Club Times - May/June 2022

most impactful to obtain in order to preserve and further illuminate our history. A sub-committee led by Gene McClure set out to create a current inventory of memorabilia in the Club and determine what is missing. We arranged for an award-winning curator of Club and golf history to visit our Club, spending a day reviewing our wonderful displays in all areas of the Club and assisting us in an effort to create a strategic list of items our Club should consider purchasing in the future. A sample of items from the list discussed include the replica copies of all trophies of events hosted by our Club, original Alexa Stirling and Bob Jones medals, Heisman Trophy, the original Havemeyer U.S. Amateur Trophy, U.S. Women’s Amateur Trophy won by three of our members of our Club, and so much more. Next steps are to create a plan to involve the membership to participate in the acquisition of this memorabilia so our rich history is preserved for current and future generations of our great Club. We will use special events, fund raisers, ongoing optional monthly donations, etc. to raise the necessary money for specific items in order to make this history happen! Although the actual date for our Club’s 125th anniversary is September 5, 2023, we will be celebrating throughout the 2023 calendar year. This is an opportunity to reflect on our history of fellowship, leadership, and international reputation as one of the great Clubs in the world. As such, we will be branding most of our Club activities and also adding a number of special events to commemorate and reflect on our past 125 years. For the past year, our board and staff have been planning for this special year and we hope all members will enjoy the activities and take the time to learn more about the history of our Club. More details and announcements will be forthcoming. 125TH ATLANTA ATHLETIC CLUB ANNIVERSARY PLANNING

with meaningful objects. In the past the only real way to learn the meaning of these rooms and objects was to attend an oral tour given by our Club’s historian Bill O’Callaghan. Bill has dedicated much of his life giving back to the Atlanta Athletic Club and I for one am very grateful, for had he not done this we would have lost much of our oral history. On behalf of everyone at our Club – thank you Bill! This project’s goal was to digitize the history of each cabinet and significant room into a preserved audio format that can be accessed by anyone at any time via their mobile device or on an interactive map on our Club’s website. Each cabinet in the Club or named room will have a QR code associated with it and you simply use your phone to activate the QR code and immediately get the audio recording of the historical relevance. We created a sub-committee that included Bill O’Callaghan to create a script for each room or cabinet (a total of 36 scripts) that will be recorded by a professional narrator. On our history page, there are two audio clips we have created; clicking the links will give you a sense of what will be available throughout the clubhouse: DIGITIZE CHARLIE ELLIOTT’S 75TH ANNIVERSARY ATLANTA ATHLETIC CLUB HISTORY BOOK In 1973 Bobby Jones’ favorite fishing partner Charlie Elliott wrote a history of our Club’s first 75 years. This book is a typewritten document that has previously only been available in our Club’s corporate offices; we have now had it digitized with a voiceover and it will be made available to anyone at the Club on 15 different digital sources. Now instead of thumbing through a type written document, you can listen to it while you drive, workout, or anytime you wish to listen to it. As of this writing the first four chapters are available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Pandora, TuneIn + Alexa, Amazon Music, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, Buzzsprout, Deezer, Listen Notes, Player FM, and Podcast Index. Simply search on “Atlanta Athletic Club history” when trying to locate the digital book. The remaining 8 chapters will be available in the near future. If you have made it this far reading this article you will see that we have been very busy trying to scale the ways that everyone can learn about the wonderful history of our Club. We are all very proud of our progress but know we will have to work hard to continue to build upon the foundational work that this year’s committee accomplished. Proudly signed on the behalf of the Heritage Committee, Bruce Barfield

DIGITIZE AND MEMORIALIZE OUR ORAL HISTORY INTO QR CODES AROUND THE CLUBHOUSE

The Club has many rooms that have a rich history throughout the clubhouse with a number of cabinets filled