2/22/2021
I attended the University of Texas from Fall 1966 to December 1970 although I stayed in Austin through May 1972 working my husband thru graduate school. Prior to attending college, I played half-court basketball for 2 years at a Class B high school (too small for 6 man football) before transferring to a Class AA high school which did not offer girls basketball as most high schools (larger than Class B or A ) did not prior to Title IX. I lived in Littlefield Dorm for my first 3 years which had a lot of girls who came from small towns and was the intramural manager my sophomore year. Littlefield Dorm had great intramural teams because of those small-town girls. There were University-wide women’s basketball and softball teams but they were not funded by UT. Going to college on a scholarship and part-time jobs, I could not afford the money and time to participate in them.
I became a CPA in 1972 working in Houston for international accounting firms. I recruited at UT for the companies that I worked for. Over the years I have seen that involvement in sports (especially team sports) has done to improve capabilities and prospects of young women in their lives and professional careers in whatever field they choose even if they do not play professional sports.
I would venture to say that not every academic program at UT breaks even financially nor does every male sport.
06/29/2021
Hello Billy,
Great stories with John Carsey and John Danks, however the team picture recently included with the Dank’s story wasn’t the SWC & NIT Championship team. You might post this one.
It’s the official team picture of the 1977 – 78 Longhorns that shared the SWC title with Arkansas and won the NIT Championship. I was told after our NIT title game that we had set the record for winning by the largest point margin throughout the tournament.
Our 1977 – 78 team was the 1st team to play in the Special Events Center and we did go undefeated at home. John’s right about the sellouts. After our inaugural season at the Drum, it was reported that we’d averaged the 3rd largest home attendance in the nation. I think that the average attendance for that season was around 12,800.
You do a fantastic job chronicling the history of the Horns!
Go Horns Go,
Tom
Tom Nichols
1974-1978
Longhorn Basketball
1974 season under Coach Leon Black
From Former UT basketball player David Fisher:
Billy, thanks for the update on Coach. Its much appreciated. Here is a story that you will like.
In the 74-75 season, the Aggies were coming to Austin for a Saturday afternoon game. Usually, a couple of days before one of the SWC teams came to Austin, the Daily Texan would run an article about one of their players or coaches. So Thursday before the aggie game, the Daily Texan ran an article about aggie Coach Shelby Metcalf and how he had recently earned a PhD.
So I read their article and some of his PhD research dealt with some information that I could use for a paper in my business communication class. So Friday afternoon when we were finished with practice, the aggies came in for their workout. As we were leaving to go to the locker room, I went up to Coach Metcalf and congratulated him on his PhD.
He was a bit stunned until I mentioned the Daily Texan article and then he smiled and said thank you. I tried to ask him about his research and told him it could be of benefit to one of my classes. He looked at me and smiles and in his drawl, he said, I am a little busy right now but call my secretary Monday morning and we will see what we can do.
So I called his secretary Monday morning and she was very nice and told me that they had already sent some info to me. I was a bit stunned but thanked her for their kindness. Thursday at practice, Coach Black walks into practice and walks up to me with a package addresses to me from the Texas A&M Athletic Dept. lol He hands it to me with a strange look on his face. I opened it and was explaining what it was to Coach. It turned out that Coach Metcalf sent me a copy of his thesis. I couldn't believe it. Coach Black looked at me, shook his head and walked away. He did that a lot.
Anyway I made a B in the class and was thrilled. After school, I moved back to Houston. A couple of years later, I am at a Rocket game and I am going to the concession stand and who do I run into? Coach Metcalf. I go up to him and told him that I got a B. Without missing a beat, he turns to a friend and says...I gave this T-sip my thesis and all he could do was get a b on his report. We all got a good laugh about that and I ran into Coach a couple of times before he passed away and we always got a good laugh about that.
Billy, I still laugh about that to this day. Most don't know this but with a few exceptions, fan bases hate each other more than the players and coaches do. Take care and stay safe. Keep up the great work.
Chris Barbee 2/22/2021
I covered the women’s basketball team for The Daily Texan during the 73-74 school year (coach was Rodney Page). The girls had to fight with intramural teams for practice time at Gregory Gym, they pooled their money for gasoline to fuel team members’ cars. Where possible they spent the night at team members’ homes and they borrowed their uniforms from the volleyball team. I loved and respected those young ladies and Coach Page.