2020 Bill Sansing

Bill Sansing after a game in 1948 said – It’s all there-any contest, when the band strikes up “The Eyes of Texas”. The tradition, the memories, the sights, and the sounds. It stirred me decades ago, and it still does. Only a Longhorn could really grasp that and thrill to it.”

Bill Sansing was the team manager in the 1930’s and the first sports information director in 1946.

05.14.2020 | Texas Athletics

A long journey ends for Bill Sansing

A piece about the life of Bill Sansing by Bill Little.

By Bill Little

It is hard to know where to begin this story; one hundred years is a long time.

Once, when the great Keith Jackson was speaking at a tribute to Darrell Royal, he put it this way: “Think of a large, serene pond,” Keith said, “and toss a pebble into the middle of it. 

“Now watch as the ripples begin slowly widening and spreading, until they reach the shore in every direction.”

They write poems about “A Life Well-lived.” You can measure Bill Sansing by the ripples.

Those ripples began when he left Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas and enrolled at The University of Texas at Austin in the 1930s. He was a competitor, a team manager for UT basketball who learned at the feet of the legendary coach Jack Gray. He was an excellent writer and became sports editor of The Daily Texan. 

Among those whom the ripples of Bill Sansing touched was Longhorn Legend and pro golfing great Ben Crenshaw, who grew up in Austin and benefited from their long relationship.

“Bill was a wonderful friend and a very smart business man with a great sense of humor.  He was instrumental early in my professional career,” said Crenshaw. “He was Jack Nicklaus’ marketing man, and I respected that because he meant so much to Jack.  He guided me in the right direction, and I appreciated that. His service to the University of Texas is legendary.”

When he graduated from UT in 1941, he joined the sports staff of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Six months later, his, and the world’s, life changed. On December 7, 1941, two very diverse and important things happened in his life. First, of course, America was thrust into World War II with the bombing by the Japanese of Pearl Harbor.

And second, that same day he met a stunning UT coed named Ruth Ann Chaney, who would become his life partner. Then, Lieutenant Sansing headed off to war as combat intelligence officer in the Army Air Corps of The United States of America. On October 3, 1942, he married Ruth Ann, a union that would last 71 years until she passed away in 2013.

Bill had entered the war as a private; he was discharged as a major in 1946. By then, his path was set. Loyalty would characterize Bill Sansing for the rest of his life.

He had made an impression on the Texas Athletics staff with his time as a manager in basketball and track. 
You could make a case that Bill “sang” his way back home.

In December of 1945, after the Allies had liberated Italy, Sansing was assigned the charge of preparing a program for the officers – many of whom were fellow Texans who had graduated from Texas A&M. Sansing mustered a group of Italian youngsters to sing Christmas carols for the officers.

On the night of the event, the school kids entered the festive banquet hall looking like cherubs dressed in their bright colors. Their singing was cherub-like, as well, and Sansing prepared the generals by asking them to stand in tribute to the youngsters’ final song.

Then, in perfect English, which Sansing of course had taught them, the kids began to sing, “The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You….” The officers chased Sansing from the banquet hall, and his ploy had become an instant legend.

In the 1940s, colleges and universities were all searching for ways to become relevant after the war, and D.X. Bible was the first in the southwestern United States to see the opportunity. Other schools around the country, at Notre Dame and in the Big Ten, had realized that the sports page was an immediate entry into every breakfast table in the country.

So, with Sansing’s reputation preceding him, Bible offered him a job as “Director of Sports News and Assistant to Athletic Director.” The position paid $3,600 a year, and Bill took it. Over the next several years, he learned the new trade. Before CoSIDA, the national organization of the College Sports Information Directors of America, was officially formed in 1955, Sansing and others such as Fred Stabley, Sr., of Michigan State, Val Pinchbeck of Syracuse, Skeeter Francis of Wake Forest and Joe Cahill of Army would gather with the Football Writers of America each summer in Chicago.

Eventually though, Sansing’s career path would take a different direction. He left UT in 1949 to join the advertising firm that handled the Humble Oil Radio Network, which carried all of the Southwest Conference games. There, he worked with the legendary announcer Kern Tipps for the next several years. After a distinguished career in marketing and advertising took him around the world, he returned to Austin in 1970, and immediately became associated with a growth campaign for Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine.

His public relations consulting company, Anamark, had only three clients besides his work with Dave Campbell’s magazine. His efforts with those included helping to shape the image of professional golfer Jack Nicklaus, traveling around the globe for Nicklaus’ enterprises; working with his friend Tex Schramm and the Dallas Cowboys; and as a labor of love, producing the football coach’s television show for the Texas Longhorns.

As he began to retire, he became a loyal volunteer for the Salvation Army, and played golf at the Hills of Lakeway golf course he had helped Nicklaus build. But time can be a cruel task master, and it was for Bill and Ruth Ann Sansing. As a degenerative eye disease began to claim her sight, Bill and Ruth Ann left Austin for San Antonio, where they found a home at the USAA Towers, in the shadow of Fort Sam Houston. The perfect place for a patriot.

In 2009, the CoSIDA Convention – then attended regularly by 1,000 or so members of the profession Bill helped start – was held at the River Center Marriott, so Bill and Ruth Ann took a rare road trip. CoSIDA had stretched the bounds of its Hall of Fame to include those veterans who had contributed tremendously to the profession before moving on in other areas. 

Bill Sansing was one of the first four people chosen for induction. Perhaps Ruth Ann couldn’t see, but she looked the picture of beauty and grace as her husband accepted his honor. Years earlier, she had seen him become one of, to date, five Texas SIDs inducted into the Longhorn Hall of Honor, including Wilbur Evans, Jones Ramsey, John Bianco and myself.
You have heard this before, but destiny is an interesting traveling companion.

Bill had attended only one Texas football game since he and Ruth Ann left Austin in the mid-1990s. He would never stray far from Ruth Ann. But in 2012, Texas was invited to play Oregon State in the Alamo Bowl in the Alamodome right there in San Antonio. This was a man whose love was his wife, but his passion was all things UT.

It was one last chance for Bill to see the Longhorn Band in their trademark uniforms come marching onto the field, blasting “The Eyes” and “Texas Taps,” which for more than 70 years had always brought him to tears. 

So, my wife Kim (who shared the same birthdate with Bill on February 15 and called him every year on that day) and I hired a car service to pick up Bill at The Towers and bring him to the Alamodome. 

He got there for pre-game, stayed through halftime, and got back to his apartment in time to see Texas come from behind for a victory over the Beavers.

Ruth Ann died the next year, and most would say that Bill had died a little bit each day since then. Love, they say, can do that.
But it can also leave a legacy for those who knew him, and those who learn his story. It is a message that in a time of uncertainty and shadows, there is still something tangible that can sustain, and endure.

“Blessing” is often an overused word. But when it speaks to the heart, it speaks of a rare power…a treasure when your faith may be tested, but your hope never dies.

Bill Sansing’s wisdom, wit and care for all of those who crossed his path, was certainly a blessing. In his 100 years, he impacted so many and laid the foundation for an industry that has not only been great for those of us who have worked in it, but the many coaches, student-athletes and professionals we’ve all served. 

It was indeed a life well-lived, and one that will carry on through his legacy.