Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1967
Like several of those before him Charles Gillis can be considered to be one of the founding fathers of the Southern Miss golf program. Under the tutelage of Coach B.O. Van Hook, Gillis developed into one of the finest players the school has ever produced.
Although college golf was just starting to grow into the sport that we know today, Gillis and his teammates made the school one of the premier golf programs in the state and in the South.
Ask those players that competed against or played with Gillis during that time and they will tell you that he was a golfer with no true weaknesses. On those rare occasions when he might put the ball in trouble, Gillis had the shot to escape to save par or even make birdie.
"I remember him as a player that was pretty good at everything," says fellow Hall of Famer and teammate Sam Hall. "He might not drive it past you or hit it as close to the pin, but put him on the course with a match or a tournament on the line, and nobody was any better."
Although a great deal of statistics weren't kept back then and the team didn't play a lot of matches, we do know that Gillis immediately became one of the leaders of the 1953 team as a freshman. That team would win two of four dual matches that season and play in the prestigious Southern Intercollegiate in Athens, Georgia.
The 1954 season would see the Southern golf team win two of three dual matches and lose by just a single shot to Ole Miss in the Mississippi Intercollegiate Championship. In that heartbreaking defeat Gillis and teammate Lewis Hood nearly led Southern to the championship.
In 1955 the team played its first extended postwar schedule and posted a record of 3-4-1 in dual matches and finish third in the state tournament. Gillis had the lowest scoring average of the team that year and along with teammates Hall and Bill Cooper represented Southern Miss once again in the Southern Intercollegiate. The threesome would finish in the middle of the pack of the 50-plus teams entered with Gillis the low medalist for the team with a 154 total for 36 holes.
The 1956 squad would finish the year with a 3-1-1 dual match record with Gillis once again playing the No. 1 position for the squad.
Although the golfers in the Southern Miss Hall of Fame might not be as well known for their accomplishments like their contemporaries in the more glamorous sports, there is no doubt that Gillis should be rated among the best athletes that the school has ever produced.
As a golfer he had few peers on the course and led the school to many impressive wins and high finishes in tournaments. But maybe more importantly he was instrumental in helping the school lay a strong and solid foundation that has become the golf program today. He helped the school win in the 1950s and his contributions then still help the school win today.
