Bellevue University in Nebraska just gave a whole new meaning to the term — “having experience on its side.” The school just outside of Omaha, Neb., managed to recruit a 61-year-old man onto its golf team thanks to some good timing.
The recruit, Don Byers, was playing a pretty solid round during the fall, impressive enough that it garnered the attention of one of his playing partners, Rob Brown, who happened to be the coach at Bellevue.
So the coach began a bit of a courting process.
“Brown … turned to him and quipped, ‘Man, I wish you had some eligibility left,'” ESPN’s Jason Sobel wrote.
“The two men laughed at the one-liner, hardly taking it at face value. A few holes later, the idea was broached again. ‘You know,’ Byers told Brown, ‘I do still have eligibility.'”
And after the two men maintained contact for a few weeks, with Brown getting a bit pushier as time went on, Byers finally had a realization.
“He kept bugging me,” Byers said. “As I later found out, he was recruiting me.”
Byers now is enrolled and taking a few classes to maintain some academic eligibility and will be gearing up for the season to begin starting in March.
Bellevue is one of the top NAIA golf programs, and though Byers never played golf while attending the University of Nebraska-Omaha more than 40 years ago, this certainly will provide both Byers and his new teammates with quite the story to tell.
