog, which has met with some success in its 11 years.  My hope is that this trend continues.  Any help you offer is quite welcome.

Todd Leggett, Greg Fredericks and John Ziegler watch Harry Smith labor to inflate a cactus for the Alumni Triathlon. Photo by Ken Brinker.

The First Annual Alumni Triathlon consisted of:

• The Cactus Throw
• The Frisbee Discus Throw
• and The Golf Ball Roll

Clark Haley won both the Frisbee Throw and the Golf Ball Roll to take the Crown. John "Ziggy" Ziegler won the Cactus Throw.

The Triathlon Trophy prior to Friday night surgery.

Restored trophy.

Odie the Shih Tzu on his first trip to Penn State.

Keeper Of The Cup Shows All Of Us How Special We Are!

Keeper of the Cup Harry Smith sent along this study showing how many athletes make it to participation in college.  And it points out just how special all of us are, no matter how weak our PRs are!

The percentage of male high school tracksters making it to Division I college track and field is 1.7%, while footballers achieve Division I status at 2.4%.  Cross Country runners slightly surpass the track participation level at 1.9%, but still trail footballers!  Who knew how special all of us were?

Females have a higher participation rate than males in College Division I with 2.3% in Track and Field and 2.6% in Cross Country. 

More "Foursomes" From The Golf Tourney

There were 7 foursomes in the recent Coach Groves Golf Tournament vying for a spot on The Cup.

4th Place: Katie Barrett, Mark Fuller '13, Mark Althouse.'81

Katie Barrett was the winner of the Golden Putter with her 17 foot putt on the 18th green, just edging out my 12 foot effort!

2nd: Charlie Hull '69, Steve Brown '90, Steve Brown Jr., Tom Brown.

3rd: Mike McClelland '16, Harry Smith '84, Brian Leap '16.

7th: Mary Dell, Kevin Fuller '10, Todd Leggett '84, Tom Shiffer '87.

5th: Me, Steve Balkey '88, Mike McCahill '83, John Ziegler '80.

1st: Bill Malchano 85, Doug Kent '80, Ken Brinker '69.

 In addition to winning his second tourney, Doug Kent also won the Longest Drive and the Closest to the Pin on Hole #2 (4 foot, 1 inch)!

And how did we miss a photo of:  6th: Clark Haley '85, Brian Fuller '09, Emily Dubs and John McGraw '05???   Do any of you have a photo of this foursome?

Just A Few Answers And Team Pics (From Coach Groves!) For Ricky Garcia

The word went out yesterday for some remembrances for Ricky Garcia's time at PSU.  And some have already come in!  Thanks, keep them coming....

• Ricky Garcia was an awesome competitor and a great teammate. Always smiling and gregarious, even when he was barking at a certain coach!!! -Larry Mangan.

• Recalling 1982 TAC US 15km road championship...hosted in State College...Jeff Adkins wins..I have race of my life running with Ricky Garcia for first 8 miles.. then he drops me and puts at least 30 seconds on me in last mile to finish in top 5 in the United States championship. But he's a miler/ steeplechaser... what range!!  -Harry Smith.

• My most vivid memory of Ricky is when he and Ted (Lyon), both former teammates at TC Williams HS and having more than a little history with each other, were having another one of their epic spats on a run. We were near the Creamery on a run across campus and Ted kept egging on Ricky and finally said something that really pissed off Ricky. I don't know what it was. Ricky tackled Ted and somehow a rock materialized in Ricky's hand although I didn't see where the rock came from. Ricky yelled that he was going to bash Ted's head in and he might have done exactly that if we hadn't pulled Ricky off him. We kept them away from each other til they calmed down. To this day, I can't be certain Ted and Ricky weren't just trolling us all, but if it was an act, it was a damn good one by both of them. Although this episode was full of violence and the threat of worse violence, it was not hard at all for a bunch of college boys to find the whole thing pretty hilarious too. Definitely memorable and I made a mental note to avoid making Ricky mad ! I remain hopeful that Ricky will regain his memories. Those were some of the best times of our lives, and I pray that some of these stories may help Ricky in some way. Hang in there Ricky and stay upbeat !!  -Mark Haywood.

• Don't make Ricky mad. Ricky is one of my best friends. He actually wasn't the only person I pissed off. Great athlete. He probably could have had a college scholarship in a few sports. Intense competitor and we all know the really good ones have a bit of a mean side. I know he's suffering and Read his FB posts everyday. He is dealing with pain that would put most men on the floor - but remember he ran the steeplechase! We all love you Ricky!!  -Ted Lyon.
  

And Greg Fredericks has chimed in with links to team photos from all the Coach Groves' years! Check out 1980,1981 and 1982 XC for Ricky and all of his teammates. CoorespondingTrack years.

Coach Groves Penn State XC Teams

Coach Groves Penn State Track Teams

Our Members Flood Into Indianapolis

Today marks the first time PSU is represented in the Big Ten Football Championship Game in Indianapolis, and our Group will be well represented there.

Included in the fans urging on a Nittany Lion victory will include Vivian Riddick, Larry Mangan, Paul Souza, Don Skerpon and Harry Smith.  Any others?

I am happy to hear of the enthusiasm for the team, even though I will probably nod off during the first quarter of action.  I will await more photos from the middle of the country!

Larry Mangan and Paul Souza BEFORE the tailgate!

1982 Atlantic Ten Cross Country Champions

Keeper of The Cup Harry Smith brings us this great pic of the 1982 Atlantic Ten Cross Country Champions from Belmont Plateau.

L to R bottom row:

Barry Enright, Jeff Adkins, Ricky Garcia, Clark Haley, Paul Mackley, John Evans, Harry Smith

Top Row L - R:
Rob Whiteside, Mark Overheim, (A-10 Commissioner?), Coach Harry Groves, Nick Kello, Gary Black, Zeb Stewart

My favorite parts of this:

1. Zeb and Harry S. rocking the mustache.
2. Rob rocking the old school gray t-shirt.
3. My first ever mention of Barry Enright on the blog!
4. Gary distracted as always.
5. Nick weighing more than he does NOW!
6. Clark with a hat reminiscent of Bushwood CC. (Looks good on him, though.)
7. Coach Groves with the Dirty Harry sunglasses.

A Colonial Coach I Almost Forgot

Thanks to Keeper of the Cup Harry Smith for alerting me to the CAA Conference Championships of both the Men and Women of William and Mary.  Coach Stephen Walsh coaches both teams, following the tradition set by Coach Groves.

For those that are interested, William and Mary was ranked 12th in an all-time ranking of Cross Country college programs several years ago, one ahead of Penn State.

Coach Walsh, Photobombing.

A very large Trophy.

I wonder if Zebulon Vance Stewart III is still banned from Colonial Williamsburg?

I Hate The Pagoda

Our Keeper of the Cup Harry Smith will not be joining us this year at the Golf Outing due to his coaching duties. Volleyball coaching duties!  He reports that The Harry Groves Memorial Cup will be updated with the new engraving and dropped off in time for our tourney, however.

And he dug into his dusty archives to come up with a way of tormenting me.  Turns out we ran in the same race back in 1978, with 3 other teammates.  I'd rather forget the Pagoda 1/2 Marathon Classic in Reading PA.

The Pagoda sits on top of the mountain above Reading, so probably all of you have seen it without the shivers I get every time.  The race started in downtown Reading and the Pagoda was the turn-around spot.  In other words, the first half is all uphill and the second half is all downhill.  I was a pretty good uphill runner, but not very good at running downhill.  That meant a splendid turn-around place every year and then watch as people passed me the whole second half.

Turns out that 5 PSU runners were there, including the winner, "Noisy" Jim Clelland!

1. (1)    Jim Clelland     1:07:17
2. (14)  Dave Baskwill  1:12:30
3. (20)  Harry Smith      1:13:26
4. (30)  Doug Kent        1:14:48
5. (35)  Rich Prann        1:15:10

I'll just add that this race was a very difficult one, so quit criticizing the times!

Some say that's me on the right of the pic next to the bushy-haired Mark Amway!

"Noisy" Jim Clelland breaks the tape.

The "Other"Team at (+9): Not Losers Either!

My foursome was so bad that we couldn't even get losing right!  It turns out that our 5 straight bogies to end the round were just enough to tie Keeper of the Cup Harry Smith's team.  Despite their youth compared to the geriatric team I was on, they managed to make their +9 score spread out evenly over the whole round.

Tom Shiffer, Harry Smith, Brian Fuller and Tim Johnson

I think all 4 of them are much better golfers than I, and yet they somehow managed one of the worst scores in our tournament's history (+10 being the worst).  I can only chalk this up to story telling, inattention or possibly adult beverages?  We may be hearing more on this and other things from our beat writer Tim Johnson.

What It's All About

Here's our group's Director of Fun Teddy Quinn sharing the road with his father finishing up the Life Back on Track Relay on the roads of Pennsylvania.  Another nice touch guys!  You are wearing me out...

Addendum: They keep up the surprises!  The runners will detour to run by the Dare family home in State College.  My respect grows...

And there was also a surprise appearance from The Keeper of the Cup Harry Smith who rode his bike with the team for a stretch near Hudson Ohio.  Also well done, Harry!

Through it all, I'm sure Kevin Dare is beaming like never before and has gathered quite a crowd extolling the virtues of Dear Old State.  If you have not already supported the effort, you can do so now!

Idiot Officers Meeting and Catastrophe Averted

Next week there will be a phone conference with our humble group's top guns (Keeper of the Cup Harry Smith and Keeper of the Beer Clark Haley) firming up details of next year's Coach Harry Groves Golf Tourney and Expanded Reunion!
  Your intrepid Herder of Cats will also tune in so I can report on the exciting details.  A major catastrophe (for me anyway!) was avoided yesterday at the Jersey Shore.  Either I forgot to bring my running shoes or Snooki stole them.  Either way, my Streak was threatened.  Luckily, my clogs contained an old pair of my running orthotics and a Nike Outlet was only minutes away.   A brisk 3 1/2 mile run on the Boardwalk kept the pitiful string of running days alive.

This Isn't Our Day Job

You can't even begin to talk about our group without thanking Founder Clark Haley.  I'm afraid that if Clark hadn't started his little golf tourney among a few friends in 2002, none of the rest of us would have gotten off the couch long enough to start anything. This year, Clark went above and beyond the call of duty (honoring Coach Groves and PSU Track) to arrange for some special surprises for all of us.  He alone arranged for the t-shirts for all the golfers and the Hole-In-One package that almost paid off! (More on that to come.)  He even surprised the rest of the idiots-in-charge with these.  Three cheers aren't nearly enough.

Next on the list of thank-you's has to go to the Law Firm of Smith, Smith and Smith (better known as Keeper of the Cup Harry Smith and sons Holden and Ian).  The amount of heavy lifting and collection of all of the fees falls on Harry and his boys and they handle it with incredible dexterity. He handles about 30 other details of the entire event.  I can't thank him enough. 

There are many others who contribute both big and small, and I'll get to them eventually.  Thanks must also go to everyone who comes to the weekend.  Big things lie ahead for PSU Track, and you are one of the biggest reasons for it.

"The Check is in the Mail!"

Keeper of the Cup Harry Smith and Chief Financial Officer Gary Black are on the lookout for the entry fees for the 10th Annual Coach Harry Groves Golf Tournament and Reunion.

The favorite cliche of all Penn State Track and Field Alumni Golfers is "The check is in the mail."  But now is the time to make that a reality.  Make Harry's (Smith) life a little simpler by mailing the fees* addressed and made out to him at:

Harry Smith, Keeper of the Cup

7793 Hudson Park Drive

Hudson, Ohio 44236.

* All fees go directly to the reunion weekend expenses and PSU Track and Field Scholarships.  No leftover funds are used for any other purpose.  Clark Haley and Harry Smith should be commended for their steadfast support of PSU Track's rich history.  Anyone not able to attend is still encouraged to donate to the cause via any method including the donate button on the right sidebar.  I will personally make sure credit is properly given.

Kevin Dare Golf Tourney

The "A" foursome may already be chosen with the likes of Keeper of the Beer Clark Haley, Keeper of the Cup Harry Smith, Group Icon Paul Mundy, quintessential Hall of Honor member Steve Balkey, Director of Corporate Espionage Gary Black,  Grand Exalted IT Czar Jeff Sanden and newly crowned tournament champion Nick K.

But, that doesn't mean you can't join the "B" team or even my "D" team.  Let one of us know you are interested and you too can obtain a beautiful Golf Shirt from the group store.

The event is held Monday, September 20 on the Blue and White Golf Courses, and benefits the Kevin Dare Scholarship Fund.