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Rogers Park Golf Course Listed On National Register Of Historic Places
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
Last week, the State of Florida recognized Rogers Park Golf Course by including it on the National Register of Historic Places. The milestone in the history of the golf course was discussed during the facili- ty’s board meeting on Monday.
Family members and other residents have attempted to have the facility named to the National Register of Historic Places for several years. The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. It is author- ized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, and is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect historic and archaeological resources in America.
Rogers Park Golf Course came into existence in the early 1950s as a 9-hole facility desig- nated for African Americans. It later evolved into an 18-hole golf facility with a rich history.
During the segregation era, the land was not a golf course, but served as the only picnic area for members of the African American community in Tampa.
Garfield Devoe Rogers, also known as G. D. Rogers, donated the land in which the golf course was built to provide a place for local African Amer- ican golfers to build it.
Willie Black, the first head golf professional, di- rected a group of volunteers who hand shaped the course. It was completed in 1952. In 1976, the City of Tampa gave management rights to the newly formed Tampa Sports Authority, and a $400,000 renovation project began. In 2000, the Tampa Sports Au- thority decided that a $4 mil- lion renovation was needed. An array of other landscaping and reshaping of holes was added to enhance the charac- ter of Rogers Park Golf Course, and in 2001, a new mainte- nance compound was com- pleted and followed by a new clubhouse in 2002.
James Ransom, grand- son of G. D. Rogers said, “On
G. D. ROGERS
JAMES RANSOM
behalf of my family, the de- scendants of businessman and philanthropist G. D. Rogers, Sr., for whom Rogers Park Golf Course is named, we are ecstatic that Rogers Park Golf Course was nominated by the Florida National Registry Re- view Board and now finally ap- proved by the U. S. National Park Service as a designated in National Registry of Historic Places.
“With the support of other local businessmen, C. Blythe Andrews, Perry Harvey, Sr., and Moses White, they hand shaped and built the first 9-holes that became Rogers Park Golf Course. In later years, C. Blythe Andrews, Jr., and Dr. W. W. An- drews championed the ex- pansion of Rogers Park becoming an 18-hole PGA styled golf course,” Ransom said..
He further noted some of the Hall of Fame African American golfers such as Lee Elder, Charlie Sifford, Jim Dent, Charlie Owens and Bobby Stroble were among Black players who teed-off at Rogers Park.
Ransom provided addi- tional historical facts about Rogers Park, stating, “In 1999, and again in 2008, an ad hoc group known as “Citizens Who Support Keeping Rogers Park Public,” was formed by the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs (TOBA) that thwarted attempts to privatize Rogers Park Golf Rogers Park Golf Course.
Also, in 2008, Rufus Lewis, a Tampa resident golfer and former board mem- ber of the National Black Golf Hall of Fame successfully led an effort to have Rogers Park Golf Course inducted into the National Black Golf Hall of Fame. Rogers Park is still owned by the City of Tampa, but managed and operated by the Tampa Sports Authority.
“We thank the Mayor; Bob Buckhorn, Dennis W. Fer- nandez, from City of Tampa Historic Preservation Division; City Councilman Frank Red- dick and the entire City of Tampa City Council; Eric Hart, President/CEO of the Tampa Sports Authority (TSA); Kinnie Sims, Vice President of Golf Operations at TSA; TSA Board Members.”
ROGERS PARK GOLF COURSE
Hillsborough County ACT-SO Group Wins At National Competition
Maurice Jackson, Chairman of the Hillsborough County Branch NAACP ACT-SO organization, is shown with Naomi Mendez, Gold Medal Winner, left, and Charity Sojourner Franks, Bronze Medal
Winner, after the winners were announced at the competition.
BYIRISB.HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
Earlier this month, a group of teenagers and young adults represented the Hillsborough County Branch NAACP at the 37th Annual National ACT-SO Competition and Awards Competition. The competition was held at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The group returned home with Gold and Bronze medals. Ms. Charity Sojourner Franks was the 2015 Na- tional Bronze Medal in Archi- tecture. Ms. Franks is a 2015 graduate of George S. Middle- ton High School. She is the re- cipient of $1,200 and an Apple iPad. Her project was a five- story hotel with Italian and Spanish influences and an eco-friendly roofing system
for historic Ybor City.
The design includes retail
shopping space and a plan to create a partnership with the Hotel and Hospitality Pro- gram offered by Hillsborough Community College at their Ybor City Campus. The pres- entation also included a vir- tual walk through of her design and a virtual scaled model.
Ms. Franks’ goal is to pursue a degree in Engineer- ing at the University of Central Florida.
Ms. Naomi Mendez
captured the 2015 Visual Arts Gold Medal. She graduated from Howard W. Blake High School in 2015.
Her submission was a sculptured hand hammered and tooled necklace that she fashioned from scrap nickel silver. She entitled her cre- ation, “Black Iris.”
Ms. Mendez will con- tinue her education at Hills- borough Community College in the Arts Program. In addi- tion to her Gold Medal, Ms. Mendez received $2,200 and an Apple iPad.
Ms. Victoria French is a former ACT-SO competitor in the Painting Category. A three-time ACT-SO Gold Medalist Ms. French was chosen as an alto singer and performed with the National ACT-SO Choir during the Awards Ceremony. This is the second time this honor has been bestowed upon her.
Chairman Jackson said, “We are very proud of these young people. They repre- sented the Tampa Bay com- munity well.”
PAGE 4 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2015