The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
What it means to be a Longhorn: Nancy (Hager) Hale
08.27.2019 | Women's Golf, T-Association
Read the 12th in a 14-part series on the Hall of Honor class of 2019.
This is the 12th of a 14-part series celebrating the Hall of Honor class of 2019. In these first-person vignettes, each inductee shares his/her thoughts on 'What it means to be a Longhorn.' Thirteen former University of Texas student-athletes and one former UT System administrator will be inducted on Friday, Aug. 30 into the Hall of Honor. Tickets for the Hall of Honor banquet are available at TexasSports.com/tickets.
Nancy (Hager) Hale Hall of Honor bio
I followed a boy. That really is how I came to Texas. It was probably the usual way in 1971. I didn't even know they had a golf team. The golf coach, Pat Weis, contacted me and wanted me to play. At the time, it was not a huge commitment. As I recall, there was one tournament in the fall and one in the spring. We didn't have any golf bags, no uniforms, nothing. It was like a club sport. There were five of us on the team and everyone was fairly good. We were competitive for sure.
My dad was a golf pro. He was a club pro from the time I was born until he retired at 65. My mother became a teaching pro when she was about 40. My younger brother and I were always around golf. That's how we got started. I competed nationally in the summers away from school.
I was a senior in 1974 when, because of Title IX, women could actually get an athletic scholarship. I did not get one until I was a senior, which was the first for a woman at The University of Texas. It was $200 and books. But, back then, tuition was about $50 per semester, so it was actually pretty good. Because I was a senior when our team became varsity, I didn't see a huge difference. We played in a few more tournaments and we did finally get golf bags that matched.
When I played golf in college, some women went on to the professional golf tour. But there was no money to speak of, so there was no real incentive to go pro. Now there is. There's money and they're getting to travel the world. The competition is way different than when I was in college. It's the same thing with the guys but for women, it took longer to get to that. People in my age group, Laura Baugh and Hollis Stacy, went on to play on the tour. We're all in our 60's now, but that was really the beginning of the trend that saw women actually pursuing golf as a career.
Things have changed so much. When I was playing golf and competing, growing up the daughter of golf pros, that was just what I did. I didn't think a lot about it and what it meant. It means so much more to me now.
I just loved Pat Weis. She had gone to Arkansas and she didn't know a lot about golf at that time. I think they just said, "You're going to have the golf team." Because I was the daughter of golf pros and I had been playing competitively since I was nine, she really just left me alone. I don't ever remember her telling me that I needed to be somewhere at a certain time or I needed to practice at this time. That was great because I think if she had been a different kind of coach, it probably wouldn't have worked for me. I thought she was a great coach.
I had a really good time while I was at Texas. I got to be in a sorority. I was a Pi Beta Phi. I don't know now that you could even do a sorority and be on any team. It's too much of a time commitment. I was able to do both which was fun for me. A lot of my good friends that I still see today are people I met through the social aspects of Texas.
One night when I was in college, a bunch of us were playing Elton John's Yellow Brick Road album and we danced until like 4 in the morning. I had a tournament the next day at 8:30 a.m. at the Morris Williams Golf Course. I didn't even go to bed. I went home, got dressed and went to the golf course. One of my friends, Lynn Newman, who lives here in Dallas and who I see quite often, called out to the golf course that day thinking I'd probably shot poorly, but I shot 71 and won the tournament. We're in our 60's now and he still reminds me of it.
Texas really impacted my life. I've stayed in Texas and ended up living in Dallas. I have so many friends that I went to school with that I still see. There are so many alums who live here in Dallas. I feel a lot of camaraderie. The older I get, the more I appreciate it. It's really a big family and I am proud to be recognized by the school that I attended.