Nicky Boyd
Self-taught golfer retires from coaching, not from Harding
Gleaning a small perfume bottle from one of the shelves that line a wall in his office at Harding University, Nicky Boyd gazed at the intricate detail of the red bird that is painted on the bottle. He then slowly turned and said, “This is one of my favorite pieces. It’s painted from the inside.”
The shelves are packed with sentimental items from around the world that were gifts from many of the students Boyd brings to Harding through the Walton International Scholarship Program.
Boyd wears several hats around Harding University, but one of his favorites may be his proverbial golf hat. As the university’s women’s golf coach, he led his team to win its first conference championship ever at the Great American Conference tournament in April. It’s also the first year the conference has existed. But this is Boyd’s last year to coach at Harding. Although Boyd isn’t retiring from his job as director of International Student Services and of the Walton International Scholarship Program, he is retiring as golf coach.
“This is his last year to coach, and he’s going out in style,” Butch Gardner said about Boyd and his golf team
“
It’s sobering to go into a house where there’s nothing to eat. It made me see what a blessing these scholarships can be.”
winning the conference title.
Gardner is director of Career Services at Harding and has worked with Boyd for 30 years. The two men also play golf together, and Gardner said Boyd is pretty competitive.
“He’s done a tremendous job with both,” Gardner said about Boyd’s two jobs at Harding. “He’s well revered by all the Walton students. … He’s just a wonderful guy, and he’s fun to be around and an excellent golfer.”
NICKY BOYD
on the Walton International Scholarship Program
Most of the students from Central America who attend Harding on the Walton scholarship are from extreme poverty. One of the requirements of accepting the scholarship is that the student will go back to his or her country and work for four years.
The Walton scholarship is available to students form Central America, and Boyd makes personal visits to
prospective students. He has seen firsthand how the scholarships not only change the life of a student, but can change many lives.
“It’s sobering to go into a house where there’s nothing to eat,” Boyd said. “It made me see what a blessing these scholarships can be.”
Boyd told the story of a Mayan student from Guatemala who could barely speak English when he came to Harding. He graduated with an accounting degree and now holds a top accounting position with Latin America Beverages of Pepsico.
“He sent his three sisters through university, and now they have professional jobs, too,” Boyd said.
With a love for travel, Boyd said, he is fortunate to be able to experience the cultures of the students he helps recruit through the scholarship program. When he’s not traveling around Central America, Boyd said he gets on the golf course as much as he can.
He said he always loved the game of golf, but no one in his family played. Growing up in Levy, he was within walking distance to a nine-hole public course on Fort Roots Drive in North Little Rock.
“When I was about 15, I’d sneak up on the course at Fort Roots,” Boyd said. “I got up about 6 and figured I could play nine holes before anybody knew.”
Boyd said he found an old golf club in a trash pile and taught himself to play the game.
“I hung a quilt up in the shed and hit golf balls into it,” Boyd said with a smile.
After Boyd graduated from North Little Rock High School in 1965, he went to Henderson State Teacher’s College in Arkadelphia on a basketball scholarship. After marrying his high school sweetheart, Carolyn Carver, Boyd graduated from Henderson in 1969.
He worked as a teacher and coach in the Arkadelphia and Cabot school districts. In the early ’80s, Boyd came to Searcy to coach and teach at Harding Academy.
That led him to a men’s basketball coaching position at Harding University in 1985. After completing his doctorate in 1994 at the University of Memphis, Boyd stayed on at Harding University as men’s golf coach from 1994 to 2008 and women’s golf coach from 2008 to 2012.
“It’s been fun, and I never felt like I was pressured or had to perform,” Boyd said about his coaching career.
“I like to play golf, so I have a hard time not enjoying that.”
Many people may not know, but his first leadership role came about long before he began teaching.
“When I was in sixth grade at Levy Elementary, I was named Outstanding Safety Patrol Boy,” Boyd said with a laugh.
He said he got to go to Washington, D.C., and march in a parade on the Capitol Mall.
Boyd smiled as he remembered his mother buying him a white sport coat, black pants and a black bow tie to wear. He struck the pose he gave the newspaper photographer from the North Little Rock Times.
Staff writer Jeanni Brosius can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or jbrosius@arkansasonline. com.