Minium: Evie Odom's Gift to ODU Women's Golf Inspired by Her Childhood Athletic Dreams

By Harry Minium

When she was a child, Evie Thomson Odom and friends would often debate whether to play with Barbies or pretend to be horses. They would usually cast the Barbies aside and take off running.

Evie loved to run. She ran through the forest and fields in Western Massachusetts and as she grew older, began to run long distances. Who knows how good she might have been had she run high school and college track?

Alas, Evie entered high school before Title IX was signed into law by President Richard Nixon. Title IX deemed that any school receiving federal funds must treat men and women and boys and girls equally, and that forced high schools and colleges to begin athletic programs for young women.

It was great turn of events for so many women, but too late for Evie, whose brothers were both captains on the boys' track and cross country teams.

"I envied my brothers being able to run on the track," she said. "I was competitive by nature, and when I ran with the boys, I wanted to beat them. My husband will tell you, I still want to beat men in a race.

"I would have loved to have had the enjoyment of being on a team in high school and college. Who knows what I could have done?"

Many decades later, Evie and her husband, Hu Odom, are doing what they can to help young women with the same dreams she had as a child.

Evie has donated $525,000 to the Old Dominion University Women's Golf program. It is by far the largest gift ever made to ODU women's golf and is the largest donation ever to a women's sports team at ODU.

"Evie's gift is transformational for our women's golf program and we are so fortunate that she has confidence in coach Mallory Hetzel's vision for the program and our student-athletes," said ena Virga, executive senior associate athletic director for the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation.

ODU has renamed its annual Princess Anne Invitational fall golf tournament the Evie Odom Invitational. I

Evie still runs in competitive road races, but golf is now her favorite game. She's a long-time member of the Princess Anne Country Club, located on the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.



When the first Princess Anne Invitational was held, "I was right there, volunteering to help with the tournament," she said.

She was a scorekeeper "and enjoyed it so much. I just loved it, being up close to the athletes."

When she met Hetzel, they hit it off instantly, and she quickly learned that Hetzel has aspirations of turning ODU into a Top 25 program.

ODU won the 2017 Conference USA Tournament and gained at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament in 2018 and 2019.

"Mallory is on fire with what she wants to do with this program," Evie said.

"I would have loved to have had that enjoyment of competing in college. So, I started thinking about what other philanthropic things we could do to promote women's athletics. After being introduced to the ODU golf team, I thought, 'let's do something here.'

"We wanted to do something that would truly make a difference."

Half of the $500,000 will go to make the Evie Odom Invitational one of the best in the country.

Unlike other sports, golf teams don't host individual meets. Everything is an invitational, often involving a dozen or more teams, and so the Evie Odom Invitational is ODU's one chance to play at "home."

Hetzel said there will be hole-by-hole electronic scoring, something generally not offered anywhere except the NCAA Tournament. And beginning in 2022, ODU will offer much more that should attract a field featuring some of the nation's finest teams.



"What we're going to be able to do this year is enhance some of the experience, whether it's signage, meals, tournament gifts, things like that," Hetzel said. "Going forward, we're going to be able to call Notre Dame, Duke and Clemson and say, you can come play in this great championship-like tournament for free."

ODU will cover the entry fees, pay for hotel rooms, provide meals and what she calls "an incredible experience" on one of Virginia's best golf courses just steps away from the Atlantic Ocean.

"It's going to be the best event they will experience the entire year."

Hetzel played at Georgia, where the famed Liz Murphey Invitational is held, and her goal is to make ODU's tournament eventually to equal that event.

The other $250,000 will go to directly support the golf program.

"The type of schedule we're trying to play is expensive," Hetzel said. "Your strength of schedule is what weighs heaviest in your national rankings. That's the reason we've climbed up the national rankings like we have.

"We've flown to California to Colorado and to Georgia. We want to play the best schedule possible, and this gift is going to help us do that."

Hetzel said the donation will also give her the gift of time.

"I've raised a lot of money, but if I can spend less time on that, I can spend more time with my players, and recruiting and with my family, which is the most important thing."



Professionally, Evie was luckier than she was athletically. When she was in grade school, most girls trained to become teachers or secretaries. She had plans to become a teacher when more job opportunities began to open up for women.

She went to Northeastern University in Boston and received a degree in dental hygiene. For several years, she worked at an inner-city clinic in Worcester, Massachusetts, which treated impoverished people, including many at no cost.

Dental hygiene also brought her to Hampton Roads. She was in her late 20s when she came to Norfolk with a friend. "I never intended to stay here," she said. But she did.

She has worked at local clinics and spent more than two decades as a faculty member in the dental hygiene program of ODU's College of Health Sciences before retiring a few years ago.

People who enter the healthcare profession generally do so to help others, and both she and her husband have donated to many other worthy causes.

"This wasn't just for the golf team, I hope this helps the entire ODU community," she said. "ODU values its women's golf program, it values women's athletics. I hope this will be a catalyst for more people to help."

Evie said this is likely not her last donation to the women's golf program. And that's music to Hetzel's ears.

"So many of Evie's passions and her vision align with what I'm trying to do," Hetzel said. "Sure I have passion and goals, but at the end of the day, you have to have the bucks to pay for it."

Among her goals is to compete against the best Power 5 schools.

"We don't compare ourselves to our peer institutions," she said. "We compare ourselves to the best in the sport.

"We know it's an uphill challenge, but I can promise you my players love that.

"We've got big plans for where we want to go. Where we are now compared to where we will be in two years are very different places. It will be reflected in the tournament, in our practice facilities and in the quality of players we have on our team and the results that we're able to have.

"We are so grateful to Evie. Her generous gift is going to do so much to help our program."

Minium was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in his 39 years at The Virginian-Pilot and won 27 state and national writing awards. He covers ODU athletics for odusports.com Follow him on Twitter @Harry_MiniumODU, Instagram @hbminium1 or email hminium@odu.edu