Some people are destined for certain careers … and are very good at their craft.
Jim Boykin is one of those people.
He was a distance-running standout at Fike High School in the mid-60s, and carried that prowess to Atlantic Christian College from 1968-72, where he is still the school record holder in the mile (4:33.8) and three-mile (16:05).
Since that time he has been coaching mostly golf and teaching social studies. He has impacted the lives of thousands of young men and women in a variety of ways. For his athletic prowess at Atlantic Christian and his contributions to the lives of student-athletes in Wilson for over three decades he has been inducted into the Barton College Hall of Fame.
Boykin, an accomplished golfer himself who has played on numerous Wilson Cup teams for Willow Springs Country Club, said he knows “Some of the great people” in the Barton Hall of Fame, thus is honored to be in their company.
Barton only had a track and field program for some 20 years from the late ‘50s to the late ‘70s, and times were tough during Boykin’s first couple of seasons as a Bulldog.
“That first year,” he said, “I’m not sure if we won a meet. We had a lot of freshmen, a new coach (Jim Corbin) and most of us were walk-ons. But, we have a good group that stayed around all four years.”
He mentioned (Hall of Fame member) John Liles, Robert Harris, Barry Scheier and Dick Swanker, noting “we got progressively better every year. By our senior year, I remember we beat Campbell, who was a NAIA power and finished second in the district to Pembroke, which was an accomplishment. I think we went 5-3 that year, so we went out on a high note.”
He said the Bulldogs featured a team of some 15 guys, whereas other squads had 40 or 50 athletes. In the latter part of his track career, he said John Midgette, Mike Smith, Tom Roach, Ken Kady and Ron Bowen added punch to the Bulldogs’ lineup. Boykin was interested in coaching as a profession when he arrived at Atlantic Christian in 1968, but when he went to the Physical Education majors meetings, there were some 200 students there.
“I thought about having to compete with 200 others for jobs, so I went over to Hines to the history meeting,” he said.
After graduation, he taught one year of 8th-grade basketball at Coon, noting “the players were bad, and I was worse. It (love for coaching and teaching kids) just grew from there.”
He coached cross country for the next four years at Coon, then moved to Fike, where he directed the track and cross country teams from 1977-1981. After taking a couple years off from coaching, he took over the Fike boys’s golf program in 1984. His boys’ teams have won four regional titles and have finished in the top 10 in the state six times.
He started the girls’ golf team at Fike in 1995, and the Lady Demons have won two regionals and finished in the top 10 at the state tournament three times.
One of the reasons Boykin is so honored to be inducted into the Barton Hall of Fame is because of his family connections. His brother and sister, as well as his daughter, Jennifer, are all Barton grads. Boykin coached both Jennifer and son, Brad, at Fike. He and his wife, Vickie, recalled that when he first started coaching golf, his team was “playing with balls we bought at Roses.”
Since 1983, Boykin has been heavily involved in one of the country’s most successful junior golf programs, the Wilson County Junior Golf Association, which holds an annual tournament for area youths. He is now the WCJGA’s executive director.
Boykin said that when his career ends, he wants to be remembered as “somebody who was a good guy, who cared and made a difference somewhere. I get called ‘Coach’ so often, so I guess that’s what I am.”
