Local athlete goes from hero to hospitality

By David Mullen

Two of Dallas’ favorite passions are football and golf. The life of Kenny Huff has been influenced greatly by both, from being a star quarterback at Woodrow Wilson High School to an accomplished golfer and teaching pro. These days, Huff is viewing both sports from the comfort of his own bar.

Huff is owner of The Avenue Sports Grill at 2121 Greenville Ave., one of the area’s best locations for football game viewing. Add E Bar at 1901 N. Haskell Ave., Milo Butterfingers at 5645 SMU Blvd. and Backyard Dallas at 505 N. Good Latimer Expressway, and those are just a few of the local bar/restaurants that broadcast a variety of college football games on Saturdays and every scheduled NFL game Thursday through Monday.

Area transplants can’t be expected to sit home alone and watch UT or Dallas Cowboys telecasts when fans of the Penn State Nittany Lions or Chicago Bears are roaring at a nearby den.  

Huff, 62 and a Lakewood native, went from bag boy at Lakewood Country Club in high school to helping open the Byron Nelson Golf School at the Four Seasons Resort and Club in Las Colinas with stops in between. “I was a really good athlete at Woodrow,” Huff, MVP in Dallas ISD high school football in 1976, said. “I was on the golf team. I was on the football team. I was on the baseball team. I just had a great high school career.”   

He was recruited for football by every major university in the country. He signed with San Diego State because his cousin lived in Laguna Beach. “He said, ‘Kenny, come out to California. It’s cool out here.’ I really didn’t want to go to Texas. I really didn’t want to go to Oklahoma. I wanted to get out of here,” Huff said.

Upon committing to play for the Aztecs, Huff basically gave up baseball, where he played third base and pitched, and just played golf. “I wasn’t really a good golfer,” Huff said. “I never had a lesson. When I was 11, a buddy of mine lived across the street from Bob-O-Links [a nine-hole course at Abrams Road and McCommas Avenue that closed in 1973] and I would practice with him. We would watch his dad play and I just got better.” 

Raised by his mother, she would drop him off at Tennyson Park at 8 a.m. and go to work while Huff played golf all day long. “Forty-five holes a day. So, I got better. Then she would pick me up and we’d have dinner. I did that for six years.”

During his senior year at Woodrow, the district tournament was held at Tennyson, and Huff shot 37 on the first day. “I bogeyed the last hole,” Huff said. On the next day, he shot 30 for a score of 67. “I won the tournament and didn’t even know what I was doing.”

College golf coaches were in attendance. One approached Huff and said: “I want you to come play golf for me. I think you have the best golf swing I have ever seen.” Huff told the coach of his commitment to play football at SDSU. The coach convinced him to play in the Trans-Miss Championship in Dallas, split between Las Colinas Country Club and Brook Hollow Golf Club, against the top amateur golfers.   

Rain forced him to play just three practice holes at Las Colinas. “I didn’t have an umbrella. I didn’t have a rain suit. I didn’t have s*#t,” Huff said. “I had the first tee time the next day and shot 67. I turned in my scorecard to [former PGA pro] Rives McBee and he said, ‘You need stick around. You are going to have the low score of the day.’” Huff had never played Brook Hollow and went over to see the course. 

“All the big boys were there,” Huff said. “Lindy Miller. Bob Tway. Hal Sutton. I’m nothing. The next day, the scoreboard said Kenny Huff and Bob Tway are leading the Trans-Miss with 67.” He had the last time of the day, and surrounded by friends and family in the gallery, shot 83. “And I really didn’t hit a bad shot. I had just never played a ‘Country Club.’” Embarrassed after his performance, Huff’s mother encouraged him to keep playing and pursue college golf. Huff said it was a life changing moment.

He enrolled at McLennan Junior College in Waco under coach Jimmy Clayton, who would go on to coach UT golf. “I told my mom, ‘I’ll play one year. If I don’t get better, I am going back to playing football.’” He racked up tournament wins and was recruited to SMU his junior year. “Payne Stewart had just left, so I basically took his spot,” Huff said. “I am the number one player at SMU golf. During basketball season, they call me into the office and told me that they were dropping the baseball program and golf program due to Title IX. This was 1980.” 

With one year left in college, Huff decided to join [future pros] Mark Brooks and Brandel Chamblee at UT. After a rocky visit with AD Darrell Royal about the future of the golf team, a skeptical Huff opted to go to TCU and graduate in business. “I went to work in the golf business for the next 31 years,” Huff said.             

In 1984, while assistant golf pro at Oak Tree C.C. (making $1,000 per month, plus food and drink) still searching for a head pro position, Huff won the Oklahoma Open at Kickingbird Golf Club in Edmund by defeating Dr. Gil Morgan, who, now 73, has 25 PGA Champions Tour victories. “[Dr. Gil Morgan] was the number two player in the world and I beat him in a two-hole playoff. Good for me.”

He became head pro at Palm Beach (Fla.) Polo Club where Fred Couples was the touring pro. “A member, Frank Olson, president of Hertz, asked me if I had ever played golf in Scotland,” Huff said. He had not. “He [Olson] said ‘I want you to come with me.’” 

During a week-long golf excursion in 1988, Huff shot a course record 65 in a rainstorm at Royal Troon Golf Club, site of nine (British) Open Championships. “The next year, Greg Norman shot 64, so I had the course record for a year. But everywhere I played in Scotland, they would come up and ask, “Who is Mr. Huff?’” 

In 2019, Huff was approached about getting into the bar business, but like his initial entree into golf, he was apprehensive. He bought in as a partner. “I didn’t know if I wanted to be in the business,” Huff said. 

“We opened in November two years ago and were open through March. There was no St. Patrick’s parade, but we were open. The next day, we were shut down [due to COVID-19].” After reopening in May with full ownership, business has been as solid as a drive right down the fairway. “It’s a great place to watch a football game. We have a great crowd in here. If I didn’t own it, I would come here.”   

With 20 TVs, the 3,100 square-foot Avenue Sports Grill is a haven for football fans, featuring a lively crowd, open air bar, excellent food by saloon standards (including weekend brunch) and the rare commodity of parking on Lower Greenville. But Huff has not left his golf roots. “There are always four TVs on golf,” Huff said.

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