DENVER – Golf carts buzzed across the lush fairways of Denver’s City Park last Friday (July 24), but the true driving force behind the fourth annual Batey Legacy & Developing Champions Golf Tournament was connection – bridging generations of Colorado basketball history.  READ MORE

With more than 100 people gathered for the post-tournament luncheon, the event proved to be much more than a fundraiser. It was a celebration of enduring friendships born more than six decades ago and a launchpad for a young local athlete’s collegiate future.

Continuing the Tradition: Quis Davis Earns the Batey Memorial Scholarship

The afternoon’s marquee moment came with the announcement of the third recipient of the Sam Batey Sr. Legacy Scholarship at CSU Pueblo for the 2026-2027 men’s basketball season.

The honor went to Quis Davis, a standout guard from Denver East High School, situated just two miles from the City Park clubhouse.

Davis carries forward a rich athletic pedigree. Like Batey Sr., who starred as an all-city performer for the Angels in the late 1950s, Davis earned All-Denver Prep honors at Denver East earlier this decade. His basketball journey has since taken him from Casper College in Wyoming to the last two seasons at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, setting the stage for his upcoming chapter at CSU Pueblo, where he will play for Zach Ruebesam.

“The Batey scholarship is about recognizing grit, community, and character – traits that Sam Sr. embodied every time he stepped on the court,” said Jim Simmons of Green Valley, Ariz., who played two seasons with Sam Sr. at Pueblo Junior College.

Sixty-Five Years in the Making: A Historic Reunion

Long before Davis’s name was called, the tournament room was filled with waves of nostalgia. Minutes before the scholarship announcement, Barbara Batey experienced an emotional reunion with Mike Frink, a lifelong friend whose connection to the Batey family dates back 65 years.

Frink and Barbara met as freshmen in the fall of 1961 at Pueblo Junior College (PJC), where they were famously part of a basketball honors court in February 1962. Frink, who went on to play two standout seasons (1961-1963) alongside Sam Batey Sr. at PJC, is also the godfather to Sam Batey Jr.

The web of Colorado basketball lore ran deep at the table. Frink arrived at PJC from Wheat Ridge High School, where he played alongside Norm Saunders.

Norm’s father, Monk Saunders, had been a college classmate of legendary coach Harry Simmons at the University of Colorado in the 1930s. It was the elder Saunders who recommended Frink – who remarkably had never started a varsity game in high school – to Simmons, sparking a collegiate career.

Remembering Sam Batey Sr.

The tournament stands as an annual tribute to Sam Batey Sr., who passed away on July 19, 2021. A 2012 inductee into the CSU Pueblo Athletics Hall of Fame, Batey’s collegiate roots trace back to his freshman year at PJC in 1961. As a newcomer, he immediately made his mark as the leading scorer (13.7 points per game) for a PJC squad defending its national junior college title, before completing his career playing two seasons for Simmons at Southern Colorado State College.

It was during those early PJC days in the fall of 1961 that a young Barbara Jackson – a native of New Orleans – arrived on campus and met Sam Sr. Their partnership sparked a family legacy that now spans generations.

From a heartfelt reunion of 1961 classmates to a hometown kid earning a scholarship to pull on a CSU Pueblo jersey, the fourth annual Batey tournament cemented its place as a cornerstone event for Colorado sports – proving that basketball builds bonds that last a lifetime.

The Batey Legacy & Developing Golf

As for the golf tournament, the top two foursome teams combined to shoot 31-under par on the par-70, 6,232-yard City Park layout.

• CSU Pueblo baseball head coach Bobby Applegate teamed with Eddie Acuna, Luis Contreras and Doug Finley to take home first place with a 17-under par score of 53.
• Todd Sandstedt, Russ Dampier, Chris Todd and William King were the runners-up with a score of 14-under par 56.
• The Sandstedt team tied the team of Jim Brooks, Brad Ranson, Wayne Gordon and Tyler McDonough, who also shot a 56.
• The Sandstedt team won on a scorecard playoff as they hit a hole-in-one on the No. 9 hole, while Brooks’ team scored a three on the par-5 hole.