Boyle Named GCAA Honor Award Recipient
Former Penn Statecoach earns Association?s highest accoladeNORMAN, Okla. ? Joe Boyle, former head men?s golf coach at Penn State has been named the Golf Coaches Association of America Honor Award winner. Boyle will be formally recognized on Monday, Jan. 22, 2007, at the GCAA Hall of Fame Reception and Awards Banquet in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The Honor Award is presented annually to a member of the GCAA Hall of Fame who is retired from coaching and has made a significant contribution to the game of golf.
?This was a complete surprise and a great honor,? said Boyle. ?To be included with some of the other coaches who have received this award is very special.?
A true link to the very beginnings of Penn State golf, Boyle was the captain of Penn State?s 1949 team coached by the Nittany Lions first coach Robert ?Pop? Rutherford. Coach Boyle graduated from Penn State in 1949 and remained in Happy Valley and served as an assistant coach under Pop?s son, Robert, Jr. He was an assistant for Robert Jr. till 1957 before taking the reigns of the program.
Boyle guided the Nittany Lions for 25 seasons leading Penn State to seven Eastern Intercollegiate Championships (1963, 64, 66, 67, 71, 72, 73), two Big Four Championships (1971, 72), and a 197-38-1 record in dual meet competition. During his coaching career he also led the Nittany Lions to The Intercollegiate (National Championship) five times (1963, 65, 66, 67, 69). The team?s top finish under his guidance at The Intercollegiate was 16th in 1969. Boyle coached 11 GCAA All-America selections at Penn State including four-time All-American Dan O?Neill.
A native of Aliquippa, Pa., Boyle enrolled at Penn State in 1941, but left after his first year to serve in the Navy during World War II. He returned to compete for Penn State from 1946-49 and played on Penn State?s 1948 Eastern Intercollegiate Championship team, they were the first non-Ivy League team to claim the Eastern title.
A past president of the GCAA, Boyle was elected to the GCAA Hall of Fame by his coaching peers in 1987.