23,1951
WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1951
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
心
PAGE SEVEN
SPADING
in the phys-
enworth
this fall.
real gol
physi
Leaven-
underers
ants and
ual mi-
Marilynn Smith, Member Of'51 Class Now Ranks Among Top Pro Golfers
By BOB NELSON
Daily Kansan Assistant Sports Editor
At about 8:15 p.m. eastern standard time, Sunday, June 3, there will be a 22-year-old girl in the nation's capital that is torn between happiness and sorrow. This young lady is none other than Marilynn Louise Smith, one of the nation's leading professional woman golfers and former sophomore class president of K.U.'s 1951 graduating class.
For earlier on this day, Marilynn will have played in one of the country's outstanding golf tournaments, the Washington, D.C. National Celebrities tourney.
Besides the nation's outstanding professional golfers, this gathering will include such movie stars as Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby, and Bob Hope, and other colorful sports personalities.
Knowing Smitty's love for golf as we do, this colorful tournament will provide her unlimited happiness and the customary thrills that accompany her participation in the game she so loves.
But following her play in the Celebriities tourney, Marilynn's thoughts are almost sure to carry her back to Mt. Oread and bring a certain sorrow and intense longing to be with her ex-college chums as they start their march down the hill past the Memorial campanile to the stadium for baccalaureate services.
While at the University in 1948 and 1949, this 5-foot $7\frac{1}{2}$-inch athlete from Wichita compiled a record that few K.U. students surpass during a four-year career.
Few, if any, students ever possessed more friends at K.U. than did Marilynn during her two years here.
A Kappa Alpha Theta, she was active in as many activities as a 24-hour day would allow. Noted for her exceptional fine sense of humor and pleasing personality, Smitty was best known at K.U. for her athletic ability.
Marilynn probably ranks as the greatest all-around woman athlete ever to attend K.U. Her specialty
was always golf but softball was a close second," Miss Ruth Hoover, head of the women's physical education department, will tell you.
The 150-pound Smith used her powerful booming drives to win the 1949 Women's National Intercollegiate Golf championship over Grace Lenczyk after losing to her in the finals in 1948.
When she was 20. Marilynn joined A. G. Spalding and Brothers sporting goods company July 1, 1949, to become at that time the youngest golfer to ever play for pay.
In the nearly two years that Marilynn has followed the ladies' pro tournament circuit around the country, she has played in about 30 tournaments competing against such famous golfers as Babe Zaharias, Patty Berg, Louise Suggs, and Betty Jameson. These tourneys have taken her from coast-to-coast and border-to-border.
Marilynn will play at White Plains, N.Y., this weekend as the women pros finish the fourth and final round of their 144-hole cross-country Weathervane tournament trail.
This four match tourney started in Dallas last month and moved from there to the tough Peeble Beach, Calif., course before doubling back almost across the country to Indianapolis, Ind.
After finishing third back of Berg in last year's world famous Tam O'Shanter tournament in Chicago, Smith hopes to again place high among the nation's selected eight women pros invited to this outstanding golfing attraction.
MARILYNN SMITH
"Ive met some grand people around this great U.S.A. of ours," Marilynn recently said, "and I consider it a privilege and sincerely appreciate the opportunity that Spalding has given me in professional golf.
"It hasn't all been a bed of roses—driving from tournament to tournament, practicing, and talking to an average of 25 to 75 people a day is a little tiring at times. But it is fun and I enjoy it tremendously," she added.
"As for K.U., my thoughts often turn to my two years there," Smith proudly relates, "for I like to visit those people whom I consider had much to do with molding my views on life and whom I'll never forget.
"My teachers, school chums, and house mother all had their influence on me, and I'm deeply indebted to them for their interest shown me," the young pro said.
So, seniors, even though Marilynn's smiling face won't be among you for baccalaureate and commencement services you can rest assured her thoughts will be with you, her never - to be - forgotten classmates of '51.
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