M Club Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1975
Lou Graham was one of the top golfers in University of Memphis history. A native of Nashville, Tennessee, Graham came to the University in 1956 with fellow Nashvillian Gene Dixon. Graham, the winner of the Nashville Junior Championship, immediately earned a spot with the Tiger team in 1956-57 and helped the squad to a 5-1 record. The 1957-58 team was ranked fifth in the nation with Graham and Dixon leading the list of qualifiers for each event. The recipient of the Tennessee Golf Association Scholarship, Graham captured the medalist honors in the Blue Grass Invitational before being drafted into the United States Army in 1959 and in 1961 made the Army golf team that won the Inter-Service championship. He joined the PGA TOUR in 1964 and won his first tournament in 1967 when he captured first place in the Minnesota Golf Classic at Hazeltine Country Club. Graham won again in 1972 at the Liggett Myers Open and in 1975 won his first major, the U.S. Open at Medinah Country Club in Illinois. In 1977, he lost by one-stroke in the U.S. Open at Southern Hills in Tulsa and tied for sixth in the Masters. Winning three more times on TOUR, Graham was named the PGA TOUR’s Comeback Player of the Year in 1979. He was a member of three Ryder Cup Teams and a member of the victorious World Cup Team 1975.
