Lou King told me years ago that the best way to raise money – for any cause – was to hold a golf tournament.

King should know. For years, he was senior vice president of Amana Refrigeration and one of the men responsible for putting together the Amana VIP golf tournament. It was held for years at Finkbine Golf Course in Iowa City and regularly attracted top touring pros, U.S. Presidents, actors, coaches and other luminaries.

I was told at one time Amana didn’t necessarily make a ton of dough off the golf tournament, but advertising of touring pros who wore the Amana cap and the publicity the tournament received were invaluable.

Many corporations and causes have turned to King over the years and his expertise has brought in millions of dollars. King had many contacts, from his days as Iowa football quarterback in the 1940s to his work at Amana and from his tenure as executive director of the PGA of America.

It was impractical and pretentious for me to try to enlist King’s help when I decided to volunteer for a golf fundraising effort this summer. But King’s credo that the popularity of golf and the generosity of its players was demonstrated once again.

The first Jefferson Alumni Golf outing (JAG) was held last weekend at Ellis Park. It was the brainchild of the Fitzgerald family and some former J-Hawk athletes.

Dennis Fitzgerald, who died recently, was an all-state player for Jefferson. Later his son, John, also starred for the J-Hawks. They were the first father-son combination to be inducted into the Jefferson Football Hall of Fame.

It was the wish of the Fitzgerald estate to put on an event that would benefit the Jefferson football program. Golf anyone?

Like many first-time events, the going was difficult at times. Finding volunteers, players and sponsors was not easy. But as the weeks passed, the volunteers, players and sponsors grew. As always, most everything came together by event day.

Many in the Jefferson community stepped up in a big way, although most of the participants were alumni from a 20-year period spanning the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. That was not necessarily surprising since Jefferson football flourished in those years, including a couple mythical state championships and the state’s first playoff system title in 1972.

One of the moving moments was before the tournament, when 86-year-old Bob Ask gave the invocation to golfers. Ask was an assistant football coach in the Ted Lawrence and Jack Fisk eras, when winning seasons and championships were a regular occurrence.

Ask always has been an excellent speaker, and he delivered a dandy to the golfers. He has been asked by new Jefferson football coach Brian Webb to address the team before this season’s opener against Prairie.

Golf participants included many former athletes, but also former coaches such as Bill McNiel, Tim Fowler, John Weld and Jim O’Brien. Webb and his entire coaching staff appeared at the awards ceremony and Webb gave an impassioned speech.

The event raised a few thousand dollars for the J-Hawks football program. That won’t buy any victories for a program that has lost 22 games in a row. But it was a coming-together that had some meaning and memories.

It’s a start, with golf as a vehicle. Not at the grand scale of events that Lou King produced, but worthwhile nonetheless.

(Mark Dukes is former sports editor of the Cedar Rapid Gazette. He is co-host of The Gym Class radio show weekdays from 3-4 p.m. on KGYM-AM 1600 and FM-106.3.)