Rip Powell golf tourney set for July 24 at MCC

— Staff Report

The 10th annual Rip Powell Invitational Golf Tournament is scheduled for Friday, July 24 at the Magnolia Country Club.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers have decided to modify the tournament’s format from a shotgun start to assigning tee times to prevent large crowds of participants any any one time during the day.

Cost for the four-man scramble is $400 per team or $100 per player. Golf carts are available for $40 each.

Tee times will be available throughout the morning and afternoon for all participants. Golfers should indicated on their entry forms the time of day they prefer.

Each participant will receive beverages, snacks, a grab and go lunch and a goodie bag. Flights will be determined by team score.

There are some sponsorship opportunities for individuals and businesses. They include presenting sponsor, $4,000; lunch sponsor, $2,500; beverage cart sponsor, $1,500; hole-in-one sponsor, $ 1,500; gold sponsor, $1,000; blue sponsor, $500; hole sponsor,$200; and tee box sponsor,$100.

Proceeds from the tournament will benefit the Mulerider football program.

For more information on the event or for anyone wanting to become a sponsor, call 235-4287. All teams/player registration or sponsorship information should be sent to SAU Office of Development, 100 E. University, MSC 9340, Magnolia, AR, 71753.

The tournament is named after Powell, who led the SAU Muleriders to 62 wins in his 10-year tenure as coach in the 1960s and 1970.

Powell was a four-year starting lineman for the Muleriders. As a student-athlete, he helped the Muleriders win the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference football championships in 1951 and 1952, losing only one game each year.

After coaching high school football in Texarkana and Stamps, Powell returned to SAU in 1963 as a football coach and head track and field coach. He was named head football coach in 1969 and served through the 1978 season.

Powell’s Muleriders captured the 1967 AIC Track and Field championship, the first in school history. They repeated as conference champions in 1968.

As head football coach, he compiled a 62-38-2 record over a decade. His 1972 team finished with an 8-2 record and won the AIC championship.

Even after his coaching career ended, Powell served as a faculty member in the Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation until his retirement in 1990. He was an inaugural member of OVERSET FOLLOWS:Southern Arkansas University Sports Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Arkansas Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2002.

He passed away in October 2010.

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