Bob King Birdie Shootout to raise money for LHS football equipment

Longtime Laconia resident Bob King was a regular attendee at Laconia High football games, cheering on the Sachems whether he had a child or grandchild on the team, or not. While he died five years ago at the age of 90, his spirit lives on through fundraising efforts to benefit the football program.

The Bob King Birdie Shootout takes place on Saturday, Sept. 13, at Lakeview Golf Club in Belmont. The event has a unique format, where teams must score a birdie on a hole, or move on. Tee times are between 9 and 11:45 a.m., with a luncheon and prize ceremony to follow.

Last year, proceeds from the tournament provided jerseys for the middle school football team, and this year, the shootout will raise funds for equipment for the high school squad.

“I think we could raise up to $12,000 this year,” said Matt King, who is a grandson of Bob King and organizer of the event. “We are going to be buying helmets and probably putting another grand or so in for gloves and other accessories. The rest will go to his scholarship.”

The Robert King Scholarship has raised about $20,000 over five years, and King said the cool part is that it offers $500 to any Laconia football senior who played football just for applying.

The inaugural tournament raised $10,000 toward purchasing new uniforms for the middle school football team. King said they got “the best of the best” uniforms through Under Armour, complete with a patch sporting the initials “BK” in honor of his grandfather.

King expects to raise even more this time out, with more players and sponsors participating. He admitted last year organizers were surprised about how much they took in, as they decided to hold the tournament only two weeks before. But it all came together swimmingly, and he is pumped to get back out on the course for another event.

King’s team tied for first place last year, and he hopes to have similar luck this time.

“It was crazy, we played up and down the ninth hole with another team until we just called it a tie,” King said. “And before that, we had two chip-ins in three holes. None of us hit the green, and then my cousin hit one on Heckle Hill.”

Bob King is a bit of a legend in his grandson’s mind. King recalled funny stories, including where his grandfather mistakenly drove down a stairway thinking it was a ramp to drop him and his cousin off at one of their first football practices their first year of high school.

“He was just so funny,” King said with a laugh.

A couple years later, in 2007, King and his cousin Nick Converse were part of the state championship Sachem team as a wide receiver-quarterback duo. His grandfather was at every game, home and away, cheering them to victory.

“To go from playing catch in the backyard at my grandparents’ to winning a championship was pretty special for my grandfather to see,” King said.

King described his grandfather as being “very family oriented, caring and giving.” He was well-respected by all his friends. King said there is one picture taken after his graduation in 2009 with about 30 of his high school friends, and smack in the middle of it was Bob King.

“He was that type of guy,” he said. “Everyone loved him.”

Bob King grew up in Massachusetts, but lived in Laconia most of his life. In 1953, Bob King met his wife Elaine — a LHS graduate — at Woolworth’s in Laconia, and the rest was history. The two got married and were together for 66 years until he died on July 20, 2020. Elaine, 90, will be at the tournament Saturday, along with other members of the King family.

Aside from family, his next love was going to LHS sporting events. It was only fitting to create a scholarship in his name to benefit the football program.

With so much success raising money for the scholarship each year, King said he and his family members put their heads together to think of an event they could hold to bring in even more. He acknowledged his family is fairly well known, and can be a loud bunch, and decided a golf tournament with a unique twist would be a fun way to memorialize his grandfather and help Laconia football.

“We lost him five years ago, and wanted to do something for him,” King said. “He was such a great guy. Everybody loved him. So, we thought, ‘How about a golf tournament?’ It took off like wildfire.”

It isn’t your regular everyday golf match that can take hours on end to complete, however. This is a nine-hole format where players must get a birdie, or they pick up their ball. This makes it easy for people who want to just take a few hours out of their morning for a good cause.

One area of the course, the ninth hole, is expected to be a sight to behold. King called it “Heckle Hill,” an area near the bar with benches where spectators will be cheering or playfully jeering, in the spirit of "Happy Gilmore."

“Talk about pressure,” King said. “It is so funny. Everyone is cheering or booing, there’s just no way around it.

As of Thursday afternoon there were 22 teams signed up to play, and King expects at least another 70 or 80 people to be watching and taking part in a raffle and silent auction. Instead of the coveted green jacket won in The Masters, they will be distributing red jackets to the winning team. Awards, as well as an auction with a number of big-ticket items, will start around 2:30 p.m.

To register, visit Birdease.com/BobKing.

Email King at Mattking024@yahoo.com with any questions.