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    The Tennessee TribuneThe Tennessee Tribune
    Featured

    Golf Coach Catana Starks, First African-American Woman to Coach Collegiate All-Men’s Team, Dies at Age 75

    Article submittedBy Article submittedSeptember 7, 2020Updated:September 18, 2020No Comments3 Mins Read
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    Tennessee State University Golf Coach Catana Starks
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    NASHVILLE — Trailblazing golf coach Dr. Catana Starks passed away on

    Sunday morning at the age of 75.

     

    Starks made history becoming the first African-American woman to coach

    an all-men’s team at the collegiate level. Starks coached the Tennessee State University

    men’s golf team from 1986 until 2005 when she led the Tigers to a

    National Minority Golf Championship. The team shot a record-setting

    840 as a unit.

     

    Starks, a Tennessee State University graduate, returned to Nashville

    in 1980 to become the swimming coach for the Tigers. When TSU entered

    the Ohio Valley Conference, the athletic department dropped the

    swimming program to add golf and tabbed Starks as the head coach.

     

    During her time as a coach, Starks earned her doctorate degree, began

    teaching and eventually becoming the department head of Human

    Performance and Sports Sciences at TSU.

     

    Under her guidance, the team also produced Sean Foley, who went on to

    be Tiger Woods’ swing coach; Sam Puryear, who became the first African

    American men’s head golf coach in any major conference (Michigan

    State); and Robert Dinwiddie, an All-American who went on to play on

    the European professional tour.

     

    In 2011, her story inspired the movie “From the Rough” starring the

    late Michael Clarke Duncan and Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson.

     

     

    Sean Foley, Former Tennessee State Golfer, Professional Swing Coach

    “Rest In Peace Dr. Starks. Thank you for the opportunity to play golf

    at TSU. TSU was the most formative time in my life, the learning curve

    the steepest. The experience has had a positive and lasting effect on

    1. Thank you coach for providing me with the opportunity. Coach

    endured so much, fought so hard. Time for her to Rest In Peace, she

    was a great woman and leader.”

     

    Sam Puryear, Former Tennessee State Golfer, Former Michigan State Head Coach

    “Coach Starks was a true coach. She was a true advocate and believer

    in the term student-athlete. She helped make me a better student,

    athlete and now coach. I am paying a lot of her messages and lessons

    forward.”

     

    Robert Dinwiddie, Former Tennessee State Golfer, All-American and

    Member of European Professional Tour

    “She was an absolutely amazing person that was extremely passionate

    about golf and very funny too. I’m especially sad because I have been

    meaning to get back to Nashville soon and she would have been the

    first person I’d have reached out to. She was a great coach. All my

    love.”

     

    #BigBlueRising

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