By Anne Marie Tobin

When it comes to hometown heroes, they don’t get any bigger than Winchester native Joe Bellino. Bellino, who lives in Bedford, defied all odds in 1960 when the diminutive halfback midshipman at the Naval Academy won college football’s most prestigious award, the Heisman Trophy.
Bellino stood only 5 feet, 9 inches. But that didn’t stop him from excelling in football, basketball and baseball at Winchester High School, and being recruited by more than 60 colleges for football and nearly as many for baseball, before entering the Naval Academy.
In the 1960 Army-Navy football game he ran for 85 yards, caught two passes, scored a touchdown and returned kickoffs to lead Navy to a 17-12 win. Bellino fumbled at the Navy 17 yard line late in the game. With Army marching in for a likely game-winning touchdown, Bellino intercepted a pass at the goal line and returned it to the 50 to save the day. After the game, Navy publicist John Cox told Bellino that the interception had likely clinched the Heisman. Bellino disagreed, saying instead that the catch saved him from being the game’s goat.
He was named one of 50 greatest Massachusetts athletes of the century in 1999 by Sports Illustrated, joining the likes of Harry Agganis, Tony Conigliaro, Pat Bradley and Francis Ouimet.
He even spent time with President John F. Kennedy.
Bellino played three seasons returning kickoffs for the Boston Patriots following four years of active duty, which included two years on a destroyer in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Bellino, in his early 20s, began a lifelong love of golf, a game which he quickly mastered. He once held memberships at Hillview, Andover and Indian Ridge, eventually settling in at Pleasant Valley.
Married to his high school sweetheart, Ann Tansey, for 56 years, Bellino has two children, son John Bellino, a 1989 Navy graduate who works in intelligence, and daughter Therese Eggerling, who teaches in Cambridge.
Still close to his playing weight of 185 pounds, 80-year-old Bellino works in the auto business for Ohio-based Adesa Corp. and can be found nearly every day working on his game at the military-owned Patriot Golf Club on the grounds of the Veterans’ Administration Center in Bedford.

North Shore Golf: What was your first exposure to golf?
Bellino: When I was 12, I went over to Winchester Country Club to caddy. I had no experience and had never been on a golf course. I got there at 6 a.m., but by 10 I was still in the caddie shack as nobody chose me. I never went back.
But my first real experience was when I was a senior in high school. The star golfer on the team was a kid named John Black. I was a baseball stud, and I got the idea that I could hit a golf ball with a baseball bat longer that he could with a golf club. So a group of us met at a field on a Saturday morning. He puts a ball on a tee and whacks the thing out of sight. I looked at my bat and said, “case closed, I’m not even going to give it a try,” because I knew I couldn’t do it.”

When did you take up the game?
Both of my roommates at the Naval Academy played golf and were always trying to get me to play. I told them they were crazy to waste their time playing golf. A couple of years later, I was home for a two-week vacation before leaving for Japan. My brother, Tony, and cousin, Angelo Amico, came to the house and asked me to play. So we went to Unicorn and Angelo asked me what my handicap was. I didn’t know what that was, so he said, “We’ll play a Nassau with automatic presses off the back side” and he gave me two shots a side. I had no idea what he was talking about. After we finished, he said I lost the front, the back, the overall and the automatic and that I owed him $8, which was a lot in 1963. He asked me what I was doing tomorrow, so we went back and this time he gave me three a side. Well, I lost another $8. I pointed my finger at him and told him he had hoodwinked me and told him, “I will be back.” From that point on, every chance I got for the next two years I devoted to golf until I knew what I was doing.

What’s your lowest handicap and the best round you ever shot?
I got down to a 2-handicap for a few years when I was at Indian Ridge. … My best round was a 68 I shot at Newport Country Club. I don’t remember when, but I can remember the round like it was yesterday.

What was the best part of your game?
I could talk myself into making any shot, so I would say the mental part of the game. That and the short game, as I was always pretty good at chipping and putting. But the most challenging part of golf is to maintain concentration and routine and stay positive. If you think you can’t do something, you won’t.

Do you have any memorable experiences or anecdotes to share from the links?
I’ve birdied the 17th hole at Harbour Town (on Hilton Head Island, SC) every time I have played it and love telling people I’ve played the course 22 times. The first time I played the hole (195-yard par 3), I knocked it stiff and still had a really hard 4-footer, but made it. I knew I could never top that, so after that, I just skipped the hole every time I played the course.

What did it feel like when you heard you won the Heisman?
Well, it wasn’t like it is today, being on TV, with all the fanfare. In my case, honestly, it was a relief. I was in an electrical engineering class about a week after the Army game. I got called out of class and sent to the superintendent’s office, which was never a good thing. So, I thought I was in trouble especially since I was struggling in that class. The office was full of people, the admiral, a couple of sports reporters, our football coach; the admiral read a telegram from the Downtown Athletic Club. As soon as I heard, “Congratulations, midshipman Joseph Bellino…” I knew I won it. But my only thought was I was so glad I wasn’t in trouble, that’s the only thing that went through my mind.

How did you come to meet John F. Kennedy?
One of the reporters in the superintendent’s office that day interviewed me and asked me what was left for me, after winning all the major awards. I said there was another Massachusetts guy who had done pretty well that year, president-elect Kennedy and I would love to meet him. So, the next day the headline of the Washington Post read “Bellino wins Heisman, wants to meet Kennedy.” The day after that I got a telegram from him congratulating me and inviting me and the other Navy players from Massachusetts to his Georgetown house for dinner. He even sent a limo to pick us up.
I also got to meet him the following summer to present him, as our commander-in-chief, with the Class of 1961 yearbook. I was an ensign, and it was an incredible experience, just two guys with Boston accents talking it up in the Oval Office. We talked for a couple of hours. I still treasure the picture I have from that meeting.

Talk about playing for the Patriots. You were drafted, but still had to fulfill your 4-year service commitment.
My active duty was ending in 1965 after being in Japan for two years, and playing football was the furthest thing from my mind. I had submitted by resignation papers and someone in the Redskins organization had a Washington connection, so they contacted me to invite me to training camp. Then, the Patriots found out and offered me a contract, so I flew home, signed the contract and was at training camp in Andover the next day and then played in an exhibition game against the Jets and Joe Namath, who was a rookie, the day after that. One day I was in the Navy, then 72 hours later I’m in a Patriots uniform playing professional football, wondering what I am doing here. But I did pretty well, caught a pass and returned kickoffs, but the next day I stepped in a hole and broke my ankle, so I was done that year. The next year, I snapped a hamstring, but after the third year I was in good shape and got picked up by the Cincinnati Bengals in the expansion draft. In those days, if you played pro, you had to have two jobs, and I started a family and business and I couldn’t do that from Cincinnati, so I packed it in.

You come from a large family, four brothers and a sister. What was their reaction when they found out their brother was voted the best collegiate football player in America?
My older brother Sam was sitting at the kitchen table. Back then, your older brothers and high school athletes were your heroes, so Sam was my idol. He was a football star at Winchester and played at Wentworth and he always pushed me. If I scored three touchdowns, he would tell me I should have scored four, or I should have made that interception or that pass I should have had. I could never satisfy him, but I knew it was for my benefit. So I put the trophy down on the table, proud as a peacock. He read the inscription, that it was for the best player in the country, and he said, “In this family, you’re not even Top 3.” He said he was better than me, my brother Tony was No. 2 and my sister Betty was No. 3 because, even though she didn’t play, if she did, she still would have been a better player than me. I’ll never forget it.

By Brion O’Connor

In golf, an overhead or sidearm swing rarely signifies anything good. Typically, the shot pinwheels into a pond or nearby woods. But as more local courses embrace the new sport of FlingGolf, those odd-looking swings will become more commonplace.

“FlingGolf is pretty simple,” said founder Alex Van Alen of Ipswich. “It generally follows the process of golf – start at the tee, finish at the hole. But instead of hitting a golf ball, you use the FlingStick to throw the golf ball down the fairway and onto the green. Then you can use the FlingStick to roll or glide the ball into the hole.”

With a history dating back seven centuries, golf is a game of great traditions. Even though golf remains popular, many courses and country clubs are looking for ways to increase their numbers.

“Golf has taken a beating over the last decade, and the general consensus is because it’s hard to learn, slow-paced – takes too long, and millennials say even boring – and expensive, both in terms of equipment and lessons,” said Van Alen. “FlingGolf solves a lot of those problems because people can learn in a matter of minutes, well enough to get out on the course, and then get better as they go.”

Played with a traditional golf ball and a single FlingStick, FlingGolf is compared in golf circles to the snowboard, which revolutionized the ski resort industry in the 1980s and ’90s (the comparison is generally attributed to foBy Brion O’Connor

In golf, an overhead or sidearm swing rarely signifies anything good. Typically, the shot pinwheels into a pond or nearby woods. But as more local courses embrace the new sport of FlingGolf, those odd-looking swings will become more commonplace.

“FlingGolf is pretty simple,” said founder Alex Van Alen of Ipswich. “It generally follows the process of golf – start at the tee, finish at the hole. But instead of hitting a golf ball, you use the FlingStick to throw the golf ball down the fairway and onto the green. Then you can use the FlingStick to roll or glide the ball into the hole.”

With a history dating back seven centuries, golf is a game of great traditions. Even though golf remains popular, many courses and country clubs are looking for ways to increase their numbers.

“Golf has taken a beating over the last decade, and the general consensus is because it’s hard to learn, slow-paced – takes too long, and millennials say even boring – and expensive, both in terms of equipment and lessons,” said Van Alen. “FlingGolf solves a lot of those problems because people can learn in a matter of minutes, well enough to get out on the course, and then get better as they go.”

Played with a traditional golf ball and a single FlingStick, FlingGolf is compared in golf circles to the snowboard, which revolutionized the ski resort industry in the 1980s and ’90s (the comparison is generally attributed to former Stow Acres owner Walter Lankau).

“FlingGolf can provide a great stepping stone for folks to get out on the course and enjoy the social, physical and competitive atmosphere a golf course can provide and may give people an avenue to transition to the traditional game of golf down the road,” said Richard Luff, owner of Sagamore-Hampton Golf Club in New Hampshire. “As course owners, we have to be receptive to innovative options to attract people to our facilities.”

Unlike FootGolf or Disc Golf, which require separate courses or tee times and additional structures (such as Disc Golf’s baskets), FlingGolf uses the same fairways and greens and can be played simultaneously with traditional golfers.

“FlingGolf is a great alternative to mini-golf,” said Ipswich’s Bill Harrington, who is often joined by his three young sons. “A similar skill level is needed, but it’s much more fun. And it’s good exercise as long as you walk the course. My boys would run the whole course if they could. We could probably play nine holes in 30 minutes, but definitely under an hour.

“No one needs to have any experience to go out and play,” said Harrington. “You can pick it up very quickly and actually have a shot at par. That’s not possible with golf.”

FlingGolf is Van Alen’s brainchild. A Philadelphia native who came to the North Shore to work for the Trustees of Reservations in 1999, Van Alen made a permanent move to Ipswich in 2007. He brought along his love for lacrosse, which he played growing up. On a whim, Van Alen started tossing a golf ball around with a jai alai basket at local fields.

“I got about 80, 90 yards, and was able to shape shots with different throws and spins,” he said. “I decided that I could make a sport out of this if I could design something that could throw the ball 200 yards.”

Van Alen teamed with Fikst in Woburn and Tool Inc. in Marblehead to develop the proprietary FlingStick. The finished product was produced by Somerset Plastics in Connecticut.

“I established my company, PlusOne Sports, in 2013 to promote FlingGolf and sell FlingSticks,” he said. “I did a lot of prototyping at Candlewood Golf Course in Ipswich, so I’d say that was the first course that allowed it, and it’s a fun course to play on.”

After outings at Candlewood and Cape Ann Golf Course, Van Alen knew he was on to something. After unveiling FlingGolf publicly in February 2014 at a National Golf Course Owners Association conference in Florida, Van Alen put on his salesman hat, and started visiting local courses.

He soon discovered that many course owners and managers were eager to explore new ways to increase revenue.

“We have been looking for many new ways and new ideas to keep business growing, and FlingGolf was one of them,” said Kevin Osgood of Sterling Golf Management, which operates Stoneham Oaks and other area courses. “The idea that a veteran golfer could go out and play a round of golf, and bring a non-golfer friend who could play FlingGolf alongside him, was very enticing. I’ve played a few holes and practiced FlingGolf from the driving range, and it’s a new sport that anyone could adapt to very quickly.’

Luff became convinced of FlingGolf’s potential after Sagamore-Hampton hosted a business meeting that drew both golfers and non-golfers.

“The great aspect of FlingGolf is that it integrates so seamlessly with traditional golf,” said Luff. “The FlingStick allowed the non-golfers to get out on the course and play right alongside traditional golfers and still be able to enjoy the beauty of being on a golf course, as well as benefit from the great social aspects of playing golf without the intimidation or frustration that many first-time traditional golfers feel.

“The intimidation factor would have prevented non-golfers from participating in that event in the first place, had the FlingGolf option not been available,” he said. “Likewise, if you’ve ever tried to teach young kids how to play traditional golf, you know how difficult that can be.”

Just as snowboarding broadened the younger demographic on the slopes, FlingGolf is far more appealing to local youngsters than the traditional game.

“We first tried FlingGolf (the summer of 2016),” said 15-year-old Lucas Kubaska of Ipswich, who went out with friends Clayton Manolian and Charlie Eagan. “We were immediately attracted to the sport because of our extensive background in lacrosse, as well as our sub-par golf skills.”

“We loved the fact that it only required one club and a ball – if you’re good enough – rather than a 30-pound golf bag,” added Kubaska. “ We’ve all golfed in the past, and for active teenagers, golf can be tedious. A lot of sitting in a cart, followed by waiting to take your swing. With FlingGolf, the entire experience is much more interactive and lively.”

Van Alen was so intrigued with the FlingGolf/lacrosse connection that his PlusOne Sports has partnered as a sponsor with Major League Lacrosse, including the Boston Cannons.

“I think it is a great fit, because of the rapid growth of lacrosse in the region. And there are lots of local, publicly accessible courses looking for a younger crowd (to play),” said Van Alen. “They have lots of empty tee times these days. Lacrosse players are a natural crossover to pick up the sport, but also hockey and baseball. All of these sports have an element of them in FlingGolf.”

That crossover appeal, however, doesn’t mean that everyone is enamored with the idea of sharing the links. Snowboarding faced the same obstacle, as ski resort managers struggled to find the right balance. Sagamore’s Luff said he was surprised there was a discernable “resistance to change” when he introduced the sport to his staff and customers in 2014.

“Many had no interest at all in learning about FlingGolf, and thought it was a gimmick,” Luff said. “Like anything new, it’ll require those that question the validity of FlingGolf to see the sport in action and see that there is truly no impact on the traditional game or impact on the golf course itself.

“I think the future of FlingGolf is promising, but it’ll take time to gain a foothold,” he added. “Your traditional golfer most likely will not transition to FlingGolf. They enjoy golf as it is, and like the challenge of the traditional game.”

However, more and more courses have introduced FlingGolf and stock FlingSticks for rentals. Van Alen said he’s encouraged by the sport’s growth, both locally and nationwide.

“Our biggest hurdle has been convincing players that golf courses will allow it to be played,” said Van Alen. “People think of golf as what they see on TV, with Augusta and fancy, stuffy exclusive clubs. But the real truth is that the majority of golf courses are pretty laid back and fun. So we’ve spent a lot of time educating players that the courses will allow it, while also educating the courses on the ease of integration with golfers.

“When we started, we weren’t sure how the integration was going to work,” he said. “But because it’s so family-friendly, and integrates seamlessly with golf, we’re seeing a lot of golfing parents buying FlingSticks for their kids, then taking them out to play alongside them.”

For more details about FlingGolf, including North Shore courses that offer the game, go to FlingGolf.com.
Brion O’Connor is a freelance writer. Contact him at brionoc@verizon.net

Golf’s ‘cool’ quotient intensifies for rock ‘n’ rollers
By Jim Sullivan
I once played a round of golf with a member of a world-famous rock band at Brookline’s Robert T. Lynch Municipal Golf Course. There was one stipulation: That I not write about us doing so.
I have been a rock writer for years, but at the time, around 2000, I was also penning the Boston Globe’s celeb-centered Names & Faces column, and, yeah, it would have been an item. But I agreed and understood. It wasn’t about exposing deficiencies in his game; it was about perception of the game itself.
Rock stars: Cool. Golf: Uncool.
After all, the song doesn’t run “Sex and golf and rock ‘n’ roll!”
This cool/uncool perception has shifted over the years. There’s a long list of public rocker/golfers: Huey Lewis, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea, Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee, Eddie Van Halen, Justin Timberlake, Bob Seger, Belinda Carlisle, Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, Roger Waters, Kid Rock, Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell, Mick Fleetwood, Stephen Stills, Sammy Hagar, Iggy Pop and, of course, Alice Cooper, who’s been at it longer than anyone.
I started playing at 12, nearly a half-century from where I am now, unconcerned about any cool or uncool aspect. It was something to do. I even understood, albeit abstractly, what the oldtimers were telling me: Golf was a sport you could play throughout your life.
Even if I wasn’t concerned about cool, Alice Cooper’s enthusiasm for the game headed off any potential jabs. If a rocker who, on stage, chopped the heads off baby dolls, rolled around in a straitjacket and was guillotined every night, could play this genteel, pastoral game, so could I. Alice was loud and he was proud – about being a rocker and being a golfer.
I’ve interviewed Cooper a few times and we always talk golf, at least a little bit, usually to start. I’ll ask where his handicap is (usually around 4) and he’ll ask how I’m doing (bogey golf, give or take.). I’ll moan about never being as good as he is and he’ll say something like, “Chin-up, Jim, if you played as often as I do, you’d be as good as I am.”
If he’s not on tour, Cooper will play six days a week near his Phoenix home. If he’s on tour, he’ll play at every U.S. tour stop and in Europe about twice a week. You often see him on TV in those celebrity pro-am tournaments.
Cooper, well-known for battling the bottle early in his career, admits golf was (and is) key to his recovery in his “Alice Cooper: Golf Monster – A Rock ’n’ Roller’s 12 Steps To Becoming a Golf Addict.”
“Ask anybody who’s ever been addicted to anything,” Cooper told me. “When they get into golf, it’s the same addiction. It’s like you hit a great shot and you will hit ten bad shots to hit one more good shot. It’s almost like that with any drug addiction. It’s very, very similar. But it’s not going to kill you.”
I remember reading about Iggy Pop, too, in a Creem magazine story in the ’70s. Iggy indulged in a lot of drugs back then and said when he wanted to clean up he’d visit his parents in Florida and golf. He lives in Palmetto Bay, Florida, now and my guess is golf access is a factor.
I think for many of us – certainly for these rockers and certainly for my late-night/concert-going/writing self – one of the main appeals golf has is that it has nothing to do with the rest of our lives. It’s four-and-a-half (or more) hours away from all that. It’s a different (slower) pace; it requires a different (sharply honed) skill set, one not easily mastered. And, it’s a great equalizer – the No. 1 guy in your foursome is the ace-of-the-day, not the guy who has achieved the most measure of fame in other walks of life.
Hugo Burnham, former drummer for the post-punk band Gang of Four, was 8 and growing up in Kent, England, when he first took to the links. He played with his grandfather. But he didn’t really didn’t take up the game until the band folded in 1983 and Burnham moved permanently to the United States. He was transitioning into the job of an A&R man, procuring talent for record companies.
Burnham, a longtime Gloucester resident, says the annual March industry confab South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, was what re-ignited his interest. “The Austin airport was overwhelmed with golf bags from all over the country on early-arrival Tuesday, as the tournament always kicked off early Wednesday mornings. It was a blast, with a fair amount of drinking and a lot of cigar-smoking. And prizes! And Alice Cooper! And Willie Nelson!”
“I embraced and loved playing golf during those years,” he added. “There was absolutely nothing un-cool about it.”
Alas, Burnham added, “When I moved back East and ended my A&R days, I sort of tailed off. A baby in the house and starting a new life as a college professor rather got in the way. I still have my clubs, and I still want to get out and play again. What did I shoot? Not telling. OK, not very well. But it was glorious when it went long and straight, and it was always a blast.”
I golf regularly with Dave Herlihy, now a lawyer and music industry professor at Northeastern University. He was also the singer-songwriter/guitarist for Boston-based alternative rock band O Positive.

“I started playing golf as a kid and was on the high school team,” Herlihy said. “And in O Positive, I’d golf during the day and rock out at night.”

“I was never embarrassed by golf,” Herlihy added “I never hid the fact that I played, but didn’t think it was cool either, I just liked it and didn’t give a damn what anyone thought about it. I did kind of chafe at the country club angle though, the exclusionary, privileged dimension. But golf as golf, I love.”
Oedipus, the program director for Boston’s long-running, top-rated (but now defunct) rock radio station WBCN, is another frequent golf partner. “My father loved golf, but we were too poor to play,” he said. “We watched on the TV together. I would sneak onto a public 9-hole to putt, but did not take up the game until the late-’70s when a friend bought me a used lefty set. Problem, as always, was finding the time to play.
“Golf is a mini-vacation. Golf, in some form, has always been part of my life. I never cared what people thought. Remember, I was the guy who was playing all of this noise on the radio that people hated before it became popular. I was the guy who had colored hair long before it was de jour. I … programmed a radio station that was the internet before the internet. We defined cool.”
Oedipus recalls a round with members of AC/DC about 30 years ago at Wayland Country Club. Guitarist Malcolm Young, who died in November, and bassist Cliff Williams traveled with their own clubs, he said, “We talked music, but mostly golf. We were hackers and we three had a jolly afternoon on the links.”
Oedipus said the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson told him “Golf is lame.” To that, Oedipus replied, “Sorry that you do not understand the personal challenges and elations as well as the comradery that golf offers.’’
Four years ago, I interviewed Huey Lewis about music for a half-hour. Wrapping up, I asked about his game. For 15 minutes or so, we were just two golfers, swapping stories.

Lewis said he no longer golfed on concert days. Fair enough, I thought. That showed discipline and commitment to his work. But backstage after a concert in Boston he admitted he’d lied. He’d played Myopia Hunt Club in South Hamilton earlier that day. And, he volunteered, he’d played poorly, shooting 82.
That evening, I came bearing a gift, a special golf ball that lit up – through the miracle of LEDs – when you struck it, so, in theory, you could find it in the dusk or rough or anywhere. Problem was, it felt like a rock to hit it and it didn’t exactly fly off the club.
But, Huey said “We need these kinds of balls at our age.”
He was right: We do. If only they felt and flew like a Titleist Pro V1.

Jim Sullivan covered pop music and culture for the Boston Globe for 26 years. He tries to play golf once or twice a week in-season. He currently writes for WBUR’s ARTery, the Cape Cod Times and a host of other outlets.

BY BILL BROTHERTON

MassGolf a merger of women’s and men’s associations