Today is the first Austin College Giving Day, with a theme of “Give where your heart is.” That means giving for academic scholarships, athletics funds, or the school in general. You can choose how to give.
I like to say that as a student tiny Austin College gave me the world. As an alumnus, my story telling has given me a pretty awesome Roo community. AC athletics also gave me a lot, and not just the competition on the tennis court. I got a lot of friends for life, many of whom played baseball circa 1988-92.
This week, the sport of baseball is giving back to the country as we slowly move closer to normalcy. Opening Day is about to kick off, and a post-vaccine world may give us a full Major League Baseball season in 2021.
It all puts me in a giving mood, which for me means telling a story. The story below is a tale that includes Major League Baseball’s Opening Day. It’s about a member of the Texas Rangers who gave us a few baseball comedy chuckles, who has a neat Roo Tie, and who may have crossed paths with those AC baseball friends of mine who gave me so much to root for back in my days in Sherman.
Hope you enjoy, and thank you in advance for giving to AC on the first ever Austin College Giving Day. You’ll find my AC giving day referral link in the comments below. Remember that ANY amount you give helps AC, as percentage of alumni contributors has an impact.
Now let’s “play ball.”
============================================
Opening Day for the Texas Rangers will take place next week. The game will be the first Opening Day for the Rangers at Globe Life Field, as Covid cancelled the fun in 2020. It’s guaranteed that some batter will be the first to register an Opening Day hit at Globe Life Field.
Globe Life Field replaces the old Rangers home, the Ballpark at Arlington. Many of us old timers remember when this ballpark opened in 1994. I know Texas Ranger David Hulse does. Hulse, who hit leadoff for the Rangers, lined a shot to right field and registered the first ever hit at the Ballpark at Arlington. You probably don’t remember Hulse for his baseball dramatics, but it’s likely you’ve seen a good deal of him for his baseball comedy.
There’s a viral video on youtube featuring David Hulse. In 1992, Hulse was at-bat in a game against the California Angels. He fouled off four consecutive pitches into the exact same spot of the Angels dugout. By the fourth foul ball, the entire Angels team had humorously congregated near the dugout entrance to avoid the inevitable shot from Hulse. Everybody got a kick out of it. Hulse, the Angels, the fans, the commentators, and the entire viewing audience. Check it out in the comments.
There’s another viral video on youtube which includes David Hulse. In 1993, Hulse was in center field when a shot drove right fielder Jose Canseco to the warning track. Canseco lost sight of the ball, which hit him on the top of the head and bounced over the wall for a home run. The first to great an embarrassed Canseco was Hulse, who can be seen laughing along with both teams, the fans, the commentators, and the entire viewing audience. Check it out in the comments.
Before Hulse became a Texas Ranger, he was a Schreiner Mountaineer in 1990. Hulse batted nearly .500 for the NAIA school in Kerrville that year, which drew the interest of the Rangers. As many of you are aware, Schreiner is a Presbyterian sister-school of Austin College. In fact, before Schreiner’s founding in 1923, it was an Austin College summer camp for Roo youth interested in the ministry. Nearby Mo-Ranch has similar Presbyterian ties with AC.
Which begs the question. Did Schreinder play AC in baseball back in 1990? Did I watch David Hulse play ball at Baker Field in Sherman? I watched a lot of Roo baseball back then, as I had a ton of friends and fraternity brothers on that David Norman-led squad. Both AC and Schreiner were NAIA schools that year, and both schools today are SCAC conference competitors. In fact, Schreiner will visit AC for a double header in Sherman on April 17. So, it is possible. Only David Norman and my buddies during my years in Sherman know the answer for sure.
It certainly would be neat if Hulse did play at Baker Field in Sherman, and not just because of the connection with my baseball-playing friends. The trip would have been a great experience for David Hulse himself, because it would have been a good excuse for a family reunion.
David’s father Don Hulse was raised in Oklahoma in the 1940s. He was a two-sport (football & basketball) star in high school. Big 10 schools were interested, but only if Don concentrated on one sport. Don preferred to continue playing both, and the only school which said yes to both was Austin College. Don Hulse headed to Sherman.
From 1953 to 1955, Don Hulse shared backfield duties with AC legend Gene Babb on teams that earned three straight winning seasons. He was elected All-Conference alongside Babb and earned the Pete Cawthon Award for most outstanding AC athlete; the award was presented to Hulse by Cawthon himself. Hulse also won the Pat E. Hooks Award for most outstanding basketball player. The book “100 Years, 100 Yards” refers to Hulse as “one of AC’s best all-around athletes ever.” Don Hulse sits in the Austin College Hall of Honor; he was inducted in 1969 alongside Gene Babb.
Many of you may be big Texas Rangers fans, looking for that first ever World Series ring. Still others may be rooting for the Rangers on Opening Day, with the hope that the 2021 season gets off to a good start. Not me, man. That’s not very “Roo Tale.” Me? I’ll be watching to see who gets that first Opening Day hit at Globe Life Field, the new home of the Rangers. Cause you know what? That fella may have just played ball with my Roo buddies in Sherman. And that fella’s Dad? Shoot, he’s probably an Austin College Kangaroo.
Those David Hulse videos have given us all a few chuckles over the years. They’ve also given me a Roo tie to turn them into a story today. Think I’ll give a little back to my alma mater to return the favor, on the first ever Austin College Giving Day. Go Rangers. Go Roos.
