STEVE HOGAN MEMORIAL GOLF EVENT | SIGNATURE ANNUAL FUNDRAISER!
The board of directors and staff from the Hogan's Junior Golf Heroes Foundation organize and host a golf fundraiser every fall. The Steve Hogan Memorial Golf outing is a celebration of Steve Hogan's legacy and a time for board members, staff, volunteers and donors to recommit to our mission.
The 10th Annual Steve Hogan Memorial Golf outing will be held at Shoreline Golf Course on Friday, September 27, 2019. Registration material coming this summer!
Sponsors, golf participants and event donors have raised over $25,000 for the Hogan's Junior Golf Heroes Foundation – The First Tee of Omaha in past years. All proceeds from the event are used to support and enhance the Golf and Life Skills youth development programming that is carried out at area golf course facilities, in schools, and in partnership with other youth service providers.
Steve Hogan started Hogan's Junior Golf Heroes in 1990. Steve was Nebraska's first African American, PGA of America Professional. He was also the 2004 US Kids Golf nominee for one of "America's top 50 kids Teachers" and 2003 PGA Junior Golf Leader of the Year. The program Steve started had just two kids and now provides golf training and life skills to hundreds of youth annually through Hogan's Junior Golf Heroes Foundation – The First Tee of Omaha. After a long battle with cancer, Steve died in November of 2008. As the program's founder and passionate advocate for junior golf in the region, Steve is listed as an honorary member of our board.
Specifically, Steve Hogan blazed a trail for golf in North Omaha. I count myself fortunate Steve was a member of the Nebraska Section during my tenure as the Executive Director. Steve had to work hard to become a PGA member. Let's just say the "school work" part of passing the requirements wasn't easy for him. But, because of his perseverance, diligence and a loving, supportive wife in Danette, he attained his goal of becoming the first African American PGA member in the Nebraska Section. There's a life lesson there for all of us!
One of the highlights I will always remember during my time as the Executive Director was when Steve was recognized as the Junior Golf Leader for the PGA of America in 2003. His stirring, heartfelt speech was given without notes and in looking around the packed auditorium in the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, many usually stoic PGA members were moved to tears listening to him. His dream for the Hogan's Junior Golf Heroes was more than just about golf. As he so aptly put it, golf was the 'hook'. Steve credited a man from his neighborhood in North Omaha with this sage advice, 'Steve, you be honest to people and you try to give back and you'll be blessed'.
Once you read this portion of the speech Steve gave back in 2004, you will understand his mission, his "why" if you will.
I can still see Steve giving this speech in my memory and how moved everyone was. What a special evening!
More important to Steve was the 'hook' was designed to instill values of being a good person, a good citizen, a good student which all align so perfectly with the nine core values of The First Tee. I will go out on a limb and say these core values were part of his Hogan's Junior Golf Program before The First Tee was started some twenty years ago nationally and 2002 in Omaha.
Although Steve left us way too early, I know Danette, Steve Jr. and Sierra are proud of him and what he accomplished with his life. I am honored I had the chance to know him and to be involved with him with the junior golf part of his life. More importantly though, is the memory of how Steve made me feel. I am sure many of us can say that! I also want to feel 'that I'm doing my part".
The Hogan's Junior Golf Heroes Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and founding entity of the First Tee of Omaha, chartered by the World Golf Foundation since to 2002 to serve the youth in the greater Omaha area with Golf and Life Skills programming.