Near the Start of a Busy May, Duck Day Golf Tournament Once Again Brings Fun and Fellowship to the McCallie Community

 

When Dr. Duke Richey ‘86 finished his round at the 18th annual Duck Day Golf Tournament at Council Fire on Tuesday, May 5, the chairman of McCallie’s Upper School history department, the recipient of the Howard Baker Jr. Chair of American History, a man who obviously knows a thing or two or five about McCallie’s past, had a question for a handful of friends waiting for the awards ceremony to begin.

 

With a smile spreading across his face, Richey asked, “What is this the 40th anniversary of? I know. I was there.”

 

Stumped, the table of alums had no answer.

 

“Duck Day,’ said Richey with delight. “The first Duck Day was started by Keo-Kio my senior year.”

 

To be completely accurate, the carnival-style Duck Day celebration that takes over the school for one day each spring, complete with games, inflatables and the must-see Belly-Flop contest, shares nothing with the golf tournament except the words Duck and Day.

 

But as the important fundraising tournament started by 1996 classmates Nick Wilkinson and Will Haisten moves along, it is interesting, as the late national radio host Paul Harvey often said, to “Know the rest of the story,” about the students’ Duck Day origins as much as the golf tournament, which brought 42 foursomes and 168 golfers to Council Fire this year.

 

“A few members of Keo-Kio went to Dean (Warren) James and asked for a ‘Skip Day,’” recalled Richey, himself a Keo-Kio member that year. “Just a day to blow off some steam. After some discussion, it was decided to include the whole upper school. We made the announcement in Chapel, just like they do today. William Newberry went to the podium carrying a toy assault rifle and wearing camo. Several of the rest of us went on stage in flowery Hawaiian style shirts with leis around our necks. That’s how Duck Day, the Duck was short for Duckin’ out of class, began.”

 

If the golf tournament and the students’ Duck Day share anything past the name it was/is the goal to put fellowship and fun at the forefront of the festivities. Though the tournament has raised close to $700,000 through the years and endowed a scholarship for a deserving day student, when Wilkinson and Haisten began the event the goal was simple.

 

"It was all about fellowship and fun and having a good time," Wilkinson  said. “And it still is. But the scholarship part of it we hope to make even bigger in the future.”

 

No one may have had a better time on Tuesday than the women’s foursome of Kelly Arnold, Ashley Kinzier, Angela O’Connor, and Kakhi Wakefield, whose father, Rob Huffaker ‘78, will become McCallie Board of Trustees chairman next year.

The only women’s foursome in the field, they labeled themselves “Durty Luck” while wearing dark green ballcaps bearing that phrase in white, stitched letters and shot five over par, but as Arnold was quick to point out, “We didn’t cheat one time.”

To explain their name, they referenced a shot Wakefield hit that should have been a disaster but became one of the quartet’s better efforts of the day.

 

“I hit it under a bridge, but it somehow popped out into the fairway,” said Wakefield, a 2002 graduate of Girls Preparatory School. “That’s what we call Durty Luck.”

 

The four originally bonded over their sons, who are all currently seventh graders in the class of 2031 and play golf and baseball together. Arnold would like to turn “Durty Luck” into a marketing brand for hats, tote bags, clothing and such that would raise money to, “Promote golf for children in underserved communities.”

 

And how have they found the McCallie community impacting their sons?

 

“It’s a perfect balance of freedom and discipline,” said Arnold. “It’s not summer camp. He’s not having too much fun.”

 

She then turned her attention to a moment that should make every present and future McCallie parent proud.

 

“There were some kids visiting from Atlanta and a few of them might have been easy to tease and make fun of,” she recalled. “When someone started to do just that, a McCallie student said, ‘We don’t do that here. We respect everybody,’ and they weren’t made fun of. I think that says so much about what is taught here.”

It would be impossible to make fun of the golfing effort turned in by the afternoon foursome of Andy Felker, Mike Rhyne, Timothy Eachus, and Jimmy Ellis. The foursome shot a stunning 22-under-par on a gusty afternoon to post the lowest score.

 

Faculty member Bart Wallin won “Closest to the Pin” and Upper School head of school Hank Hopping had the “Straightest Drive.”

Said Richey of Hopping’s effort, “He was about seven feet from winning a Kia Telluride. So close.”

Nor was the Durty Luck quartet the only one brought together by their sons. Chris Gant ‘97 put together a foursome of Aaron Melda, Seth Williams, and Travis Wright whose sons won’t even start at McCallie until this coming fall, when they will be a proud part of the class of 2033.

A few years ago, there was no more formidable foursome at Duck Day than the quartet of Andrew Forrester ‘01, Brandon Waters ‘00, Derek Steele, and former UT-Chattanooga golfing great Bryce Ledford ‘03, who grew up around Council Fire. The group won it twice and threatens every year.

But after coming up three shots short this year, Forrester sighed and cited a universal truth: “The (other foursomes) are getting younger and we’re not.”

 

Every Duck Day may well be filled with fun and fellowship, but when the laws of nature kick in, there’s also a third F-word: Frankness.