CORAL SPRINGS, Florida (January 3, 2006) – Pam Tyska, Women’s Golf Coach at Northern Illinois University, will receive the 2006 Gladys Palmer Meritorious Service Award, the National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA) most prestigious honor. Tyska will receive the award at the upcoming NGCA Hall of Fame Induction Banquet to be held Tuesday, January 10, 2006 in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. The banquet, with master of ceremonies Kay Cockerill of The Golf Channel, will take place during the 2006 NGCA Member Convention at the Caesars Tahoe Hotel.
If members of the Northern Illinois University women’s golf team are looking for a path to success, they need look no further than the clubhouse. That’s because 17th-year coach Pam Tyska has reached the top levels in many areas, and knows exactly how to teach those secrets to her players.
Prior to taking the helm at NIU in 1986, Tyska served as a rules official and assistant tournament director of the FUTURES Ladies Professional Golf Tour in 1984, moving on to become a physical education teacher at the University of Chicago Laboratory School later that year.
Northern Illinois responded quickly to Tyska’s teaching, winning two tournaments and placing in the top five an amazing 10 times in 12 tourneys during the 1986-87 campaign. The Huskies notched three tourney titles in 1989-90 and 1991-92, adding a pair each in 1988-89 and 1990-91. In total, NIU has 14 titles, 17 runner-up finishes and 66 top-five showings in 136 tourneys under her leadership.
But the Huskies’ achievements are not limited to the course. Northern Illinois has had consistent representation on the NGCA All-American Scholar honor roll, a prestigious list that includes a host of Huskies sporting grade-point-averages of 3.50 or higher. The 2001-2002 women’s golf team also touted the highest GPA of any team in Northern Illinois athletics.
Tyska owns a host of regional and national awards as well, winning Midwest Region Coach of the Year accolades from the NGCA in 1991 and from the LPGA in 1994 and 1996.
The veteran links boss’ reputation has earned the respect of her peers, being selected to the elite group of clinicians for the NCAA’s Youth Education through Sports (YES) Clinics every year they have been held since 1993.
The clinics help potential collegiate golfers in their development with discussions on the role of academics, goal-setting and mental skill development on and off the course, as well as recruiting and admission requirements. She has also been instrumental in founding "Get a Girl Golfing" clinics at NIU in 1998. The program was sponsored by the NGCA and Golf For Women magazine.
Tyska also sat on the NCAA Midwestern Regional Selection Committee from 1989 through 1995 and on the NGCA Awards Committee from 1990 through 1996, plus a stint on the NGCA Board of Directors from 1996-2001. In addition to her extensive list of NCAA appointments, Tyska is a member of the NGCA, LPGA, PGA, and the National Association of Golf Educators. She also is on the executive boards of The Fairway Network, the Illinois Junior Golf Association and the Women’s Western Golf Association.
The Gladys Palmer Meritorious Service Award is given in recognition of outstanding service above and beyond the call of duty. Outstanding service may take the form of years of unselfish involvement in promoting golf at any level, or highly significant service of far-reaching proportions.
Gladys Palmer’s contributions to women’s collegiate golf were highly significant. As Chairman of the women’s division of Physical Education at The Ohio State University, she organized the first women’s golf championship in June 1941. She believed that is was up to the educational institutions to run an event for collegiate women.
About the National Golf Coaches Association
The National Golf Coaches Association, founded in 1983, is a non-profit organization representing women’s collegiate golf coaches. The NGCA was formed to encourage the playing of college golf for women in correlation with a general objective of education and in accordance with the highest tradition of intercollegiate competition. Today, the NGCA represents over 400 coaches throughout the U.S. and is dedicated to educating, promoting and recognizing both its members and the student-athletes they represent.
Contact:
Roger M. Yaffe
roger@collegiategolf.com
Phone (800) 381-0769
