The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
09.18.2020 | Men's Swimming and Diving, T-Association
Former UT swimmer and Men’s Athletics Hall of Honor member was an internationally-acclaimed cardiologist.
HOUSTON, Texas — Dr. Jim Willerson, a former University of Texas swimmer and UT Men's Athletics Hall of Honor inductee, passed away on Wednesday in Houston. He was 80 years old.
A three-year letter winner (1959-61) for the Longhorns in the pool and a member of the Texas Cowboys, Willerson graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UT in 1961 with a degree in pre-med. He received the UT Academic Award as the student-athlete with the highest grade point average (3.8).
Willerson is a distinguished UT Austin alumnus, president emeritus of the Texas Heart Insitute and former president of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. In 2017, UT Austin named its top cardiovascular research center at the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES) in honor of Dr. Willerson. A swimming scholarship is named in his honor at The University of Texas, and he was inducted into the UT Men's Athletics Hall of Honor in 2009.
Born November 16, 1939 in Lampasas, Texas, he grew up in San Antonio and attended the San Antonio Academy in grade school and the Texas Military Academy (TMI) for high school. Willerson was a state swimming champion, winning five individual titles in the state private school swim meet.
