20 august 1968 & ethel p funches competes @42nd national golf championships
"The 'P' is for Powerful."
Ethel P. Funches
#OTD 20 August 1968 The 42nd Annual National Golf Championships was underway. Organized by the United Golfers Association, the cross-generational amateur and professional competition took place at Langston Golf Course (2600 Benning Road) and the historically whites-only East Potomac Park Golf Course (972 Ohio Drive, SW).
Ethel Funches (in the center of the above photograph), winner of the 1967 women's and senior championships, was back to defend her title. Funches was an incredible and formidable golfer who had won four national titles by 1968 and dozens of local and regional titles. When not competing and practicing with her Wake-Robin Golf Club members and her spouse, Eugene Funches, she worked as a cafeteria manager at Dunbar High School.
Langston Golf Course, 2600 Benning Rd NE. n.d. Photographer unknown. Courtesy National Register of Historic Places. Retrieved from Wikipedia, 20 August 2018.
The tournament took place from 19 August to 23 August.
Your comments are welcome below. Do you, family members or neighbors remember Ethel P. Funches? Do you recognize the other individuals in the photograph? Were you a golfer? Did you participate in the tournament? Were you a member of the Wake-Robin Golf Club? Do you remember Langston and Potomac golf courses in 1968? Do you have photographs of Funches and other players from 1968? Do you have ephemera, such as programs, golf score cards, flyers, etc? T-shirts or golf outfits? You may comment privately here.
Photo source: Retrieved from Washington Post obituary of Funches and is attributed to "Afro-American newspaper." 1953. Photographer unknown. If you have more information about photograph, I'd like to give proper credit to newspaper and photographer.
Click here for history of Wake-Robin Golf Club.
"42nd National Golf Championship in DC," New York Amsterdam News," 20 July 1968.
M. Mikell Johnson, The African American Woman Golfer: Her Legacy 2007.
