Eighteen years in, the Steve Hull Memorial Golf Classic has completed its first mission.

Named after the late Hull, who coached basketball at West Lauderdale and East Mississippi Community College, the tournament was organized following Hull’s untimely death of a massive heart attack in 2001 as a way to raise money to get his children, Trex and Baleigh, through college.

Trex graduated from Mississippi State three years ago and currently works for the Cleveland Browns, and Baleigh is a senior at Mississippi State who will graduate this year.

“That will be mission accomplished,” said Lindsey Hall, news anchor at WTOK and a friend of Hull’s who is the tournament’s director. 

While Hull’s children are all but done with school, Hall said the plan is to still continue the tournament beyond this year. This year’s event is June 6 at the Pearl River Resort’s Dancing Rabbit Golf Course, and the format is a four-person scramble with a 10 a.m. shotgun start on June 6. Currently, approximately 30 teams are signed up, and Hall said the usual goal of attracting 40 teams remains.

“Hopefully we’ll be full,” Hall said. “We use both courses (The Azaleas and The Oaks) up there, so it spreads everyone out, and play moves quickly.”

The cost to enter is $600 per team, which is tax-deductible, and the deadline is May 31. The hospitality suite is from 7-10 p.m. June 5, the day before play begins.

“There are tons of tournaments around here,” Hall said. “You can play in tournaments every weekend just about in the summer. The main attractions about ours are, one, it’s been around for 18 years and, two, it’s at the Dancing Rabbit. We do the big reception the night before, which is nice, because it’s kind of like a reunion where you see people you may not see but once a year. It is a golf tournament, but I like to call it an event, because we do a lot of extra things.”

While nothing is official right now, Hal said the plan moving forward is to hopefully have the tournament partner with West Alabama and set up a scholarship fund with the school in hopes of rewarding local high school graduates with the chance to attend college at the Livingston, Alabama, campus.

“Our goal is to hopefully give kids a chance to go to college that maybe otherwise wouldn’t be able to,” Hall said. “It’s all in the early stages, and hopefully it will be announced this fall.”

For more information, call Hall at 601-616-0860.