The Galveston County Daily News

TEXAS CITY — It’s hard to beat Mike Tucker in doing a couple of things: cooking a steak and playing a round of golf.

No one knows how good a cook Tucker was when he was in high school, but he sizzled on the golf course.

How good was he? Try good enough to be named the Texas City High School golf team MVP two years straight.

“I almost won it three years straight,” said Tucker, the 1969 TCHS graduate who owns Gus’ restaurant in Texas City. “We had some good teams back then too.”

Mike wasn’t the only Tucker who made a name for himself on the Stings links. Older brother Donald was a superstar on the golf team in 1966. So good were the Tucker brothers that colleges across the state were practically begging the pair to come their way.

“We went up to Southwest Texas State (now Texas State University) while in high school and we were better than anyone they had on the college team,” said Tucker.

While football, basketball and baseball remained the more popular sports at TCHS in those days, the golf team was a pretty happening squad as well.

“Like I said, we were pretty competitive team back then,” Tucker said. “We actually had two teams, — so many people wanted to come out my junior year.”

Those years on the golf team were special as well thanks in large part to Tucker’s coach, Wally T. Davis.

“He taught me the etiquette of the game,” said Tucker. “If you didn’t have etiquette on the course, well, you didn’t play.

“He was strict about that.”

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Did You Know?

Current Texas City Independent School District Superintendent Richard Etteredge is not only a graduate of the school district, but was also a member of the 1960 Texas City High School golf team that won the state championship?