A teammate, friend, and competitor has forever transformed my black-and-white vision of life into a breathtaking panoramic view of the vibrant colors that reside in all of us.
We first met in 1965-1966 as competitors in the highest classification of high school football. I played for the State Champion Odessa Permian Panthers, and he played for the Abilene High School Eagles and future Longhorn head coach David McWilliams. Both of us received and accepted scholarship offers to Texas. Our paths seldom crossed on the football team or socially during our undergraduate years.  From day 1 at Texas, he worked to prepare for a successful life after graduation.  He was blessed with an uncommon combination of high IQ, common sense, a work ethic, and perseverance to work towards achieving success in every endeavor he pursued.

This article recounts Bill’s journey through a lifetime full of amazing experiences.

While Bill has always admired those who set long-term goals, he was not one of them. Instead, his path to success was driven by his natural ability to identify and seize new trends and opportunities. He began early, finding success in athletics, eventually leading to a great education, quality job opportunities, a world perspective rather than a regional one, and lasting friendships.
He was all in if an opportunity intrigued him and offered the potential for skill development and new adventures. He would start by researching those who were pioneers in various activities. Then, he either replicated what the early adopters did or exceeded what was necessary to excel. For instance, during the summer before his senior year in high school, his coaches set a goal for football players to run 10,000 yards per week to stay in shape. Bill ran 10,000 yards every day.

 
Some might say my teammate had an ego, but that isn’t necessarily a bad quality, as many believe. Egos are like symbolic cars that drive us to our destination. I wish I could have been in his car for the past 50 years to celebrate all the beautiful scenery along his journey. For more than 40 years, photography was his passion, capturing the beauty of our planet that goes unnoticed by most of us. His photos reflect a heart and soul fascinated with the beauty surrounding us all.  He has accumulated 500 GB of images, totaling over 65,000 photographs representing a vibrant, end-of-the-rainbow pot of gold-like imagery. His photos are a window to his soul. [1] In the 1990s, he attended several photography workshops of noted landscape photographers Charles Campbell and Mark Muench, and in 1999, he completed online coursework at The New York Institute of Photography. 

FAVORITES FROM THE VAULT is a collection of photos I emailed to friends between 2006 and 2015. I started sending photos sporadically starting in 2006 and, around 2010, began sending a photo every weekend, usually on Saturday morning. The Saturday morning photo became a ritual of sorts for the next five years, and then in 2015, I stopped.  

 
More than a few people advised they had become “addicted” to their Saturday morning photo “fix” over the previous decade (2006-2015).  I received a lot of requests to resume sending the photos, but I just never could get back into it.  I always had it in mind to compile the photos (which were some of my favorite images I had taken) into a single volume, but that was a project for a future day.

 
And then my computer crashed.  I had all my images backed up, but not the comments and descriptions that accompanied almost every photo I sent out! Major disaster!!  However, after several years of frustration a friend of mine who works in IT at UT Austin was able to restore the hard drive to a point where I could access the original text and photos.  It took many, many hours to transfer the text and photos from the old hard drive to a new document. For me, it was literally like breaking into a vault to recover my favorite images!  

 

The format of FAVORITES FROM THE VAULT might seem a little confusing, i.e. the dates are in reverse order (photos sent out most recently are first, earliest photos are last). And some photos are accompanied by extensive descriptions, and comments from recipients, while others may have none.  This is just a result of the process of recovering the images/text off the hard drive.  

 
The “CATTRACKS” logo is significant on a couple of levels.   First. the Catletts (Cat . . .  get it?) have left a lot of tracks (a form of “imprint” . . . . )  on a lot of trails over the years.  Second, by bringing back images from those distant, and some not so distant, locales, I hoped these images would leave you with a distinct visual imprint, i.e., “CATTRACKS”!! 

 
I began taking photographs in 1973 while backpacking in the Bridger Wilderness Area of Wyoming. My goal was simple: to bring back images of nature’s wonders to share with others. Pursuing this simple goal proved to be a lifelong quest.

 
Over the years, I have appreciated the opportunity to share these images, and I hope you enjoy perusing these FAVORITES FROM THE VAULT.

                                                                                              

A few of Cattrack’s favorite photos follow.

In terms of a rough Timeline for all these photos —  Windriver photo and Mittens at Dusk photos are sorta “bookends” for my photography:
 
Windriver was one of my first, taken in June 1973. Husky Ears was one of the last photos I took, shot in January 2012. The Mittens at Dusk is the last photo I printed in 2024.

 
Below is a photo of our great University produced by Bill. The photo hangs on the wall in my office.

 

1969- Orange Tower #1, national championship ring, and Littlefield Fountain

Bill’s internal drive to excel has resulted in a journey that most people would not or could not accomplish, ascending to the top of each professional mountain he chose to climb.  Bill shares a story about his first moments working toward his degree as a student in Architectural Engineering at UT Austin. 

Blocking the View

Sometime in either the Spring of 1970 or possibly 1971, he was excused from some Spring training football practices because he was a UT architectural engineering student. Once a week, he had an engineering lab that conflicted with practice, and Academics trumped practice.

On one occasion, he was dressed in his usual cut-off blue jeans, surfboard Hawaii T-shirt, and flip-flops as he and his lab mates ventured with his professor to inspect the new upper deck under construction at Memorial Stadium later to be named for DKR’s winning traditions.  He said the lesson was “pretty cool.”  He smiled as he walked to a vantage point where he could see his teammates practicing in the hot sun on the field.  He stopped at the level where the sports media and VIP boxes would be, but something was wrong. From that level, he could not really see the whole field.  The new upper deck completely blocked the view of the field for all on that level. It was apparent that no one did a line of site study. Some dismissed his concerns as a novice without a proper working knowledge of the project. Fortunately, others listened, and his observations were proven correct. Adjustments were made, and the media and VIP boxes were moved to another location.

Bill holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Architectural Engineering from UT Austin and was a member of the Chi Epsilon and Tau Beta Pi engineering honor societies; in 1978, he was licensed as a Petroleum Engineer in the State of Texas. In the 1970s, one of his adventures was designing residences and small office buildings as passive solar collectors while simultaneously working as president of an oil and gas operating company where he supervised the drilling and completion of over 60 oil and gas wells per year, producing 10,000 bpd from 170 leases in three states, and prepared lease evaluations, secondary recovery operations, and designed gas gathering systems.  In the 1980s, he was a member of the executive management team of what became the 16th largest privately held company in Texas. After graduating from Vanderbilt Law School in 1992, he became a trial lawyer in Dallas for 12 years. Then, for 16 years, he worked at UT Austin’s Office of Technology Commercialization, Office of Sponsored Projects, and as Director of the Office of Industry Engagement. in various roles, helping move technology created by U.T. into the marketplace to benefit society. He was involved in the initial planning for a collaborative research program involving UT Austin, Abilene Christian University, Texas A&M, and Georgia Tech to develop the nation’s first Small Modular Reactor fueled by a molten thorium salt nuclear reactor, with the four universities supported by funding provided by Natura Resources. 

After decades of little contact with Bill, we met at a reunion event.  I shared with him the TLSN mission to establish a tax-exempt Longhorn sports historical site with a compassionate component.  He was interested in the idea and started following the TLSN journey as it unfolded. In 2015, he was part of a TLSN meeting in the Stark Center that included Jan and Terry Todd, Directors of the Stark Center, and David Onion from the Development Office at UT Athletics. TLSN wanted to explore the possibility of the Stark Center supporting the TLSN mission with an exhibit of the 1969 National Championship football team. 
 
In the meeting, Bill suggested that “Instead of having the Stark Center focus on the 1969 team only, why not have the theme of the exhibit be called “The Streak? ” This would give more team members equity in celebrating two national champions and the 30-game win streak. 
 
 
He continued, “I originally mentioned to Jan Todd that they could pitch it as “the Worster bunch”.  I remember that was how the media most often referred to the 1967 recruiting class, which rewrote the history books (literally) for the three varsity seasons we were at UT.  Obviously, with help from others, like the seniors on the 68 team (Comer, Gilbert, Robertson, Bradley, etc.).

 

“I also remember mentioning that while UT’s Worster Bunch got most of the headlines, other UT sports, such as swimming and baseball, also won national championships from 1968 to 1971.  It seemed to be a natural fit for the Stark Center to include similar exhibits for the successes of other UT sports.  Jan and Terry then took us on a tour of an empty space in the northeast corner of Belmont Hall under the stadium bleachers immediately adjacent to the Food Court.  They had envisioned possibly expanding the Stark Center into this space to accommodate exhibits of the many successful aspects of UT athletic programs.”

Bill says “The Stark Center is now the home of the University of Texas Athletics Media Relations Office, which curates the creation and collection of paper records for all UT Austin sports.
The UT Athletics Department converted the empty space we toured into the Frank Denius Family University of Texas Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame displays Longhorns who won NCAA Championships, conference team titles, national championship trophies, conference championship trophies, first-team All-American nameplates, and Olympians.”

One of Bill’s special memories playing for the Horns.

In 1969, we were beating the ATMs pretty handily, and tempers were flaring on and off the field. As we came out through the tunnel for the second half, the Aggie Band was exiting the field, and UT players had to force their way through the band members. Boys being boys, there was most certainly ungentlemanly language being exchanged.  Well, things began to escalate and then one or more Aggie tuba players had the misfortune of saying something explicit to one/both of the Campbell twins. And the Campbell twins immediately reacted by jumping on the tuba players and beating the shit out of them. And, of course, the Aggie Band reacted in force.  To which any Longhorn player that was close by joined in. I understand that at the periphery of the melee, the ATM yell leaders inadvertently started a second kerfuffle when they drew their sabers and tried to make their way to the tuba players. Texas players/fans not only did not retreat but stormed the sabre-wielding Aggies.
 
Needless to say the second half of the game had a delayed start. Most folks never had any idea what was going on, because it all happened within the confines of the “chute” leading from the locker rooms onto the field and it was over pretty quickly. 

Pancreatic Cancer strikes the spirit of the Longhorn Nation

Bill Catlett is an inspiration to me. His life story exemplifies a life well-lived and leadership in every endeavor he pursued. I admire Bill for embracing his friends and teammates, offering light to many during times that could be overshadowed by darkness.

 
Bill says, “I have the misfortune to have THE most aggressive, hard-to-treat form of cancer – pancreatic cancer – which has metastasized and is Stage 4.  

He continues, In July 2024 I went to my primary care physician to review my blood pressure medication (took me off all BP meds!), and ended up having what we thought was a routine ultrasound scan of the abdominal area. The scan came back with a troubling result: an unknown mass had been detected on my pancreas.

An MRI and biopsy confirmed the worst possible diagnosis. The prognosis was four months to live without treatment (for those of you who are keeping score, that would be ~November 2024) and 10-14 months with treatment. I chose door number two, the treatment option, and began chemotherapy shortly thereafter.

The first 48 hours after the initial diagnosis involved a lot of soul searching, but not really anything different than what I had to work through with the debilitating back pain I was dealing with during 2020-22.  Sort of like I’d had four years to train for what’s in front of me now. But now that I was off BP meds, at least I could think clearly for the first time in years!

I do think about end-of-life stuff, mostly things I’m going to dearly miss. But then I realized if I didn’t have so many wonderful memories of time spent with Jackie, family, and friends over the last 70 years- I wouldn’t have anything to miss!  So, I’m SOOO grateful for the memories I have.  Do I wish there’d been more?  Sure.  But the ones I have are great!  I thank the Good Lord for the full and blessed life he has given me!

I am where the Lord wants me to be, and I’m good with that. I feel blessed to be where I am, and I have objective proof: Jackie was online looking at the doctors’ notes following my last visit, and there is a category for “Patient Anxiety (on a scale of 0-25).” The doctor had recorded my anxiety as Zero.
It’s December 2024, and I am still plugging along! We’ll just have to wait and see what the Good Lord has in mind for these final months.

In the immortal words of Billy Clyde Puckett —  “Nobody said this wasn’t gonna be semi-tough”.