Successful Golf Alum Greg Palmer Reflects on Career as 1977 OVC Title Team Gathers for Reunion
By Mark Maloney, MSUEagles.com
Of all the stories Greg Palmer can tell about his time on the Morehead State golf team, perhaps the most compelling is the one that details how a kid from Michigan wound up in Eastern Kentucky.
Raised in the Detroit suburb of Mt. Clemens, Palmer learned the game of golf while making a bit of cash as a caddy.
"And I practiced. I had what they called a 'shag bag,' like a bowling bag full of golf balls," Palmer said. "I'd take them out to a baseball field and go practice. One day I'm out there hitting golf balls by myself. And this Shorty Wiggins character comes out there on a tractor, cutting the grass, and he said 'I was talking to my brother-in-law, Bobby Laughlin, and Morehead's having a tournament. I told him about you and he wanted to know if you'd come down and play in it.'"
Wiggins, it turns out, was the athletic director at Palmer's high school. Laughlin was athletic director at Morehead.
Palmer accepted the invitation to visit Morehead, played well ("fifth or something") and was offered a scholarship on the spot by MSU Coach Ed Bignon.
Palmer will return to the MSU campus this weekend to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Eagles capturing the 1977 Ohio Valley Conference team championship. Other teammates expected to attend are John Baas, Greg McNeal, Mike Reynolds, Ross Smith and Jim Thomas, along with Coach Rex Chaney.
They'll get together for a round of golf and dinner Friday, then be recognized publicly during Saturday's MSU-Dayton football game.
Chaney, then in the first of 38 seasons as MSU golf coach, would go on to direct teams to OVC titles in 1981, 1993 and 1999 before retiring in 2014. He originally came to Morehead in 1960 as head coach of the baseball team, a role he filled for seven seasons. He was out of coaching from 1967 through 1977.
Palmer recalls coming back from winter break in 1977 to learn that Bignon had resigned.
"So Doc Chaney volunteered. He just stepped in," Palmer said. "Volunteered to just kind of take it over until a full-time coach could be found. And (nearly) 40 years later, he's still the coach. … I think we all thought it was going to be a temporary situation. We liked him and he liked us, and we won the conference that year. We were, by far, not the best team, but we snuck in and grabbed that one."
These days, Chaney likes to garden and mow. He and wife Sarah go out three or four times a week to play a few holes early in the morning, before the golf course gets crowded.
He remembers well the 1977 OVC tourney, played at Lakeside Golf Course in Lexington. MSU totaled 876 for 54 holes, winning by five strokes over Middle Tennessee State.
"I recall that we had a bunch of kids that hadn't played that much college golf, and we worked them very hard," he said. "We had a young man named Greg Palmer who opened up with a 66 or 67 – I can't remember. It was the low round of the tournament and got us started. And Ross Smith and a couple of the other guys filled in the next day with sixties rounds, and we were on our way."
Palmer, who will turn 61 next week, recalls that his game came together at the perfect time.
"I wasn't the best man on the team. I was like the fifth man," he said. "And the fifth man comes out of nowhere and posts a low round, and I think everyone just kind of rallied. It was just one of those things, but I think we just had a really fast start there. There wasn't a lot of high expectations. Now we've kind of built on a really good beginning."
Chaney speaks like a proud papa when he thinks back to 1977.
"They were the hardest working team I ever had," he said.
He recalls that they were "studious" about golf, and likewise in the classroom. And, for many, golf became a career.
Smith is director of golf at a country club in Grand Rapids, Mich. Baas holds a similar title at courses in the Mobile, Ala., area. Reynolds is a golf pro. Thomas caddied for Tim Petrovic on the PGA Tour. McNeal is a businessman in Indiana.
As for Palmer, he still plays golf about once a week. And he made the most out of earning an MSU degree in business administration in 1978.
"My wife (Sally) and I kid about it," Palmer said. "I'm like the Forrest Gump of business. Just kind of at the right place at the right time, and things just seem to work out. Truly, it's been fun."
Palmer is a principal at Transpirus, a provider of post-acute revenue cycle, medical coding and consulting services; leads the consulting firm of G. Palmer & Associates, serving as advisor to corporate boards, private equity firms and senior management teams; and has been the buy side advisor on staffing industry acquisitions valued at more than $2.4 billion.
There is more – much more – including seven current board positions. And he is grateful to Morehead for opening those doors.
He says MSU Athletics Director Brian Hutchinson and Dr. Robert Albert, dean of the College of Business and Technology, keep him in the loop now.
Mostly, (MSU) gave me a chance. … I was the first person in my family to go to college. And they kind of wrapped their arms around me and just made sure I stayed on a pretty good course," Palmer said. "I would say that – they just really gave me the opportunity.
"The golf was great, particularly at the beginning because you didn't know anybody (on campus) and you had your golf mates. And then I joined a fraternity, Theta Chi, and that was great. Met a whole new group of folks. And then I fell in love with a couple of professors – my marketing professor and my economics professor are the two guys that stood out. A guy named Joe Barber was the marketing professor. And then Dr. (Tom) Morrison was the head of the econ department. So I got a degree in econ because I liked him and he kind of supported me. … Dr. Barber, to give you an example, what do you know when you're 20 years old and you graduate, right? I didn't know how to write a resume. And he sat down one day and wrote my resume with me. On his typewriter, he typed out my resume. I'll never forget that."
This weekend will give Palmer and his 1977 teammates chance to ponder such relationships again and, perhaps, to remember a few shenanigans.
"Kids get together. The coach never knows half of what's going on," Chaney said. "… They've got a few years behind them now, too. So they'll be reminiscing and they'll be coming up with stories I hadn't heard, which will be good."
Palmer has been in touch with his teammates in recent weeks, mostly via email. And a certain nickname, relating to a golfing great of the same last name, has resurfaced.
They're all emailing me, calling me Arnie," Palmer said. "No one's called me Arnie in 40 years. So you pick up where you left off. Everybody's in a good spot in their life, so that's fun to hear about them and their families and their careers and things. I just have a deep affection for the university and all the folks."
Particularly his old coach.
"Dr. Chaney didn't have to do what he did, but he did. That, to me, is like a really big point" of the reunion, Palmer said. "I didn't find this out until years later – he never turned in most of the expenses we had. He took us to Florida one year and paid for the whole trip. Because he felt it was that important for us to play in high-level tournaments, and our budget was kind of flat. So he just took it upon himself, and I'll never forget that.
"That's why it's so important. This is really much more about Doc Chaney, for me, than our '77 team. … It's a chance to see him, really."
