It’s Austin College Crimson & Gold Challenge Week! See the comments for a link to give back to AC. I believe that to encourage others to give, one has to give first. So, on Crimson & Gold Challenge Week, I usually give a story. This year’s Challenge Week story is about Roo Wayne Whitmire and our mutual friend in the sport of tennis.
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Wayne Whitmire is your President of the Austin College Alumni Board. Wayne is a no-nonsense guy who gets thing done; the Board is fortunate to have his leadership. Wayne’s also my fraternity pledge brother; I’ve known about his leadership qualities since our pledgeship days way back in the spring of 1989.
And Wayne and I have a mutual friend in the sport of tennis.
Tennis is a big focus of this week’s Crimson & Gold Challenge. I’ll let AC Executive Director of Major Gifts JR Ohr explain: “[AC has] a $20,000 matching gift tied to tennis to help fund a Spring Break ’27 trip for the tennis team to Orlando, FL. There, AC will compete at the UTSA National Campus, also known as the ‘Home of American Tennis.’”
Athens, GA has been the historic home of NCAA tennis. But that’s about to change. Starting in 2027, the recently inaugurated USTA National Campus in Orlando will host the NCAA championships. Last year, the Longhorns of the University of Texas lost a nail-biter in the national title match in Athens. This year, the Horns hope to finish the job in Orlando at the “Home of American Tennis.”
The mutual tennis friend of Wayne & me is a fella named Steve Moore. Steve and Wayne were athletes and childhood friends in their hometown of Corpus Christi. Steve & I were Top 100 ranked tennis players in Texas who competed against each other. In 1987, we both played in the biggest tournament in the state: the Texas Sectionals in Austin. That tournament was won by Steve Bryan, the #1 ranked player in Texas. Three years later, Steve Bryan won the 1990 NCAA championship for his Texas Longhorns.
After Austin College tennis, Marc hung up his racquet. But Steve Moore never left the tennis world after college. For the past three decades, Steve has built a successful tennis program at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Coach Moore’s TAMU-CC teams have earned 17 NCAA D1 tournament appearances over that span. One appearance was just last year year, when TAMU-CC earned the right to face the Texas Longhorns in Austin in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament.
Marc, who has worked at UT as long as Moore has coached at TAMU-CC, was not going to pass up that opportunity. I made my way to the UT tennis courts before the match and chatted with Coach Moore, mentioning both Wayne and our shared tennis past. I then watched TAMU-CC battle UT before eventually falling. Hey, there’s no shame in that. This is Longhorn tennis after all, one of the best programs in the country.
The USTA National Campus is quite the place. The experience for Coach Syvoney Ybarra and her AC tennis team will be a memorable one in 2027, but only if you can help fund the trip. The Roos will be competing against NCAA D3 competition at the top facility in the nation, just weeks before the University of Texas and other top programs arrive to compete for the 2027 NCAA D1 crown. Thank you for giving to make it happen. And a reminder: every dollar will be matched by an anonymous donor up to $20,000.
My life has been enriched by Roos like Wayne Whitmire. Wayne, a former AC baseballer, won a state title in basketball (Incarnate Word Academy in Corpus) before being selected for international competition in baseball. See the comments. But even better than his sports past is his outstanding circle of family and friends. I’ve been fortunate to be a part of it. How good is Wayne’s circle? It even extends to an exceptional player and coach in my sport of tennis.
I think I’ll give to AC tennis today in the name of AC Alumni Board President Wayne Whitmire. Thanks in advance for giving, and for helping to get the Roos to the NCAA National Championship “Home of American Tennis.”
USTA National Campus, home of the 2027 NCAA Tournament
Marc with TAMU-CC Coach Steve Moore before the Longhorn match in the 2026 NCAA Tourney.
Marc and Steve Moore in 1987: we’re definitely no Longhorn national champion!
Wayne Whitmire in 1987 representing the United States in baseball before AC baseball.
