Every sport was Bob Tucker’s

MEEKER — He was a man for all seasons.
For nearly 30 years, Bob Tucker was a Meeker coach and teacher, retiring in 1995.
“You could tell what season it was by the ball he had in his hand,” said Irven Griffen, an officer with the Meeker Golf Course Board of Directors.
A benefit golf tournament, in honor of the late coach, will be held May 2 at the Meeker course. This will be the second year for the memorial tournament.
“It went quite well,” said Tucker’s widow, Jo, of the inaugural tournament. “We had 71 players. We had to postpone the tournament a week, because of the snow, but it went together real well.”
Tucker died in 2006 at the age of 74.
The golf tournament is a fundraiser for college scholarships, available to graduates of Meeker High School.
“We give a $500 scholarship every year,” Jo Tucker said. “We’ve given two. One was to Chas Mills, who was the first recipient, in 2007. Then, it was Tyler Howey last year. We’re having the interviews for the scholarship the day before (the golf tournament).”
A committee made up of Jo Tucker and her three daughters, a community member and a school district member decides on the scholarship recipient.
“This year, we had 10 students who applied,” Jo Tucker said.
The criteria for the scholarship includes having a grade point average of 2.0 or better, having participated in two different high school sports for a minimum of three years, community involvement, as well as demonstrating integrity, sportsmanship, upstanding character and proven ability to overcome adversity.
Bob Tucker grew up in Meeker, where he played football, basketball and track in high school. He went on to Mesa College, where he played football, basketball and baseball, even though he had never played competitive baseball before, because Meeker High School didn’t have a baseball program at the time.
“He was a natural athlete,” Jo Tucker said, adding her late husband was the first Coloradan to be selected to an All-American junior college football team.
Bob Tucker was inducted into the Mesa State Hall of Honor in 1998. In 1995, the year he retired from Meeker High School, the road between the middle school and the high school was named for him.
In his 12 seasons as football coach at MHS, his teams went 74-38, with four playoff appearances and a second-place finish at state. His nine seasons as coach of MHS baseball included four trips to the state tournament, and in five seasons as coach of girls’ basketball, he compiled a 67-32 record, three league titles and a consolation championship in the state playoffs in 1990. He also served as athletic director, coached and taught at Barone Middle School and somehow found time to coach swimming and little league baseball
“No, I didn’t get to see him,” joked Jo Tucker. “And, of course, he had to have three daughters, instead of boys.”
At least two daughters will be on hand for the tournament named in honor of their father, who was an avid golfer.
• Contributions to the Coach Bob Tucker Scholarship Fund can be made in care of First National Bank of the Rockies.