Podcast, Garrett Graff, Track Coach Huntsman, Women swimming Olympians,

Volume V Newsletter #19

Garrett Graff

There is a whole section that honors Longhorn walk-ons chronicled on the TLSN website.



Garret Graf’s story is one of them. Mickey Moss is a successful coach and administrator who received a master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin in athletic administration with an emphasis in exercise physiology. Mickey says “goals are good but without a system of practiced habits in place, goals alone will not lead to success”. Garrett heeded those words and Coach Herman surprised him with a football scholarship at a team meeting. A walk-on receiving a scholarship is a hallmark moment. A stage in which the whole team honors an individual who has successfully walked the walk. It is a moment when team, special bonds, spirit, and respect all merge for a split second of time to form cornerstone memory that will be cherished for a lifetime. The link to Garrett’s moment is below: https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/garrett-graff-football-and-singer

Tex Robertson appreciated great swimmers, no matter what gender. He was a visionary who challenged archaic established rules.

In 1934 Anna Hiss was instrumental in convincing the UT administration to build a state of the art Women’s physical training facility. A swimming pool for women was one of the additions. It was an excellent facility, but not a facility designed to develop those who aspired for greatness, such as Jane Dillard.

All the aspiring swimmers were over at Gregory Gym with Coach Tex Robertson in the men’s only swimming pool. That changed after Tex Robertson watched Jane Dillard swim. Tex reasoned rules for the right reason are meant to be broken, and Jane qualified.

Coach Robertson devised a scheme that sneaked Jane into Gregory Gym during odd hours of the day for swimming instruction. With Coach Robertson’s help, Jane set the world record in the 100 breaststroke and earned a spot on the boycotted 1940 Olympic team.

Jane was a pioneer who started the slow, tedious, and frustrating process that inexorably led to the Title IX decree, which gave women venues to pursue greatness. Please enjoy the link below, which celebrates the history of Longhorn women Olympic swimmers and divers.

https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/women-longhorn-swimming-olympians

The top 4 teams in Men’s National Championship track and field appearance as of June 2018 are:

1USC 85 appearances

2Oregon 81 appearances

3California 76 appearances

4Texas 75 appearances

4UCLA 75 appearances

Texas has never won a team national championship in men’s track and field. However, through-out Longhorn sports history, the men’s track program has produced many world-class track and field athletes who have won individual national championships.

As a team, the Horns came close as runner ups in 1987 and 1988 under Coach Huntsman, and 1997 under Coach Bubba Thornton.

This newsletter celebrates Coach Huntsman and the track and field athletes from 1985-1995 at

https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/track-1985-1995

The TLSN Board of Directors has approved a pilot podcast. The podcast’s goal is to celebrate the history of Longhorn sports with a broader Longhorn fan base.

To add depth and dimension to this endeavor requires coordination between visuals from the TLSN website and audio from the Lone Star Gridiron podcast.

The first podcast by host Chris Doelle will interview visionary Jimmy Nixon and sculptor Ken Bjorge. Both are instrumental in the creation of the four national championship quarterback busts that will be housed in the newly constructed South End zone of DKR Memorial Stadium.

Here is the link to the visual page that includes the embedded audio code for the pilot podcast.

Comments both good and bad are welcome at Williamdale@msn.com .

https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/tlsn-podcast-nationalchampionship-quarterbacks

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