Twelve former Longhorn athletes and coaches were inducted into the Texas Athletics Hall of Honor on Sept. 20. The inductees were recognized at a ceremony held on Friday night at the LBJ Auditorium and Conference Center and at halftime of the Texas vs. Louisiana-Monroe football game.
In addition to the honorees and family members, former inductees and teammates of this year’s honorees joined the celebration.
“When you walk into that Hall of Fame, you’re immortalized for the incredible talent you bestowed on this institution,” athletic director Chris Del Conte said to inductees at the start of the ceremony. “You chose us. I thank you for choosing us.”
Three members of the 2009 Big 12 Champion Texas football team had their names added to the Hall of Honor. Super Bowl champion Alex Okafor and Marquise Goodwin, who also competed for Texas track and field, were freshmen when the Longhorns fell to Alabama in the BCS National Championship. Colt McCoy, whose number 12 is retired at Texas, was in his last year and the star of the team.
On the courts, Reggie Freeman tallied 1,958 career points for Texas men’s basketball and still ranks fourth in program history on Texas’ all-time scoring list. Coming from the Bronx in New York City, Texas wasn’t always on Freeman’s radar.
“Me being from where I’m from and having coach (Tom) Penders come up to recruit me out there, come to my apartment, meet my mother,” Freeman said. “My mother loved him right away … He said I was gonna graduate and that’s what happened.”
As one of the last inducted as an honoree, Omar Quintanilla played baseball for the Longhorns from 2001 to 2003, leading Texas to two College World Series appearances and the 2002 NCAA Championship, despite an injury his freshman year and a suspension in his sophomore year. Quintanilla went on to play in Major League Baseball with the Colorado Rockies.
This year’s female honorees came from a variety of sports and backgrounds.
Julie Cooper Bliemel was a 27-time All American in her four years with Texas women’s swimming and diving. From 1989 to 1992, Cooper Bliemel won seven NCAA Relay Championships and led the Longhorns to national championships in 1990 and 1991. Cooper Bliemel is joined by fellow All-American Mira Topic Losert, a Croatian volleyball player who holds the program record for career kills with 2,116.
Olympian Karen Nelson Walters, who represented Canada in track and field in the 1984 Los Angeles games before even starting her collegiate career in 1985, was a six-time All-American, 10-time Southwest Conference individual champion and member of three NCAA Championship squads in her time at the Forty Acres.
The 1996 Southwest Conference Player of the Year, Farley Taylor Lansing, helped Texas tennis reach the NCAA tournament quarterfinals from 1994 to 1997.
Softball graduate Lexy Bennett Skaggs, who led the Longhorns to the 2010 Big 12 Championship and the 2012 NCAA Super Regionals, said her favorite memory at Texas was lighting the tower orange after the championship.
Two coaches were special selections to this year’s class, including John Fields, who has been in charge of the Texas men’s golf program since 1997. Former rowing head coach Carie Graves was honored posthumously, represented by her younger sister and fellow rower Tia Fisher. Graves guided the Longhorns to two NCAA Championships appearances and five conference titles, and passed away in 2021 at age 68 from complications of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Honorees expressed their gratitude.
“It’s an overwhelming sense of pride being back on campus,” Taylor Lansing said. “Seeing what a special place this is for all the students, but especially the student-athletes. They make us feel very special and that means a lot.”
