(This is the sixth part in a series profiling this year's inductees for the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame and Wall of Honor, which will be posted every week at baylorbears.com.)
 
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Jeremy Alcorn remembers being "shell-shocked" when Tim Hobby, the coach who recruited him, left in the summer and was replaced by Greg Priest just a week before the start of his freshman year at Baylor. 

            "I had a lot of growing up to do, a lot of direction that was needed, and it ended up being a really good fit," said Alcorn, a first-team All-Big 12 pick and honorable mention All-American golfer in 2005 who will be inducted into the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame on Nov. 18.

 "There were a lot of guys that left that summer and transferred. But, there were three or four guys that stuck around and came back for another year or two that I ended up becoming best friends with and learning a ton from. So, it really worked out well for me, in particular."

            Coming from Brownwood, Texas "without much direction and minimal coaching," Alcorn was left out of the lineup for the first two tournaments of his freshman season. And until his senior year, when he was in and out of the lineup with a back injury, he never missed another tournament. 

            "I think I was able to pick up and learn a lot of the game my freshman year, not only from Coach Priest, but from some of those older guys," said Alcorn, who ended up second on the team as a freshman with a 74.45-stroke average and a tie for 13^th at the Big 12 Championship.

            "I remember missing the first two tournaments and being really down about that. But, it also really motivated me to get in there. And then, once you make a couple of tournaments, I wasn't going to get out of the lineup at that point."

            With fellow Hall of Famer Ryan Baca sitting out the next year with an injury, Alcorn put together one of the best seasons in program history. Tying a school record, he won three individual titles at the University Club Intercollegiate, UTSA Roadrunner Intercollegiate and Border Olympics and had a 71.763-stroke average that ranked as the second-best in school history at that point. 

            "Once I started building momentum and putting some scores together," he said, "I think my sophomore year I started to get some of that consistency. Looking back now as a coach, I went to a higher level of golf during that time. But then, instead of riding that . . . ultimately, I tried to go to a lot higher level. And in doing so, I kind of took some steps back."

            Playing in the shadows of Baca's All-America season in 2005-06, Alcorn won two more individual titles at the Baylor Invitational and Louisiana Classics and ranked second on the team and seventh in the Big 12 with a 72.50-stroke average. As a senior, he added three more top-10 finishes and was second on the team again at 74.62. 

            "I think expectations and probably trying to do a little too much from there just cultivated into a lot of consistency," he said. "Seemed like I was always battling a back injury and a wrist injury popped in there my junior year. That consistency that I was able to run with that sophomore year, I just wasn't able to find that again."

            In 4 ½ years playing various mini-tours, Alcorn won three professional titles, including two on the Adams Tour. 

            "I was able to plug along and chase that," he said. "And I really just kind of got tired of chasing that, really. So, I probably needed a change. Coaching had started standing out to me a whole lot more. During that time, I paid attention to some of my friends and buddies that we traveled with and played with and enjoyed helping them with their game."

            That carried over to the spring of 2013, when he was a volunteer coach at Baylor with Priest, helping the Bears earn their 16^th-consecutive NCAA Regional berth. 

            After caddying for one year on the PGA Tour, Alcorn started a nine-year coaching career that included three-straight regional berths at Texas Tech, a conference championship at Coastal Carolina and back-to-back regionals the last two years at Liberty. This summer, he moved to Raleigh, N.C., as the assistant coach at North Carolina State, which just had a second-place finish at the Wolfpack Intercollegiate. 

            "It's been a whole lot of moving and a whole lot of change the last five years," Alcorn said. "It's been cool to kind of get away from my roots and figure out life, figure myself out a little bit."

            Jeremy and his wife, Ashleigh, have a 17-month-old daughter, Asher. 

            Joining Alcorn in the 2022 Hall of Fame class are Doak Field and Robert Griffin III (football), Quentin Iglehart-Summers and Gary Kafer (track and field), Josh Ludy (baseball), Taylor Barnes Fallon (volleyball) and Tweety Carter (men's basketball). 

            "Honestly, I thought my window had come and gone," said the 38-year-old Alcorn, who still ranks among the program's all-time leaders in top-10 finishes (17), top-five finishes (11) and career scoring average (73.19). "I'm excited to get back and see how much the place has changed. I can't imagine. There are a whole lot of past teammates and friends coming in for the weekend. We're going to have a pretty good crew there."

            The Hall of Fame banquet is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18, in the Cashion Building Banquet Room on the Baylor University campus. Tickets are $50 per person, with table sponsorships also available at the green ($600) and gold ($800) levels and can be purchased by contacting the "B" Association at 254-710-3045 or by email at tammy_hardin@baylor.edu.