Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1965
Golf has always been and always will be a match up between the player and the course. Unlike the team sports where it is team against team, golf is rarely a match up between two players one on one.
When a player can steer his focus towards winning that personal battle between him and the golf course, then more times than not he will come out on top. In college golf when you have a player like that, you can bet, not only will he be successful, but he will lead the team to be successful as well.
Over the years Southern Miss has been fortunate enough to have several golfers who fit those qualifications, but one of the first was James Stubbs.
Why you might ask was Stubbs so special to the Southern Miss golf program and the answer to that question is easy. After World War II as the school started to built an all around athletic program, he stepped in and through his brilliant play and leadership, not only made the Southern golf program one of the best in the region, but laid a foundation the program still builds on today.
When you look at the popularity of the game of golf today on many different levels, you must look back at the contributions made by pioneers like Stubbs. Long before the days of weekly golf on television and multimillion-dollar tournament, it was players like Stubbs and his contemporaries that help ignite an interest in golf.
And years later into the 1950s and 1960s when the Southern golf program was winning state championships and holding its own against the best teams in the South, a portion of the credit goes to Stubbs, who had help to set standards that those golfers were trying to reach.
Although a great number of statistics weren't kept on the golf teams that Stubbs played on from 1947 and 1950, but one thing is for certain when you talk to the men that played with him and against him, he had a killer instinct that was difficult to overcome.
He wasn't the longest hitter on the team and didn't overwhelm people with spectacular shots, but he kept the ball in play and rarely if ever put himself in trouble.
Stubbs was the type of player that the team looked to when they needed a key shot to win a dual match or a tournament. Few times did he ever let them down.
Today as the Southern Miss golf team travels the country playing in the best tournaments and on the best courses in the country, and battles for Conference USA championships, it was Stubbs and his desire to help make the program special, that had a hand in helping them reach that point.
In the years following his golf career at Southern Miss, Stubbs continued to be a devoted follower of the school and its athletic programs, especially the golf team. Even after he graduated he continued to find ways to improve and better the program
