College Golf Museum: An Oddity
Unique 1936 Intercollegiate Championship Contestant Badge
We tend to connect best to history through tangible items. It’s one thing to read about past exploits, but seeing a physical artifact helps bridge our minds to a given moment and unlock the ineffable wonder. How do you properly describe what it feels like to hold a medal won in a competition held before your oldest living relative was born? What words do you use to give weight to the delicate feeling of turning the pages of a tournament program that hasn’t ever been scanned? Even souvenirs so modern it feels blasphemous to call them “relics” are hefty beyond their mass, weighed down by their significance to the history of this great sport. As we take a stroll through the college golf museum, hopefully the pictures below plus a healthy dose of context will provide the perfect extra 1,000+ words.
Join me today in examining a very interesting 1936 Intercollegiate Golf Championship contestant badge. Not only is this piece rare because of its age - predating the NCAA’s involvement in the championship - but also for a very peculiar alteration that stands out among other contestant badges even from the very same championship!
*NOTE: underlined text provides a link to references or sites with more information
A HISTORY OF BADGES
It’s unclear when the contestant badges - a small piece of metal about the size of a quarter - were first introduced into the collegiate game, however the USGA had used some variation of the simple pinback clasp design to identify players in their various championships as early as the 1910s.
1930 Championship
Although the Intercollegiate Golf Association (IGA or sometimes ICGAA), which ran the collegiate championship, had been closely aligned with the USGA to some degree since it’s origin in the 1890s, it wasn’t until the 1930s that a more formal arrangement had been made between the two organizations. From the onset, the IGA leadership had been passed down from student to student and was turned over annually; thus there was no real long-term stabilization. In 1930, the USGA took a more direct oversight of the intercollegiate championship. Along with helping to secure venues, the USGA provided other perks such as the creation of a specialized contestant badge for the tournament. The earliest known example is seen below with the “ICGAA” (Inter-collegiate Golf Association of America) replacing the traditional “USGA” in the center. These badges would change annually to match the design of those used by the USGA for all of the other championships they sponsored.
First NCAA Championship [1939]
The most notable design change in the badges came with the changeover to NCAA sponsorship of the championship in 1939. If you’d like to read more about the championship itself, we covered it in the below post, however for today’s purpose the most important thing to note is the “NCAA” added to the central portion, replacing the “ICGAA” lettering. This design persisted for a couple more years until the United State’s entry into WWII. After the war, the use of badges was replaced with money clips; a topic we’re sure to get into in later posts.
1936 CHAMPIONSHIP BADGE
The 1936 intercollegiate championship - held at the historic North Shore GC and won by the Yale team (their 20th) and Charlie Kocsis [Michigan] individually - was widely lauded as much for the venue as the champions it produced. Each of those 120+ participants were given a small contestant badge with the “ICGAA” logo in the middle along with the traditional details ring indicating the tournament and dates of the championship.
Since the overall design matched the other USGA badges and didn’t differ in any significant way from those coming both before and after it, you may be wondering why this particular badge warrants a post. A traditional badge from this championship, although pretty cool as far as we’re concerned, probably wouldn’t warrant one, however our museum piece today is unique.
An Oddity
So we can see from the comparison photo above how our subject today differs from the traditional Intercollegiate badge and more closely resembles its cousin from the USGA’s Open Championship that same year. Any guess as to why this particular badge, with the Intercollegiate details but sporting “USGA” in the center, exists and looks the way it does would be pure speculation, however there are a couple clues that may help. The number etched into the back - indicating the participant number which also doubled as a caddy assignment back when the college boys used caddies in their championship - is higher than the projected number of participants, which is the strongest indication that this badge was likely a last-minute addition; perhaps making use of the more numerous USGA blanks that were available and just had the intercollegiate “ring” of details added on. Another possibility is that this was for a USGA official/representative present at the championship, although the “contestant” paint on the top as well as that same number etched in the back makes this less likely.
In any case, the fact this oddity not only exists in the first place but also survived nearly 90 years to make its way onto the general market makes it a worthwhile feature from the college golf museum archives. Let’s just hope that its new owner takes good care of their special piece of history!
Thanks for reading! Do you have any intercollegiate photos/relics you’d like to share? We would love to hear from you and perhaps feature it/them in a future post!