Joe Tiller NFF Chapter

The Tiller Chapter’s annual support of a golf outing as a fund-raiser has taken on a different look since 2020. After several years as the Ryan Kerrigan/12th Boiler Golf Outing as a combined effort between the NFF’s Tiller Chapter and Purdue’s Trademarks Licensing Office, a new partnership became necessary. In the spring of 2020, the chapter agreed to join with the Tyler Trent Family, the Elks Club of West Lafayette and Purdue’s Center for Cancer Research to begin making plans for an event at the West Lafayette Golf Club in September of that year, but as COVID spiked in mid-summer, that event was postponed. Then, the following winter, the Elks Club voted to dissolve itself leaving the Tiller Chapter and the PCCR to co-host the event.

Coyote Crossing Golf Club near West Lafayette “stepped up” and negotiated a good price and became the site of the Tyler Trent Golf Outing on Sept. 3, 2021. With 18 sponsors, 64 golfers, great weather and the cooperation of former Purdue quarterback great Jim Everett, the outing experienced terrific success, raising $6,000 (which then become $12,000 thanks to a matching gift program) for cancer research in honor of Purdue superfan Tyler Trent who passed away on the first day of 2019 after a news-making battle with osteosarcoma cancer.

The chapter’s commitment to the Trent Family included two golf events in 2022, the Tyler Trent Golf Scramble coordinated as a class project by NFF student intern Triston Myers on Apr. 23 at the Boilermaker Golf Complex and the Tyler Trent Golf Outing on Sept. 9 at Coyote Crossing Golf Club. Together those events attracted 120 golfers and 38 sponsors and netted $6,300 for Purdue’s Center for Cancer Research.

The financial success of the golf outings was a result of 120 golfers paying their registration fees and 38 sponsors providing products, food and hole sponsorships.