Friends and Neighbors: Gillilands instrumental in supporting golf in Kimball

It may be difficult to imagine that prior to moving to Kimball with her husband Bruce and their son, Stephen, Wilma Gilliland knew little of golf.

The young couple met and began dating in Mt. Vernon, Ill., where Bruce was a civil engineer.

Bruce, a golfer, asked her to meet him at the local country club for a date. The country club had a public nine hole course.

"He took me out to the golf course. I had never been out on a golf course, but I was to meet him there," Wilma recalled. "There was a couple playing and they asked me to play with them, so I did. When he got there we were coming off the course and he said, 'Wilma, you don't know how to play golf.' And I said, 'But I holed out on number four.'"

They married in 1944 and moved to Kimball in 1951 with their young son, while Bruce worked as an engineer and builder for Flint Engineering.

"The wind was blowing so hard while I was driving here with Steve. I had never experienced that before, and I cried," Wilma said.

The couple quickly made Kimball their home and they started a business, Plains Construction Company, where Wilma kept the books.

In her free time Wilma took golf instruction at the Cheyenne Country Club, and the couple played golf as often as possible at the Kimball course, a 9-hole sand course south of town.

"We had never played sand greens before coming to Kimball, everything had been grass," Wilma said.

Bruce joined a board of local men who worked together to change the local course to grass as well as grow the course.

Funding was available for outdoor recreational activities from the federal government, but local government had to provide for 50 percent of the funds.

The board eventually purchased land one mile east of Kimball from the Nagel family and a water well was dug.

"The board hired a firm out of Omaha after they had bought the property. This firm (Leo A. Daly) of Omaha was to design the course, when they got the design the board held a meeting," Wilma said. "Bruce looked at it and said, 'Well, I can do better than that.'"

Though the town did not have the funds to build an 18-hole course at the time, the vision was to grow into one of the finest courses in the state, according to Wilma.

Daly's three-phase plan for the course, to take place over three years, was rejected. While Bruce designed the course, Milo Luckett, a golf pro from Sterling, was hired to build the local course.

"When they laid the course out it was designed for 18 holes, but they only did nine to begin with," Wilma said. "So as time went on Bruce would plant the trees. There was just one tree on the property."

All of Bruce's time at the course was volunteer in the those years. Wilma said that while he designed the course, naysayers said the right kind of grass would not grow in Kimball. Bruce disagreed and he proved them wrong.

"He built a putting green in our backyard. It's a special grass," Wilma said.

In addition to the golf course, the recreation area featured a trap range, tennis courts, an archery range, the baseball diamonds and a swimming pool – which was never built.

Lighting for the ball diamonds and shelters were built as well as the first watering system, which was above ground

Crews would set the water at night, Wilma said. As time went on, funding for an underground system came through, in addition to funding to extend the course.

"They got enough money that Bruce built five more holes, so they played for a few years with 14 holes," Wilma said.

Mike Nelson, who was at First State Bank at the time, called and said the bank would put up the money to build the last four holes.

"Of course Bruce jumped at the chance," Wilma said. "They had already put an underground sprinkling system on the front, so he put in a sprinkling system on the back."

Bruce and Wilma enjoyed their time making the course what it is today, and as time went on, they each contributed in many ways.

"He really spent a good part of his later years with that course," Wilma said. "He just resigned form the recreation board this last December. He is 97."

They are also both members of the Nebraska Golf Hall of Fame. Wilma was inducted in 1993, while Bruce was inducted last year.

Wilma, who won six state sand green championships, continues to instruct youngsters each summer on the course with the junior golf program.

"Golf is a wonderful game. People don't realize that you don't have to hit every ball straight. It is more about the integrity of the game. A lady asked me once why I wanted all those little kids out there on that golf course," Wilma said. "I said, 'Well can you think of a better place for them to be?'"

Wilma also said the same of their decades in Kimball.

"I don't want to go someplace to spend six months or three months or whatever," Wilma said. "Driving home, you come over a hill and there it is, home."