Catana Starks

Catana Rhoda Johnson Starks (December 30, 1944 – September 6, 2020) was an American athletics coach. She was the first African-American woman to coach a men's team at the collegiate level, when she coached the men's golf team at Tennessee State University from 1986 to 2005.

Catana Starks
Catana Starks, from a 1998 newspaper
Born
Catana Rhoda Johnson

December 30, 1944
Mobile, Alabama, USA
DiedSeptember 6, 2020
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
OccupationAthletics coach
Years active1980-2000s
Known forGolf coach, Tennessee State University

Early life

Catana Johnson was born in Mobile, Alabama. She graduated from Tennessee State University, where one of her classmates was Olympian Wilma Rudolph.[1] She earned a doctorate from Tennessee State in 1989,[2] with a dissertation titled "An analysis of three methods of teaching physical fitness and their effect on strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular endurance" (1989).[3]

Career

Starks coached high school swimming and basketball in Saginaw, Michigan in the 1970s.[4][5] She became a swimming and diving coach at Tennessee State in 1980.[6] She became head coach of the school's new golf program in 1986,[7][8] the first African-American woman to coach a men's golf team at the highest collegiate level.[9] She coached the men's golf team at Tennessee State from 1986 to 2005; her efforts to boost the team's profile included recruiting international students, which caused some controversy,[10] especially in the 1998 season, when the team had only one African-American player.[11] In her last year as coach, the team won the National Minority Golf Championship.[12] Her former players included Canadian golfer Sean Foley, who in turn coached Tiger Woods, and Scottish golfer Robert Dinwiddie.[1] She was also head of the Human Performance and Sports Sciences department at Tennessee State.[9]

Starks' life story was dramatized in a film, From the Rough (2011), starring Taraji P. Henson as Starks.[13][14][15] In 2014, Starks was inducted into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame.[12]

Personal life

Catana Rhoda Johnson married Alfred Donnie Starks in 1964. They had a son. She later married Mallanese K. Wells. Starks died in 2020, aged 75 years, in Nashville, Tennessee.[16]

References
  1. "Former TSU Men's Golf Coach Dr. Catana Starks Passes Away". Ohio Valley Conference. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  2. "Catana Starks, Ph.D. '89". TSU Points of Pride. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  3. "ETD Collection for Tennessee State University". Digital Scholarship, Tennessee State University. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  4. Hunt, Donald (2011-04-28). "Catana Starks made her own history in golf". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  5. "Police Probe Crash That Killed 6 Teens". Ironwood Daily Globe. Oct 4, 1977. p. 14. Retrieved January 16, 2021 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  6. "Recreation Classes Slated". The Tennessean. 1982-01-21. p. 47. Retrieved 2021-01-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. DeVille, Nancy (2011-09-26). "Golf Coach Conjured Magic; Starks a Race, Gender Pioneer". The Tennessean. pp. B1. Retrieved 2021-01-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "TSU Adds Two Sports; Temple Gets New Post". The Tennessean. 1984-06-29. p. 26. Retrieved 2021-01-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. Johnson, Lucas (September 7, 2020). "Dr. Catana Starks". Tennessee State University Newsroom. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  10. "TSU Golf Experience Colorful One for Starks". The Tennessean. 2005-05-15. pp. C1. Retrieved 2021-01-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. Coleman, Anthony (1998-05-09). "TSU Golf Squad Swings for Equal Opportunity". The Tennessean. p. 7. Retrieved 2021-01-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. Organ, Mike (2020-09-07). "Obit: Tennessee State's Catana Starks, first Black woman to coach an NCAA men's golf team". Golfweek. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  13. Parker, Najja (April 25, 2014). "Taraji P. Henson Makes Hole-in-One with Latest Film". Jet Magazine. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  14. Harrington, Jayla (2020-12-30). "Catana Starks: Rising From the Rough". Medium. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  15. Callahan, Yesha (April 25, 2014). "Catana Starks, the True Story Behind From the Rough". The Grapevine. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  16. "Golf Community Mourns the Passing of Trailblazing Coach Dr. Catana Starks". PGA. September 8, 2020. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
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