Coach George Hannon 1964-1981 golf

Coach George Hannon  1964- 1981

• 1989 HOH Induction

• Coached UT to 1971 and 1972 NCAA titles, 12 SWC crowns

• Coached 22 All-Americans and eight individual SWC champions

• National Coach of the Year in 1971 and 1972

• SWC Coach of the Year in 1964, 1971 and 1972

1964 George Hannon SWC Champs  28-14 pending

 Geiselman is high point man. Thompson and Mitchell dominate their opponents. 

 Geiselman, Thompson, Roden, Mitchell, Munn, Thomas, Ford  and Coach Hannon

SWC Champs

27th at the NCAA Championship

Pat Thompson Was the SWC Medalist In 1964

1965 George Hannon SWC Champs.   32-10 pending

24th conference championship with a 32-10 record.

17th at the NCAA Championship

Randy Geiselman Was the SWC Medalist In 1965

1966 George Hannon 28-14 pending

The team finishes 2nd in the SWC, but Mason Adkins is the SWC medalist. 

A fall season was added to golf, which made golf a year-round sport. 

27th at the NCAA Championship

1967 George Hannon Pending Content

Horns finish 2nd in SWC, with Chip Stewart finishing 2nd. 

13th at the NCAA Championship

1968 George Hannon 25th SWC championship

4th at the NCAA Championship

1969 George Hannon  31-11 Pending Content

Most of the team from the 1968 SWC champions returned in 1969. This is Tom Kite’s first year.

Second at The SWC tournament.    The NCAA Texas foursome was Massengale, Stewart, Overturf, and Kite. 

8th at the NCAA Championship

Rick Massengale Was the SWC Medalist In 1969

1970 George Hannon SWC Champs 

SWC Champs

6th at the NCAA Championship

Dean Overturf Was the SWC Medalist In 1970

Two back of Overturf was Tom Kite. 

Kite breaks the 144-hole Massingill  Tournament by a record 28 strokes. 

After consulting with Coach Hannon, AD Darrell Royal decides the SWC needs to convert from match play to stroke play to be more competitive with the University of Houston’s 7 National Championship trophies. Royal decides not to play any SWC team that does not switch to stroke play. The other teams in the SWC refused, and Texas played no round-robin games with SWC teams in 1970. 

1971 National Champion Coach George Hannan

Ben Crenshaw, a freshman, and Tom Kite lead the University of Texas to consecutive NCAA titles (1971-1972)

On the last day of the NCAA tournament, the team was 15 down. Florida, Wake Forest, and Houston were in the lead. Kite and Crenshaw were on fire, and Texas won by seven shots. The team’s 275 set an NCAA Championship record. 

For the first time in the history of NCAA championship golf, Texas shot sub-par golf during the four-day National championship tournament.

Crenshaw was the individual National champion in 1971 and ’73, and he shared the crown with Kite in 1972.

Crenshaw was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.

He wins 18 Collegiate Tournaments.

He is First team All American and recognized as the Nations Most Outstanding Collegiate Golfer in 1971, ’72, and ’73

He has a breath-taking 70.61 stroke average during his college career.

Is SWC Conference Medalist  in 1972, 1973

Ben Crenshaw is the first Longhorn Medalist at the NCAA Championship event since 1935.

Ben Crenshaw holds the Longhorn record for medalist at tournaments (16). Justin Leonard is second (8).

Harvey Penick says that Ben was a natural who disliked practice.

1972- NATIONAL CHAMPION 

Hannon praises Tony Pfaff, Brent Buckman, and George Tucker for their outstanding play at the championship tournament, saying that “first man out” Tucker’s 71 took the pressure off the other Longhorn golfers.

SWC Champs

The team won 4 consecutive tournaments 

Tom Kite was an All-American in 1972

1984 Hall of Honor inductee

Winner of 9 Collegiate tournaments

Member of two National Champions

Walker Cup Selection 1971

Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw were co-medalists at the NCAA championship in 1972.

Harvey had a special place in his heart for Tom Kite. In the book “Harvey Penick” by Kevin Robbins, the author states that “Kite is a driven man with a colossal work ethic,” but he had “a fraction of the athletic ability of someone like Crenshaw.” “Golf never came easily to Kite, but he worked so hard at the game that he seemed to bend its will in his favor. Crenshaw won with ambivalent grace. Kite won with rabid commitment”. Harvey Penick said Tom had a “fire smoldering inside of him to succeed.” Tom succeeded because of the countless hours he practiced his shots. Tom knew there was a difference between practice and hitting balls. He said, “Practice requires concentration while hitting balls does not.”

1973 George Hannon

SWC Champs

3rd at the NCAA Championship

Ben Crenshaw wins a record 3rd medalist honor at the NCAA Championship.

Bob Harwell is a medalist at the Bevo Classic.

Jim Mason was a three-time regional medalist in 1973, 1974, and 1975.  

Ben needed help to win the SWC, and he got it from Warren Chancellor, Tony Pfaff, Brent Buckman, and Johnny Dill.

1974 George Hannon Ben is gone, co-SWC Champions.

 Crenshaw gave up his senior year to go pro, and his loss ended with Houston and Texas tied for the SWC championship. It took Mason’s 50-foot putt on the last hole to garner the tie.

The Horns had to scratch and fight year-round to salvage the year. The team placed 8th at the Pan American tournament and 9th at the Border Olympics before finally winning their first tournament.

Longhorns tie Houston for the SWC Championship on Mason’s 50-foot putt in the 18th green.

15th at the NCAA Championship

Tim Wilson is the medalist at the Bevo Classic.

Tony Pfaff is the medalist at the Morris Williams. 

1975 George Hannon’s average season

SWC Champs- 11th at the All-American Intercollegiate Invitational and first at the Pan American and Morris Williams tournaments. Bedillion and Simmons are the most consistent on the team.

17th at the NCAA Championship

Lance Ten Broeck was an SWC Medalist In 1975, winning the Harvey Penick tournament. He was also a medalist at the SWTSU Bobcat Invitational in 1976.

Randy Simmons is a medalist at the All-College Classic.  

Dale Blackburn is a medalist at the Bevo Classic.

1976 George Hannon

Randy Simmons is the team captain. He thought this team could win the National Championship, but he was wrong. Texas did not win a single major tournament this year. They even struggled to finish second in the SWC.

Jerry Anderson, Jamin Swanter, Tom Wilson, Jerry Anderson, and Randy Simmons are all regional play medalists. 

Bedillion quits the team to focus on his studies. 

1977 – Coach Hannon

The team finished fourth in the SWC. It was a bad year. They placed 10th at the Pan American and 11th in the LSU tournament.

Phil Blackmar is UT’s top man this year and is helped by Chaffe and Warren Aune.

Improving a golfer’s game is tough enough when he or she knows what to correct, but it is almost impossible to improve if you don’t know what the problem is. Collectively, the Goff team and Coach did not know what to correct. Coach Hannon’s frustration showed when he said, ‘I do not know what we’re doing wrong. If I knew what it was, I’d change it.’

1978 George Hannon Pending Content

Top of the Charts 1978

Kirk Branum is a Medalist at the Border Olympics.

1979 George Hannon

The tennis team finished 3rd in the SWC. Spagnolo had the lowest score on the Longhorn team.

1980 George Hannon Pending Content

Houston continued to dominate the SWC, finishing third at the SWC Championship, third at the prestigious All-American Intercollegiate Tournament in Houston, and second in the Harvey Penick tournament. 

12th at the NCAA Championship

Andy Rose, Cutts Benedict, and Jim Spagnolo are all regional medalists.

1981 George Hannon -SWC Camps

Coach Hannon liked the potential of this team, saying, “We’ve got depth, experience,” and talent to go far in the NCAA. The only hiccup was that star player Jim Spagnolo was having trouble transferring 6 hours of credit from a college in Pennsylvania to Texas and was deemed ineligible for the first golf tournament in Oklahoma City. He was replaced by former football player Jon Aune’s brother, Greg Aune. 

Lawrence Fields and Mark Brooks led the team to victory in the SWC against the hard-driving Houston Cougars. It was Texas’ first outright SWC championship since 1973  

SWC Champs first since 1977

Finished 16th at the NCAA Championship

Kyle Coody and Paul Thomas are medalists at two tournaments

Jim Clayton is UT’s first full-time Golf Coach

• 6-time SWC Coach of the Year

• A member of the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame

• 6 top 5 finish at NCAA’s

• Coached Bob Estes-1988, Justin Leonard-1994, Brad Elder- 1997, and Jeff Fahrenbruch-1997