The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Forty Acres Insider: Oct. 22
10.22.2019 | Forty Acres Insider
Important news, interesting tidbits and exciting stories happening in and around Texas Athletics compiled by Vice President and Athletics Director Chris Del Conte. [<a href="http://texassports.com/archives.aspx?path=forty_acres_insider">Forty Acres Insider archives</a>]
Greetings Longhorn Nation,
What a special weekend it was celebrating the 50th anniversary of our 1969 Football National Championship team. They all truly embody "The Pride and Winning Tradition of the Texas Longhorns" and are such a blast to be around. It was so much fun hearing their stories, reflecting on their awesome accomplishments and surprising Mrs. Edith Royal and the squad with the replica of President Nixon's mysteriously missing championship plaque. All of these men have been asking the whereabouts of that plaque for decades and with the help of our super sleuth and historian extraordinaire Bill Little and his wife Kim Scofield, they made it their mission to create an identical replica – all the way to the Presidential Seal! It was a huge hit when we presented it to Mrs. Royal and the team during our reception at the Frank Denius Family University of Texas Hall of Fame on Friday night. And, what a perfectly appropriate place for that evening's events where we also unveiled a video for them featuring the throwback jerseys Coach Herman had ordered up for the squad to wear at the next day's game. We felt such pleasure seeing these Longhorn greats reminisce as they watched a video of those jerseys hanging in their old lockers and the pride they displayed strolling through the Hall of Fame displays, remembering their days on the Forty Acres. Then, the ovation our fans gave them when they were recognized on the field game day, gave us all chills. They are a huge part of why The University of Texas is so revered and respected, and we are so grateful for all of them.
There were more tears of joy shed on Saturday with the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the J. Dan Brown Family Player Development Center as well as the Cliff Gustafson Pavilion at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. What an awesome, state-of-the-art facility it is, and our student-athletes will benefit from it for years to come. We are so appreciative of our donors that made this happen. They are the wind beneath our wings and we couldn't do any of this without all of their support!
Saturday was another amazing day of Celebrating Texas. After going nearly a month without a home game, it was great to have everyone back at Bevo Blvd., Smokey's Midway and rockin' out at Longhorn City Limits with The Revolution before bringing the juice to DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium and helping pull our Longhorns through in a frenetic and thrilling 50-48 victory over Kansas. Thank you Cameron Dicker and your cool as a cucumber kick that split the uprights and put us over the top as time expired. And how about the crew from Sandlot being on hand for the game. Talk about an iconic sports film, "you're killin' me, Smalls!" Now it's back to the road with a Saturday afternoon tilt this week at TCU (2:30 p.m. CT/FOX).
I hope you all got a chance to meet some of our men's and women's basketball student-athletes as they took over Bevo Blvd. last weekend. Both teams begin regular season play in just a couple of weeks and we need you there! Let's fire up the Erwin Center and in an effort to do that, we've discounted season tickets. You can join us for as low as just $99 per seat for season tickets and we have mini plans going on sale this week. Go to TexasSports.com for all the info.
Speaking of an awesome fan experience, Gregory Gym will take center stage on Wednesday night as Coach Elliott and our No. 4-ranked Longhorn Volleyball squad hosts top-ranked Baylor (7 p.m. CT). The match will play a prominent role in NCAA Tournament seeding and the Big 12 Championship race and has been sold out for weeks, so The Greg will be electric. If you don't have tickets, you can tune in as our friends at Longhorn Network will bring you all the action!
Coach Kelly and our Soccer team got a big win at Baylor on Friday night and have two key Big 12 matches on campus this week, too. Our Longhorns host Iowa State on Thursday (7 p.m. CT) and Texas Tech on Sunday (1 p.m. CT) at Mike A. Myers Stadium as they hit the final stretch of the regular season. Come on out and cheer on our Horns!
In closing, we think a Nobel Prize deserves another shout-out and how cool is it that President Fenves will be honoring our very own Dr. John B. Goodenough by lighting the Tower fully orange with "LI+" on the side to honor his lithium-ion battery discovery. Rest assured Longhorn football fans, once the Tower lights are shut off after the event celebrating Dr. Goodenough Saturday evening concludes, they will be available to be re-lit with for a potential victory over TCU.
Last weekend was a perfect 3-0 slate for our Longhorns as football, soccer and volleyball all registered wins. It's another big round of action this week and we know you'll be there, cheering hard for your Longhorns. Let's corral that Texas pride, passion and spirit to lead our squads to another week and weekend of victories!
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Hook 'em, Horns!
