TlSN is not directly associated with U.T. remaining an independent organization.

The Texas Legacy Support Network (TLSN) is a dedicated steward of Longhorn sports, committed to preserving the history of its teams and sharing the stories of those who have contributed to the Longhorn brand over the years. TLSN has established a Living Archive of Longhorn History to document and celebrate this legacy. The TLSN website has changed the culture from one that only remembers Longhorn athletes to one that defines their contributions to the Longhorn Nation.

TLSN also created the first 501(c)(3) in college athletics history, focused on giving direct financial help to former Longhorn student‑athletes and their families. On April 29, 2017, TLSN became the first private charitable group in intercollegiate sports to do this, providing temporary support to former Longhorn athletes, coaches, managers, trainers, and their immediate families when tragedy strikes.

This was a structural shift. Before TLSN, the Longhorn community had no formal mechanism to identify or support former athletes in crisis. TLSN created that mechanism. TLSN is the architect of a worthy mission. A community builder reconnecting teammates, families, and generations of Longhorns through stories, newsletters, and personal outreach. The organization preserves Longhorn sports history and provides compassionate financial aid to qualifying former Longhorn student-athletes. TLSN acts as a crisis responder coordinating help for medical bills, housing, transportation, funerals, and other emergencies.

The TLSN website is a go‑to source for Longhorn sports stories, preserving the memories, context, and heart of each season and sport from their early days through 2014. It regularly features reflections on the team’s legacy, books, documentaries, and personal stories from those who helped shape the Longhorn brand. TLSN keeps the spirit of past on‑field victories alive while also spotlighting key cultural moments in Longhorn history, from racial integration to awareness of CTE and changing social attitudes. The TLSN Board of Directors stays closely connected with former players and devoted Longhorn fans.

Instead of celebrating only trophies and highlight reels, TLSN insisted that the legacy includes the lives of the men and women who built those moments. Through articles, interviews, and curated stories, TLSN helped weave together UT’s history, traditions, and culture with personal narratives from former athletes and their families. This wasn’t nostalgia—it was infrastructure. It reconnected people who had drifted away and made it easier to identify those who needed help.

The Longhorn legacy today is more humane, more connected, and more self‑sustaining because TLSN built a structure that treats former Longhorn student-athletes as family, not footnotes.

Today’s Longhorn athletes have traversed the bridge built by their predecessors, whose victories profoundly elevated the value of the Longhorn brand and enhanced the NIL value of present Longhorn athletes.

“The Board of Directors of TLSN hopes for good health, good luck, good families, good jobs, and goodwill to all Longhorns. However, the TLSN Board of Directors remains as the sentinel prepared to assist qualifying Longhorns when tragedy strikes. ”

— Horns and Eyes Up! the TLSN Board

TLSN is an independent organization not affiliated with the University of Texas or any closely related institutions. Still, TLSN expresses gratitude to the NCAA and the U.T. Athletic Department for their forward-thinking approval of TLSN’s mission statement in 2017-2018. The 8-member board of directors is all T-ring recipients. To witness the collective effort of the TLSN Board of Directors. Each Board member, driven by a shared purpose, works tirelessly without compensation, united in their mission to assist those who qualify for temporary financial assistance.

The Texas Legacy Support Network Board of Directors (TLSN) regards it as its moral obligation to assist individuals who have contributed to the Longhorn brand during times of hardship. TLSN’s mission embodies the Longhorn motto, “What starts here changes the world.” On April 29, 2017, TLSN achieved a historic milestone in intercollegiate athletics by becoming the first private charitable organization sanctioned by the NCAA to provide temporary financial assistance to eligible former Longhorn student-athletes, coaches, student managers, trainers, and their immediate families.

TLSN has two missions. One is to share the history of all Longhorn sports in an archival format at https://texaslsn.org . This site is open to everyone for free.

The second mission is the primary reason the TLSN Board applied for 501(c)(3) status. Donations to the TLSN tax-exempt organization serve as a vital foundation to assist those who contributed to building the Longhorn brand but now face financial difficulties due to catastrophic events beyond their control. TLSN offers a mechanism to provide financial support in recognition of Legacy Horns’s hard work, dedication, and perseverance in building the Longhorn brand. Longhorn brand builders from the past who have paved the way for current athletes to benefit from NIL money, state-of-the-art facilities, proper nutritional diets, and proper safety protocols unavailable to Legacy Horns.

The road to the TLSN tax-exempt status began in 2004 with LSG (an organization formed by Billy Dale to help DKR players). It culminated in TLSN, a 501(c)(3) organization founded by Benny Pace, Jim Kay, and Billy Dale to assist all qualifying former Longhorn student-athletes. Over the years, these two organizations have extended a helping hand to 19 Longhorns, issuing grants from $2,000 to $45,000.

TLSN, INC. MISSION STATEMENT

TLSN, INC., a Section 5.01 (c) (3) Texas nonprofit corporation (“TLSN”), whose primary purpose is to provide financial support and other charitable assistance and support to people who have suffered health-related and other severe financial hardship and who are: (i) former student-athletes who participated in intercollegiate sports governed by the AIAW and NCAA at the University of Texas at Austin, (ii) former coaches, trainers, equipment managers, and managers of (i) above, and (iii) family members of the individuals described in (i) and (ii) above.

TLSN also works to promote and encourage public knowledge, understanding, appreciation of, and preserve the historical legacy of the individuals described in (i), (ii), and (iii) of the above preceding paragraph, which has been accomplished in the website link https://texaslsn.org .

TLSN is TRYING TO LEAVE SOMETHING BEHIND

I understand Sean Rowe’s yearning to “Leave Something Behind.”

>
“
I can get through the wall if you give me a door
So I can leave something behind; Oh wisdom is lost in the trees somewhere
You’re not going to find it in some mental gray hair
It’s locked up from those who hurry ahead
And it’s time to leave something behind

When my son is a man he will know what I meant
I was just trying to leave something behind
”

— Sean Rowe

Texas is more than a football school. No member of the now-defunct SWC or present Big 12 has won more conference and national championships in NCAA-sanctioned sports than the Texas Longhorns. All Longhorn fans should honor the history of all Longhorn sports franchises with the same passion as the Texas football program.

see this link in red below for national championship teams. https://www.texaslsn.org/national-championships

silver star.jpg — Guide Star Silver Level

TLSN has Two Missions- One Creates a Path, and the Other Builds a Bridge.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” TLSN has left the established path and is building new trails to honor the past, celebrate the present, and empower the future.

DKR built his life around the poem “The Bridge Builder” by Robert Frost, not Will Allen Dromgoole. The verse states that bridges are needed to make the path easier for others to cross. TLSN is building those bridges.

Go To the 5:45 mark of the video below to listen to Coach Royal as he recites The Bridge Builder by Will Allen Dromgoole.

A Path to Longhorn sports history

TLSN uses synergy to combine U.T. history, traditions, legacies, culture, individual records, photos, insightful comments, and personal commentary from former athletes, trainers, managers, coaches, and their families into a form that all Longhorns can celebrate.

The website captures powerful and insightful Longhorn comments from the minds of great authors, visuals from videos, professional media brochures, newspaper articles, shelter magazines, and, most importantly, from Longhorn athletes who created Longhorn sports history.

The website is free, compassionate, educational, and historical.

Please share your Longhorn sports memories with others ‘til you can’t.

Memories not shared are lost forever, so please contact Billydale1@gmail.com with the Longhorn sports history you would like to share with the TLSN readers.

TLSN has interviewed and captured Longhorn sports history as seen through the eyes of Texas Horns Jim Gideon, Randy McEachern, Tommy Harmon, Ragan Gennusa, Stephen Ross, Aggie Ed Simonini, Rodney Page, Coach Leon Black, Billy Dale, Tommy Lucas, Spanky Stephens, Jim Bayless, Stewart Keller, Byrd Baggett, Ricardo Romo, Dave Morton, Amy Goodwin, John Scott, Rob Moerschell, Peter Gardere, Kiki Deayla, Turk McDonald, Robert Brewer, John Carsey, Bill Atessis, Duke Carlisle, Jim Bayless tennis, Ben Crenshaw, Jenna McEachern, Donna Lopiano, Calvin Murray, Buck Cody, Gary Plock, Tyres Dickson, Jeff Ward, David Lowery, John Carsey, Uno and others have shared their Longhorn stories on the TLSN website

Professional authors, including Mark McDonald, Steve Ross, Jon DaSilva, Pat Carlisle, Barbara Wainscott, Larry Carlson, and Gaylon Krizak, have contributed high-quality articles to the TLSN website.

Send your memories as Longhorns to Billydale1@gmail.com

The TLSN website is building bridges to leave something behind

On April 29th, 2017, TLSN made intercollegiate athletic sports history. TLSN is the first private charitable and tax-exempt with the specific mission of offering temporary financial assistance to qualifying former Longhorn student-athletes, coaches, student managers, trainers, and their immediate families. Longhorn athletes who, through no fault of their own, have fallen through societal safety nets.

The inspiration for the TLSN (Texas Legacy Support Network) mission began informally in 2004 and evolved into a formal structure by 2017.

TLSN is not associated with the U.T. Athletics Department or any organization closely aligned with U.T.

TLSN grants require an interview and a due diligence process to confirm eligibility for assistance. TLSN’s goal is to convert a donor’s heartfelt investment into a compassionate dividend for those who, through no fault of their own, have fallen through society’s safety net.