Earl Woods was a U.S. Army infantry officer and a college baseball player. He trained and coached his son, Tiger Woods at a very early age in golf. Woods was also famous as an athlete. He was the first black baseball player to play for Kansas State University. Despite that, he chose not to pursue a career as an athlete but joined the Army Special Forces and served in Vietnam.
He was married twice and divorced once. He had three children with his first with Barbara Gary and one child (Tiger Woods) with his second wife, Kultida.
Having lived a fulfilled life, Earl Woods died of a heart attack at his home in Cypress in 2006 at the age of 74. He was previously diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1998.
Who is Earl Woods?
Earl Woods was born on March 5, 1932, to Miles Woods and Maude Carter. His father had five children with his first wife, Viola but with Maude, Earl’s mother, his father had six more children.
Earl’s father worked as a street cleaner and caretaker although he was epileptic. His mother was of mixed African and European ancestry. When Earl was 15, his mother died so he was practically raised by his older sister, Hattie Bell Woods.
In 1949, Woods graduated from Manhattan High School. From high school, he went on to attend Kansas State University where he played baseball, and later earned a varsity letter in 1952 and 1953 respectively. He later graduated in 1953 with a BSc in Sociology.
Upon graduating from college, he served two combat tours during the Vietnam War as an infantry officer and later as an officer with the United States Army Special Forces. He also attended Defense Information School after he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. Before he retired in 1974, he served as an instructor of Military Science and Tactics at the City College of New York.
Moving on, Earl Woods went to settle in Southern California and then worked briefly with McDonnell Douglas Corp in Huntington Beach, California.
He was Married Twice and Divorced Once
Earl Woods got married to his first wife, Barbara Gary on May 18, 1954, in Abilene, Kansas. From his first marriage, Woods had three children: Earl Dennison Jr., Kevin Dale, and Royce Renee.
In 1968, the couple divorced 1968 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Woods then met his second wife, Kultida Punsawad while he was working in Thailand. Kultida, who is half Thai, a quarter Dutch and a quarter Chinese married Woods in 1969 in Brooklyn. At that time, she was working as a secretary.
In 1975, Woods and Kultida welcomed their son, Eldrick, famously known as Tiger Woods. Eldrick was nicknamed Tiger after Woods’s friend, Lieutenant Colonel Vuoug Dang ‘Tiger’ Phong.
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Earl Woods Had 4 Children
Earl Woods
Earl Woods Jr is the oldest child of Earl Sr. He was born in 1955 during Earl Sr.’s first marriage to Barbara Gary.
Earl Jr. is the father of the pro-LGPA golfer, Cheyenne Woods. His daughter was trained by his father at a very young age. Cheyenne played for Wake Forest University golf team before she turned pro in 2012.
He used to work in the Department of Economic Security. While there, he raised a false alarm about a bomb threat to the Department of economic security building in Phoenix. For that, he got arrested and was charged with suspicion to terrify, intimidate, threaten, or harass others at the Maricopa County Jail.
According to police reports, Woods Jr. later claimed the phone call was meant to be a joke with his co-workers.
Kevin Dale Woods
Kevin Dale Woods was born in 1957. Although not much is known about him, His brother Earl revealed in an interview with ESPN’sRick Reilly that he has been suffering from multiple sclerosis and is now confined to a wheelchair.
Royce Renee Woods
Earl Woods Sr.’s only daughter Royce Renee was born in 1961. She is the last child he had with his first wife. Royce reportedly had a successful career as a college basketball player and then later, as a coach.
At the time Tiger Wood was in college, she was living in California and he would always go to her place. After he turned pro, Tiger bought a house for her in San Jose.
Tiger Woods
Born Eldrick Tont Woods, the American golfer is the only child of Earl Woods and his second wife, Tida. His mother named him Eldrick because it began with E, which stands for Earl’s name and ends with K, which symbolizes her name, Kultida.
Tiger’s middle name ‘Tont’ is a traditional Thai name and his nickname, Tiger, was given to him in honor of his father’s friend, Colonel Vuoug Dang Phong ‘Tiger’.
When Tiger Woods started his career, he was considered the world’s most marketable athlete. He signed several endorsement deals with quite a number of companies like Nike, American Express, and Accenture.
In his career so far, Tiger has won 82 official PGA Tour events including 15 majors. He is one of five players to have won all four major championships in his career. Also, Woods is the only player to have consecutively won all four major championships open to professionals.
Besides his career, Tiger Woods and his father founded the Tiger Woods Foundation in 1996 with the aim of promoting golf among inner-city children. The Foundation also operates the Tiger Woods Learning Center, a facility saddled with the responsibility of providing college-access programs for underserved youth.
Tiger Woods was previously married to Elin Nordegren, a former model. Together they had two children, Sam and Charlie. The marriage ended after Tiger Woods’ infidelity scandal in 2010.
What Happened to Earl Woods?
In 1998, Earl Woods was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He underwent treatment for a while but in 2004, his prostrate cancer returned. In addition to that, Tiger Woods’s father, had heart problems, diabetes, and poor circulation in his legs.
Woods was buried at Sunset Cemetery in Manhattan. In honor of his memory, The Earl Woods National Youth Golf Academy at Colbert Hills Golf Course in Manhattan, Kansas.
