| |
Huston-Tillotson reinstates golf programs
July 6, 2006
AUSTIN, Texas -- Huston-Tillotson University (Texas) recently
moved its men's and women's club golf programs to varsity status
to compete at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
(NAIA) level. Former University of Texs quarterback, golf enthusiast,
and prominent attorney Marty Akins will serve as the head coach.
 Akins will join the HT staff as the men's and women's coach
and the faculty as a business professor, teaching a business
law course during the Fall 2006 semester.
"It's an honor and a privilege to be associated with Huston-Tillotson
University, and to be given this opportunity to build a program
from the ground up," Akins said. "I have never coached
at the collegiate level, and I am looking forward to this challenge."
HT President Larry Earvin pressed to include golf as a competitive
sports program upon his arrival in 2000. The vision was incorporated
into the overall t10-year strategic plan which also included
creating a learning environment that provided challenging and
exemplary educational experiences.
"This appointment not only strengthens our School of Business
and Technology but helps foster a culture for achievement for
our students both on the golf course and in the classroom," Earvin
said.
Athletics Director Ric Granryd, who oversees programs in men's
and women's basketball and track and field, men's soccer and
baseball, and women's volleyball and cross country within the
Red River Athletic Conference, realizes that adding two new
sports to any existing program is both a challenge and an opportunity.
"We will be recruiting, and we will need scholarship funds,'
Granryd said. Granryd noted that thanks to Hershall Shelley,
students are actively engaged in the program. As HT's computer
science professor and a passionate golfer, Shelley took on
the volunteer assignment of resurrecting golf as a club sport
after a 22-year hiatus. As a club sport, HT students competed
in several tournaments, including the 2006 NAIA Region VI event
held in Fort Worth. Financial support for clubs, balls, and
other equipment was provided by Tarrytown United Methodist
Church; Marvin Douglas, planner of the annual Reunion Weekend
golf tournament; and avid golfers General Marshall and Edna
Rhambo.
Granryd noted that golf team members are stepping into a proud
legacy through Tillotson College and Samuel Huston before the
1952 merger and Huston-Tillotson after the merger. "Most
people don't realize that this institution produced a golf
champion in Victor Wallace when he competed in the 1981 Pan
American National Golf Championship," Granryd recalled.
"It's going to be hard work, but I'm hoping in a few years,
we will have an outstanding program," Akins concluded.
|
