Jackson Creek Middle School
American Heroes:Tiger "Eldrick" Woods
Off the Course
Tiger Woods was born on
December 30, 1975. He grew up in Cypress, California. In 1975,
the year Tiger was born, the first African-American golfer was
allowed to play in The Masters. His name was Lee Elder.
His parents are Earl and
Kultida Woods.Tiger considers himself to be Asian-American and
African-American. Kultida Woods is a native of Thailand.
Earl Woods spent twenty
years in the army. Earl was the first African-American to play
college baseball in the Big Eight Conference at Kansas State.
Tiger and his dad were
invited to be guests on The Mike Douglas Show. Tiger was also a
guest on Oprah Winfrey's show.
On Tiger's first day of
kindergarten, a group of boys tied him to a tree, threw rocks at
him, and shouted racial slurs. Tiger's parents wouldn't let him
practice until he had all of his schoolwork done.
Earl suffered a heart
attack when Tiger was ten years old.
Tiger attended Western
High School in Anaheim, California. Tiger got really good grades
in high scool.
When Tiger was not playing
golf, he loved playing video games, listening to music, and
hanging out with his two best friends, Bryon Bell and Jerry
Chang. Tiger and his mom practice Buddhism.
After high school, Tiger
decided to go to Stanford University, he majored in accounting
and business. In 1994, Tiger started his freshman year at
Stanford University.
As a freshman at Stanford,
Tiger took classes such as history, computers, golf, and a class
in Portugese literature and as a sophmore, he took classes such
as economics, African literature, and a class on race and
ethnicity.
As a freshman, Tiger was
receiving a lot of fan mail and hate mail. One night at Stanford
Tiger got attacked by a stranger who managed to steal his watch
and a gold chain.
While playing golf at
Stanford, Tiger was getting very frustrated with the NCAA. He was
mad because they suspended him from a few golf tournaments. They
said it was because when he went to The Masters, he did not use
the right brand of balls.
By: Kaity
S.
Updated: 12-10-01
