Curry tees up two golf teams for Howard U.
“Since that day, this has continued to expand. It’s like a new pair of shoes — they don’t feel like your own shoes.”
Howard student Otis Ferguson, whose chance meeting with Stephen Curry led to the school reviving golf
Edrine Okong grew up in Uganda playing cricket and soccer, started attending summer golf camps at age 7 and watched basketball on television, admiring Warriors guard Stephen Curry from afar.
But golf was Okong’s priority. He caddied for his older brothers, embraced the game’s selfreliance and became skilled enough to come to the U.S. to play at Division II Livingstone College in North Carolina.
Still, he harbored grander ambitions. Then, last year, an unlikely avenue opened: Curry, an avid golfer, donated more than $1 million to create a Division I program at Howard University, one of the country’s
most prestigious historically Black colleges.
Okong eventually connected with coach Sam Puryear and transferred to Howard. Now Okong, an honors student in computer information systems, savors his impending chance to play at the college game’s highest level — and he knows who deserves the assist.
“I’m at Howard because of Steph Curry,” Okong said in a recent phone interview with The Chronicle. “Without him, I wouldn’t have thought of being here. … It’s like a big dream come true.”
Curry stretches his philanthropy in various directions, often targeting young people, but his decision to essentially launch a golf program at Howard counted as striking. It spoke to his passion for the game and desire to create a path for minorities, specifically African Americans, in a sport with an exclusionary history.
Fifteen months after Curry announced his commitment at a news conference in Washington, D.C., the players are in place and hoping the coronavirus pandemic will relent so they can compete next spring. For now, they marvel at their famous benefactor’s interest — including an exuberant Instagram post in September, showing off the teams’ new attire to his nearly 32 million followers.
Kendel Abrams recalled her shock upon learning Curry, who attended Davidson College and had no affiliation with Howard, bankrolled the program. She transferred from tiny Converse College in South Carolina, attracted by the chance to play immediately on a Division I team.
Abrams also appreciated Curry’s wider message.
“He’s really trying to foster an atmosphere where minorities have access to the game,” she said.
Otis Ferguson nearly missed his big moment.
Ferguson followed family tradition by attending Howard, where his dad and sisters went to school. His only reservation was the absence of varsity golf, so Ferguson made that his mission — and he started a club team as a sophomore, after soliciting equipment donations and finding other students to join him.
He still sought out Curry at a January 2019 campus screening of “Emanuel,” a documentary about the murders of nine Black worshipers by a white supremacist at a Charleston, S.C., church. (Curry was the movie’s executive producer.) Ferguson and a friend were delayed at another commitment and arrived late, but he made his way to the stage after a panel discussion.
Ferguson knew how to distinguish himself from the crowd of students vying for Curry’s attention — he suggested they play golf before he left town. That didn’t happen, but they spoke briefly and Ferguson told Curry about his vision to turn the club team into a varsity program.
“That’s dope,” Curry replied, by Ferguson’s account. “I’d definitely get behind you on that.”
They later traded emails, but then Curry got busy with the NBA season; the Warriors made their fifth consecutive Finals appearance in June, only to fall to Toronto. Ferguson figured nothing might come of their exchange, until he heard from Jeron Smith, a Howard alum who, alongside Curry, cofounded Unanimous Media (which produced “Emanuel”).
As it turned out, Curry and his team had worked behind the scenes with school officials to sponsor men’s and women’s teams. He spread the donation over six years — to give Howard time to establish an endowment to fund the program — and arranged for apparel donations from Under Armour (one of his sponsors) and equipment from Callaway (another Curry partner).
Curry came to campus in August 2019 to make the announcement and play a symbolic round alongside Howard President Wayne Frederick, Callaway CEO Chip Brewer and Ferguson. Nice company for a college student.
“It was just cool to see how downtoearth Steph was,” Ferguson said. “Since that day, this has continued to expand. It’s like a new pair of shoes — they don’t feel like your own shoes.”
Ferguson occasionally texts Curry to update him on the team’s preparations for a 2021 season that hinges on the state of the pandemic. Curry might one day return to Washington to meet with the players, but they’re scattered around the country this semester, anyway, taking classes remotely.
In the meantime, Puryear spent the early part of 2020 stitching together rosters. Howard lists six players on its men’s team and five on its women’s team, a mix of freshmen, transfers such as Okong and Abrams and graduate students such as Ferguson.
Puryear, a former assistant coach at Stanford and head coach at Michigan State, owns a deep reservoir of contacts in amateur golf circles. He also didn’t mind when prospects reached out to him, attracted by Curry’s benevolence to the program.
“The Steph Effect is making people do research and call us,” Puryear said. “It’s making good players think, ‘Maybe Howard is a destination, not only to get a great education but also a great golf experience.’ ”
Howard’s lean golf history
— the school hasn’t fielded a varsity team since its Division II program was discontinued in the 1970s — reflects the game’s nearinvisibility at historically Black colleges and universities (few of those schools, known as HBCUs, sponsor golf ). That’s one reason Howard officials see significance in Curry’s involvement, creating a fresh route to college for African American students.
“This one man can literally transform lives for generations to come,” Puryear said. “This becomes bigger than Howard. He’s showing other people the fruits you can bear out of an HBCU are incredible.
“We’re starting from scratch, but he’s saying, ‘I’m going to put everyone on the starting line and give you the same track shoes everyone else has.’ What Steph has done is really remarkable.”
Curry knew about Howard University through Smith, his colleague, but the chance encounter with Ferguson sparked Curry’s interest — and fit his vision of creating more access to golf, especially for African Americans.
“It was an ‘Aha!’ moment,” he said in a phone interview with The Chronicle this week. “What’s it going to take to get the program started and create a pipeline? Golf can be an anchor for an amazing career in the business of golf, and hopefully we can get some players on tour and create a North Star for what growing the game actually means . ...
“If you’re good and you’re passionate, you should have every opportunity to pursue it competitively or another avenue in the world of golf. That’s a big goal, but I think I have a big lane as a nongolfer who’s very passionate about the game and wants to solve some of this.”
Also worth noting: Curry’s madefortelevision charity match Friday, in which he and Peyton Manning will play against Phil Mickelson and Charles Barkley, will benefit HBCUs. Curry tapped Howard as his school of choice to receive a portion of the funds raised by the event.
Howard golfers clearly share Curry’s zest for the game. Abrams, in her younger days, tagged along with her older brothers on trips to the local municipal course in York, Pa. She occasionally braved snow and freezing temperatures to sneak in a few holes in winter.
She also played basketball in high school, about the time she became a Curry fan while watching him annually tangle with LeBron James in the Finals. Abrams hasn’t met Curry, but she felt connected to him when he shared those photos on social media of Howard players in their sharp, whiteandblue garb; he called it “one of those cool moments,” and added, “Glad to be part of this journey. Just the beginning.”
Shortly thereafter, Abrams came across several 8 and 9yearold golfers who recognized her from the photos.
“I’ve talked to several junior golfers, and they say, ‘I saw you on Steph’s post,’ ” Abrams said. “It’s inspiring a whole new generation to see HBCUs in a new light. Bigger schools have a lot of funding and exposure. Steph’s post shows America that HBCUs have talent. We’re underrepresented.”
Abrams is taking online classes at home in Pennsylvania this semester, much like Okong in North Carolina. He looks forward to the day when he can thank Curry in person for helping him realize his dreams.
“I hope to inspire kids not only in Uganda but the entire world, kids from poor backgrounds,” Okong said. “They don’t know where to focus, so hopefully I can inspire them to do good. They never know where their dream will take them.”