Celebrating the Life Of Dr. Joyce King

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ATHENS, Ohio — It was a sunny day on the golf course in Springfield, Ohio, and Cheryl Nunnally knew she was sick. However, she also knew she had to play. If she survived the drive to the course and the events leading up the match, she could handle a few holes.

Her coach, Dr. Joyce King, agreed. Never wavering, King encouraged Nunnally to push through to the end of the match.

"She followed me around with orange juice, Tylenol and all the other stuff, just to try to keep me going," Nunnally said.

Known for her competitive and giving nature, King impacted lives across Athens until her death in May of 2025.

"We mourn the loss of a great campus leader," Director of Athletics Julie Cromer said. "Dr. Joyce King's legacy will last for generations at Ohio through our Indoor Training Center for Golf, including the putting room named in her honor. The facility mirrors Joyce's commitment to ensuring her students and student-athletes were fully supported in their pursuit of their goals and dreams."

Running Down a Dream

King came to Ohio University in 1965 to serve as a graduate assistant for the department of physical education. She had recently graduated from West Virginia Institute of Technology and served as a typist for the FBI. That was where she discovered her passion for coaching.

She was hired as an instructor in the physical education and athletics department, and later assigned as the advisor for the Women's Recreation Association. Within 10 years of joining the department, she coached golf, volleyball and softball, all while teaching.

Pam Leonard remembers King's class fondly, especially the day she was assigned distance running.

It was Leonard's sophomore year, and she was still a little afraid of her no-nonsense professor. King took the group outside by her car, told them the route and struck fear into their hearts.

"She told us 'We're going to start running today, and I'm going to tell you something. If you try to get out of it, or you try to run back to your dorms, I'll run you over with my car.' We didn't know her that well, so we thought she was going to run us over," Leonard said with a laugh.

No one got run over that day. Not even Leonard and her friends who sprinted back to their homes to hide. The threat was a mere joke from King, whose lighthearted nature often poked through while she spent time with her students.

However, King's serious streak was seen more often than not. She worked tirelessly to ensure her students and athletes could succeed even if they didn't have the resources. Whether it be selling .50 cent stickers that said "Go Bobcats" to boost the meager budget women's sports had, or connecting her athletes with established programs so they could compete beyond the local level.

The women's golf team no longer existed when Julie Cole was a senior, but that didn't keep King from mentoring the student-athletes who remained on campus. Cole, who also played basketball, wanted to compete at the NCAA Championship her final year, and King found a way to make it happen with a few phone calls.

"I went with the Ohio State team and played for Ohio University, because the coach let me tag along with them," Cole said.

King also helped Cole get her first job at the Ohio University Golf Course. That small step led to a career in the industry as both a player and instructor. Cole went on to play on the Futures Golf Tour, the Asian Tour and the European Tour, before qualifying for the LPGA Tour in 1985. Now, she is a Class A LPGA Professional and instructor at Sea Pines Golf LC, where she was named an LPGA Top 50 Teacher of the Year from 2010-2018. She was inducted into the Kermit Blosser Hall of Fame in 2010 for her basketball skills.

In her 35 years of teaching, Cole realized that she's able to connect with her students well because of the values King instilled in her.

Genuine Jo

King's garden was overflowing with strawberries one summer while she was away, and Peggy Pruitt was tasked with taming the rows. She stood inside the small patch just outside the house King built by hand and harvested the fruit. However, as she continued to back up further into the patch, she saw something that stood out among the red berries.

A snake was buried in the leaves.

"I decided to run for the trailer where she kept her tools and get a hoe to kill the snake. I left the bucket. I mean, I took off. I left the bucket sitting right there with the strawberries in it," Pruitt said.

When she returned to the patch, she removed the bucket and wielded the gardening tool above her head. Pruitt brought the metal down onto the vermin but the sound that resulted was not what she expected. A hiss came from the snake as its head separated from its body, almost like a balloon deflating. Pruitt killed a fake snake King put in the garden to keep the birds away.

"She never let me forget the snake in the garden," Pruitt said with a laugh.

That story became one the two swapped on the golf course. Pruitt and King could be found playing in Logan, Ohio, alongside former Ohio student-athlete Nunnally.

Nunnally and King's friendship grew in the years after she graduated. The latter mentored Nunnally as she grew into her career as a physical education professional. But even outside of sports, King was there for Nunnally and her family.

"She was extremely giving, extremely kind. Shared her time, shared her talents, shared her knowledge, and was always willing to do that. If you needed help with something, all you had to do was ask, and she would be right there and give you all kinds of details of whatever you were trying to ask and or find out," Nunnally said.

King was that way with everyone: her close friends, her Habitat for Humanity group, her church and even strangers. Positivity poured out of her and into the community on a regular basis. She wanted everyone to be their best and would help them get there no matter what, while she encouraged them to be themselves.

"I think that she knew my personality really well, and she let me be who I was. She didn't try to change me into something that she thought I should be," Cole said.

Lasting Legacy

Current head coach Kelly Ovington remembers how humility flooded King's eyes the day she and another staff member revealed an anonymous donation was made to the golf program in King's honor. Even more so, Ovington can picture the day the facility opened and how King bore witness to the first official swing of a club inside the Convo room.

The joy of the afternoon empowered King to take a knock herself.

"She watched some of the girls putt, and then all of a sudden, she just kind of jumped up out of her wheelchair and walked out on the putting green. She'd probably had at least a 10-11 footer, and she just got up there and drained it, just sank it."

Ovington kept in contact with King throughout the process of building the indoor golf facility. Each time the two visited, King wanted to hear stories of the team and offered advice to Ovington. King was a trailblazer and the current coach wanted to learn from one of the people who built the program. Her honesty was unlike any other.

It was evident that a teaching spirit still burned inside of King even though she was no longer on the green. That spirit lives on in those she's mentored along the way as a coach and professor.

Leonard went on to become the head women's golf coach at Ashland University from 2004 to 2013. While there, she took Ashland to the Division II National Championships twice and coached several athletes to all-conference honors. Prior to that, she coached boys golf at Ashland High school for five years.

"I think Jo King kind of gave me the idea that this would be a fun thing to do, especially at the college level. She just made everything a good time, and she was very competitive, and I think all of us were, but at the same time, she knew how to keep you cool and throw in some lines to make things fun and funny," Leonard said.

Nunnally didn't originally come to Ohio with the intent to study physical education, but after she was introduced to the idea, she switched her major. That choice turned into 42-year career.

King's dedication to her craft continues to shine in golfers across the U.S., and that's why it was a no-brainer for Ovington to nickname the putting room "The Jo."

"It's not just a putting room. I want them to know who she was and what she has done for this program, to allow them to be in this facility and be competing at the level they're competing at, because if she hadn't helped out and coached that first team, we wouldn't be here," Ovington said.

King left Athens better than she found it, and continues to do so. A life-long learner and teacher, King will be missed.

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Celebrating the Life Of Dr. Joyce King

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