The Bulldogs men's golf team represented the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) in the sport of golf from 1947 to 1991. Overshadowed by the school's hockey, football and basketball programs, constrained by parsimonious budgets, disadvantaged by a short spring season, and without athletic scholarships, the UMD golf program was, nonetheless, one of the most successful of the University's intercollegiate athletic programs during its existence. Perennially a conference champion threat with rosters composed of predominately Duluth area athletes, the golf team was one of the first UMD athletic programs to qualify for national championship play and gave the school its first two All-American First Team honorees. During the 45 years of the program, the Bulldogs finished first or second in conference 29 times. Thirteen teams qualified for the NAIA National Championship Tournament and seven were selected to play for the NCAA Division II title. The golf program had the distinction of representing the highest showing for a UMD team of any sport at a national event for 31 years and the highest individual finish for 25 years. Despite its achievements, the UMD golf program was eliminated for the 1991–92 school year, a casualty of athletic department budget cuts.
Early years – golf program beginnings The UMD golf program began in the spring of 1947 with Ward Wells as coach (some newspaper articles credit athletic director Lloyd Peterson as head coach).In 1946, five Duluth State athletes participated in the State Teachers College Conference of Minnesota track, tennis and golf meet including George Stielow who represented the school in the golf competition. At the time, the school was known as the Duluth State Teacher's College (Duluth State) and was affiliated with the State Teachers College Conference of Minnesota (TCC). With the conclusion of World War II and the return of college-aged men from the armed services, Duluth State administrators met in June 1946 to propose the creation of an expanded sports program for the school (the war-suspended football and basketball programs resumed play for the 1945-1946 school year). To this end, they agreed to reestablish the shuttered men's ice hockey program and commence other athletic activities such as track, skiing, golf and boxing for the 1946-47 school year.
The inaugural Bulldogs golf team played only a brief schedule of meets in May 1947. In its first meet as a golf program, Duluth State lost to a squad from the Duluth Junior College at Lester Park Golf Course with only Walter Silesky winning his match. However, at the Bemidji Invitational track and field meet, the Bulldogs scored top honors by defeating Bemidji State Teachers College and Moorhead State Teachers College with James Cran carding a 79 to tie for medalist. These meets were conducted in preparation for the TCC “Loop” (as conference championships were referred to in the idiom of the time) held at the conclusion of the athletic season. Duluth State's first conference team roster included James Cran, Jack Donaldson, Joe Dubla and Dale Moren with Gus Novotney as an alternate. The team finished its introductory season last among six teams at the conference meet in St. Cloud with an average 18 hole score of 92.
Following the conclusion of the 1946-47 school year, the Minnesota state legislature approved a bill authorizing the transfer of the Duluth State Teachers College to the University of Minnesota system with the school to be known as the University of Minnesota, Duluth Branch or UMD. With an expanded schedule of meets against conference rivals as well as local colleges, the 1948 UMD golf team won two of three triangular meets against Duluth Junior College and Superior State College, defeated Bemidji Teachers College and Saint Cloud Teachers College in another triangular meet and beat Eveleth Junior College in a dual meet. The squad entered the 1948 conference loop more prepared to challenge for the title than in 1947. Improving on the previous year, the team finished third at the TCC golf championship held at Mankato County Club. Jerry Chessen shot a 74 for 18 holes and finished one stroke out of a playoff for individual medalist honors.
Move to the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference In March 1949, UMD left the State Teachers College Conference of Minnesota and joined the larger Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC). Prior to UMD joining, MIAC member schools were private institutions and, for the most part, located in-and-around the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and Saint Paul and other areas south. This made an odd and, at times, uneasy fit for the state-funded and northern-based UMD. So much so, UMD was granted only probationary status for the first six years of membership for fear it would outgrow the conference. It wasn't until 1954 that conference members voted to extend full membership to UMD with several recalcitrant schools agreeing to full membership only after an amendment was added that allowed a member institution to ask for a conference-level review of the status of any school.
While some MIAC schools feared that UMD would become an overpowering athletic juggernaut,The UMD hockey team would win 56 straight league play games and six consecutive MIAC titles before electing to become a Division I independent in August of 1961. In its final league game as a member of the MIAC, UMD beat Augsburg College 19-0. the move to the MIAC, instead, put the nascent UMD golf program at a distinct disadvantage to the other member schools. Springtime weather comes much earlier to the southern portions of Minnesota. Consequently, the UMD golf team often started preparation for the season weeks later than its conference rivals. In fact, weather would become a constant hindrance to the UMD golf program. The Bulldogs would suffer through several instances where the golf season was reduced to a few meets or just the conference championship and the NAIA District 13 tournament. This disadvantage became more acute at the national level where UMD competed against teams from the south and west whose players could play year-round.
With the school having just joined the MIAC at the start of the 1949 golf season, UMD was unable to schedule any meets against conference teams. However, the Bulldogs were undefeated in non-conference competition against the likes of Moorhead State, Michigan Tech, Bemidji State and North Dakota State. Unbeaten, the golf team entered the 1949 MIAC championship very confident despite having never competed against a conference team. This confidence was misplaced and the team unprepared for conference play. Not only did the squad have no knowledge of the caliber of golfers in the meet or familiarity with the Keller Golf Course layout, but Coach Wells in a pre-tournament interview admitted that he did not even know if the championship would be conducted on a stroke play or match play basis. The team combined an off-day with high winds to finish a disappointing 6th place in its first MIAC championship. Having averaged 78 strokes as a team in non-conference play, their conference championship average ballooned to 84 strokes. However, the team was young with only one senior on the squad. Learning from this setback, it would be the last time UMD golfers finished outside the top three in MIAC tournament play over the next 16 years.
Dominating the MIAC For the 1950 season, the Bulldog golfers got their second coach in five years: Lew Rickert. Rickert would coach the team for the next 25 years. In what would become a nearly annual tradition, poor weather delayed the start of team qualifying causing coach Rickert to assemble a team of only returning lettermen for its first outing against Saint Olaf College. Unfortunately, poor weather followed the team to Northfield Minnesota where winds upward of 50 miles per hour caused players to lose balance while in mid-swing. Matches were abbreviated to nine holes and the meet considered unofficial after two other competing teams walked off the course after playing only a few holes. UMD then traveled to Houghton Michigan where they defeated Michigan Tech in a non-conference encounter. Only after the team's return to Duluth was coach Rickert able to conduct a 36 hole tryout among 20 hopefuls to determine the five golfers to represent UMD on the MIAC tourney squad. Duluth Central high school graduate Andrew "Walt" Bida became UMD's first conference medalist shooting 76-79 (155) over two rounds at the Hiawatha Golf Club in Minneapolis to win the MIAC individual golf title. UMD took the top three MIAC tournament spots with Bill Strang and future PGA professional Rick Liljedahl coming in second and third-place respectively. However, the other two members of the team lagged far behind and the golf team finished third overall for the conference championship, nine strokes behind the winning College of Saint Thomas squad.
In 1951, led by Bida and two-time Minnesota State High School champion and fellow Duluth Central classmate Bob Braff, UMD swept five meets against Michigan Tech (twice), Gustavus Adolphus College, Wisconsin Central State College at Steven Point and Virginia Junior College and won the first of eight MIAC team titles over a 13-year span by edging out defending champion St. Thomas by a single stroke. Bida recorded a second-place finish in the season-ending conference event and Braff third. The golf title was first conference championship won by a UMD athletic program among the ten different sports championships conducted by the MIAC.Men's hockey followed with a MIAC title in 1953 and cross-country running in 1955. The UMD alpine, jump and nordic ski team won the Saint Olaf Invitational in 1950 which was described by the UMD Statesman in the February 10, 1950 issue as the first conference championship captured by a UMD athletic team although skiing was not a MIAC-sponsored competition according to The History of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference 1920-1970 by John Emil Becker.
The 1952 squad began the season with its first competition outside its northern base with a Midwest tour against Xavier (Ohio), Vanderbilt University and the University of Kentucky going 1-2. The Bulldogs then defeated and tied Michigan Tech in a home-and-home series and downed conference foes Hamline University, Gustavus Adolphus and the Scots of Macalester College. Favored to repeat as conference champion, the team's number one player Bob Braff came down with the flu on the eve of the MIAC championship at Keller Golf Course and could not play. While UMD's Jack Flatt Jr. carded two 79's (158) to finish as tournament runner-up and Walt Bida and Jerry LaBreche fired identical 80-81 (161), Braff's absence proved crucial as his replacement Bob Alexander averaged 95 over two rounds (while the rest of the team averaged 81) and the Bulldogs finished third, 12 strokes behind champion Saint Thomas.