This story originally appeared in June. Atzinger, along with David Hyland and Karen Lutes, will be inducted into the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame tonight.

Nick Atzinger had one chance to be recognized by the Homecoming crowd at a Morehead State football game. He blew it off, a no-show.

Now, 19 years later, Atzinger has a second invitation to be honored during Homecoming.

He doesn't plan to miss this one.

Atzinger, a member of the men's golf team from the 1998-99 season through 2001-02, will be inducted into the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday and recognized a day later when the football Eagles play Homecoming hosts to Valparaiso. Also in the induction class are track and cross country runner Karen Lutes and football player David Hyland.

Atzinger, who turned 38 in July, explains that his previous Homecoming absence came about because of a single-minded dedication to golf.

Morehead State won the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament during spring of his freshman year and was honored on campus the following fall.

As he recalls, Coach Rex Chaney wasn't sure about taking him to the OVC tourney, but relented.

"Long story short, we played great as a team," Atzinger said. "I played out of my mind as a freshman and I finished in the top 10. In my last round, I shot my career low at the time. I shot 3-under par. And it helped us win the tournament, essentially. Now there were two other players on our team that finished better than I did overall in the tournament, so by no means was I the leader of the team. It just so happened that I played great on the last day and we won.

"Fast forward to the next fall and they were going to honor us at the Homecoming football game at halftime. But, in order to do that, we basically had to cut our practice short that day."

That didn't set well with Atzinger who, even as a student at Holy Cross High School in Louisville, had made up his mind that he would someday play on the PGA Tour. Cocky and determined, Atzinger decided he wasn't about to miss practice time in order to attend a Homecoming Hootenanny or whatever it was called.

Came the day of celebration, Chaney's name was the first one announced. Then came the players, in alphabetical order. When Atzinger, the first one called, didn't show, some fans laughed.

Chaney, a mountain of a man and a campus icon who also is in MSU's Athletics Hall, was not amused. At dawn the next morning, he showed up at Atzinger's dorm for a heart-to-heart discussion.

Atzinger was reprimanded, but left the meeting with a sense that the coach nevertheless respected him "because he knew I was genuine; I wasn't showboating or trying to show anyone up. I genuinely didn't feel like it was a great use of our time as a team to not be practicing. We had a tournament that week and we had things that we had to do."

Under what he recalls as a sometimes-antagonistic father-son relationship with Chaney, Atzinger flourished. He would win three tournaments as an Eagle and twice was a unanimous selection to the all-OVC team. In addition to a team title as a freshman, he earned individual OVC runner-up honors in 2001.

Recalling his first tourney title, at Cape Girardeau Country Club in Missouri, Atzinger marvels at the focused approach he had to the game as a teenager.

The win came in the first event of his sophomore year – and by a whopping 7 strokes!

But, as he came to the final hole, the Eagles were in a close battle for team honors. Atzinger knew the closing par 5 was reachable in 2 shots. His choice was to play it safe and lay up to cinch the individual title or go for the elevated green to give his team a chance, with the possible risk of a big personal score.

With a chip-on-his-shoulder mentality, Atzinger of course went for the green. Not only did he find the green, he holed his Tour Cleek (4-wood) shot from 240 yards for an albatross – a double-eagle – to give Morehead the team crown.

At the awards ceremony, everyone wanted to talk about the albatross. And that made Atzinger mad.

"I could have made triple-bogey and still won the tournament," he said. "But all the focus was on this fluky, lucky shot that I hit that just happened to be the last shot of the tournament. It was almost like it took away from what I had really accomplished, which was playing the three best rounds of my competitive life and pretty easily winning the golf tournament as a young sophomore. … As I've gotten older, I look at the mentality that a person would have had to have to react that way. I don't know if it's arrogance or if it's just wanting so badly to prove oneself, but I just remember being really chapped that people wanted to talk about that lucky shot that I hit at the end."

Atzinger was not highly recruited out of Holy Cross, where he also played basketball and baseball. His choice of Morehead, where he earned a partial scholarship, was influenced by family members who had attended. The list included his mother, Phyllis, and his uncle, Hall of Fame golfer Eddie Mudd.

A Spanish major, he turned pro after leaving Morehead, playing for several years in South Florida.

Now, he and Christie, his wife of 11 years, have four children: daughter Nora, 11; son Lincoln, 9; daughter Avery, 6; and son Clay, 3.

Atzinger lives in his hometown of Louisville, where he builds custom homes.

"I don't play much golf anymore," he said. "With the kids and both my wife and I working full-time, we've got a pretty busy schedule. So the five- and six-hour time increments that it takes to go and play a round of golf and get back home, I've done enough of that. It's time for me to focus on my family and my career."

He says he'll never forget his collegiate golf career, though.

He looks back fondly on Chaney and all his teammates. He especially looked up to Kevin Childers, who was a senior and captain of the team when Atzinger arrived on campus. And Josh Teater, the PGA pro who was a year ahead of Atzinger. Those two brought out the best in the youngster. Major Gabbard was another close friend. So was Chaney's son, Lee, who was not yet in college.

When Brian Hutchinson, MSU's director of athletics, recently called to inform Atzinger that he was bound for the Hall of Fame, all the memories and names came rushing back.

"I knew I had a pretty good college career, and I definitely dedicated a good part of my young adult life to it," Atzinger said. "And to get that kind of news, it meant quite a bit … to get that phone call."

Expect to see him at Morehead State's next Homecoming football game.