BELLEVUE, Neb. — Don Byers didn’t know he was auditioning for a spot on the Bellevue University golf team when coach Rob Brown joined his group as a guest at his club last August.
Byers was booming drives close to 300 yards, making his putts and under par after nine holes.
Brown asked Byers if he had any eligibility left. Byers thought it was a joke.
He’s a 61-year-old grandfather, after all.
“We laughed about it and moved on,” Byers said, “but afterward he said he was serious. I gave him my number and said if you are, give me a call. That’s the last I thought I’d hear about it.”
Brown called Byers a couple weeks later and said the offer stood. Now Byers is a freshman on the Bruins’ seven-man roster.
A true graybeard, he’s the oldest NAIA athlete since 61-year-old Alan Moore kicked an extra point for the football team at Faulkner University of Alabama in 2011. NAIA spokesman Chad Waller said he knows of no older competitors in any sport, past or present. The NCAA doesn’t keep age records. At the junior college level, Ken Mink appeared in three basketball games at age 73 for Roane State in Tennessee in 2008.
