How A Former Alabama Running Back Created First Tee’s Leadership Academy

The latest First Tee leadership initiative kicked off this week in Atlanta with a focus on building and running a successful team. It’s the vision of a former University of Alabama football player (and PGA Tour Superstore executive) who learned lessons about teamwork under the tutelage of Hall of Fame coach Bear Bryant.

“Whether it’s family dynamics, sports, business, anything, you have to be able to bring values of team cooperation to the table,” said Ralph Stokes, who leads PGA Tour Superstore’s diversity, partnerships, and community efforts as a trusted advisor to owner Arthur Blank. Stokes, who recently became the first Black president of the Georgia State Golf Association, was a running back for the Crimson Tide from 1971-74 and one of the first Black football players at Alabama.

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The new First Tee Leadership Academy, created in partnership with PGA Tour Superstore, is a weeklong event that brings together 48 teenagers from around the country to participate in workshops about networking and relationship building, developing a winning culture, and succeeding in a team setting. It includes meetings with executives for the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United FC along with visiting area venues like Mercedes-Benz Stadium and historic Bobby Jones Golf Club.

The effort is an extension of First Tee’s leadership program in which PGA Tour Superstore managers bring select teenagers into their locations for a five-week individual program to develop leadership skills. From there, two or three top performers from each class or location are selected to take part in an elevated experience, with 40 kids in total heading out to Blank’s Montana Ranch for classroom learning as well as adventures like fly fishing, archery, and white-water rafting.

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“That’s a great experience, but as we’re growing so rapidly in stores and in markets, this year there were over 300 kids and I’m trying to pick 40 (for Montana),” said Stokes. “With 75 to 100 stores in the next four years, I’m going to have 500 to 600 kids going through this leadership program. If you’ve sat with these young people, they’re so exceptional. I told Arthur we have to do more.”

Stokes first presented his idea to PGA Tour Superstore Chairman Dick Sullivan and then to Blank, who was a supporter of First Tee even before acquiring the golf industry’s leading retailer in 2009. While still an “elevated experience” like the one in Montana, he proposed that the new effort would center on team leadership, including how to work within a team and deal with the related dynamics. Seeing how Sullivan and PGA Tour Superstore were invested in First Tee’s efforts, Stokes saw ways to extend that to professional sports teams and venues Blank has an ownership stake in or relationships with.

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Blank enthusiastically endorsed the idea.

“From playing team sports, I learned that no matter how great an individual player is, you will not achieve success on your own,” said Stokes, who played on Alabama teams that went 33-4 under Bryant, winning three Southeastern Conference titles and one national championship. “Golf is largely an individual sport, but we felt it was important to collaborate with First Tee on this event because these kids are part of families, communities, clubs and eventually workplaces where they need to function within a team.”

Among the highlights of the inaugural Leadership Academy:

• Georgia Tech women’s basketball coach Nell Fortner sharing advice on achieving individual growth in a team setting during opening keynote
• Falcons President Greg Beadles speaking to participants before a tour of the team’s Flowery Branch training facility
• Attending a United game after meeting with team President and CEO Garth Lagerway
• Mercedes-Benz Stadium executive Don Rovak discussing the importance of supporting your team
• PGA Tour Superstore President Jill Spiegel addressing attendees at Bobby Jones Golf Club about the facility’s history and broader changes in golf
• A visit to the National Center for Civil and Human Rights where Falcons guard Chris Lindstrom, the team’s 2022 Walter Payton Man of the Year, delivers the event’s closing address

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The overarching initiative is intended to inspire and equip teenagers as they pursue higher education opportunities. As with the Leadership Summit in Montana, four participants will receive $20,000 scholarships along with access to a full mentoring program and four years of support.

“A lot of these kids are in all types of sports in addition to golf. We’re trying to teach them values that will transition across all of these sports and beyond,” said Stokes, who was a college teammate of Pro Football Hall of Famers such as Ozzie Newsome and John Hannah. “I was fortunate to play with some really good players and we knew if we couldn’t work together as a team, then that team wasn’t going to be any stronger than our weakest link.”

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Stokes didn’t come to golf until he was 30 years old and working in the world of corporate insurance – selling medical, dental and vision benefits to large companies and their employees. Among them were the PGA Tour and Home Depot, which is owned by Blank. Realizing that connections and deals could be readily made on the golf course, Stokes went from a 36-handicap to a scratch player.

He remains a strong proponent of golf for life lessons and relationship building.

“You learn more about someone in one four-hour round of golf than you’ll learn in three business meetings and two dinners,” said Stokes, who aspires to soon grow the Leadership Academy from 48 participants to 60 or 70. “It’s a game that helps you reveal character. And it’s a powerful tool for life.”