Northeast Tarrant County Cornhole Tournament A Success!

Scott Assante (left) and Bill Hornberger (right) compete in a cornhole tournament sponsored by the Northeast Tarrant County Chapter of the Texas Tech Alumni Association. The tournament was held at Red Dog Right in Southlake, Texas.

Ryan Assante tosses a bean bag at the Inaugural Cornhole Tournament hosted by the Northeast Tarrant County Chapter of the Texas Tech Alumni Association.

Saturday, June 18, 2011 at Red Dog Right in Southlake, Texas, the Northeast
Tarrant County Alumni Association held their Inaugural Cornhole Tournament sponsored
by Texas Cornhole League.

They had 27 teams show up to help raise money
for the local chapter scholarship fund. They had a great time and hope to make this
an annual event for the Northeast Tarrant County chapter.

Be sure to go to www.TexasTechAlumni.org/calendar to see all the upcoming events for the Dallas-Fort Worth Area and others this summer. Don’t forget about the annual DFW Scholarship Golf Classic on Sept. 19.

We want to thank everyone for coming out and supporting the event and be sure to watch for our next tournament and other activities with the Northeast Tarrant County Chapter by joining our fan page on Facebook. CLICK HERE

Bill Hornberger (left) and Scott Assante (right) compete in the Inaugural Cornhole Tournament sponsored by the Northeast Tarrant County Chapter of the Texas Tech Alumni Association.

Austin Chapter Update

AUSTIN — The Austin Chapter of TTAA held their first annual business breakfast on Wednesday, April 6th. The turnout was great for such an early morning at the Austin Club.  Wells Fargo sponsored the event honoring local scholarship recipients. It was also an opportunity for area Red Raiders to network with fellow alumni.

The chapter presented 10 scholarships to area high school students. The group of kids going to Lubbock from Austin this fall is truly first class! It demonstrates the growing appeal of the South Plains, when we can recruit such outstanding kids out to West Texas amidst a blanket of burnt orange.

Tom Stacy, a Tech alumnus and major real estate developer, gave short remarks on the current state of the Austin market. He is a part of the downtown alliance, and had a lot of great information about the growth of the Austin downtown area in years to come. People keep coming, and Austin keeps growing.

The event was well attended, Bill Brown, one of the national board members introduced Mr. Stacy.  Speaker Pete Laney also made the early morning breakfast, and Dayme Walthers came in from the Dallas office.   The success of this event hopefully ensures this is the first breakfast of many in years to come.   Thanks again to Wells Fargo, and everyone who attended the event.

We held the 2011 Spring Fling golf tournament last week at Avery Ranch Golf Club. More than 100 golfers from the Austin area participated in the afternoon scramble. The tournament was a great opportunity to enjoy the nice weather, and win some great prizes all to support student scholarships. No one came away with the hole-in-one 2011 Jetta donated by our title sponsor – Hewlett family of Dealerships – but there was a lot of great golf.

The awards ceremony featured some humorous words from the TTAA CEO Bill Dean. The golfers were also treated to an update on our upcoming football season from Defensive Coordinator Chad Glasgow.

The Chapter awarded a scholarship to Connor Shults for his freshmen start at Tech in the fall. Special Teams coach, Ty Linder, also made the trip from Lubbock, and is a former scholarship recipient.  Overall the tournament raised around $8000 for our scholarship fund. Below are pictures from the day. Thanks to all our sponsors and players. Check out more events in the Austin area at www.austinttu.com.
Katy Sellers, ‘04
Austin Chapter President

On the Chapter Trail: Vernon, TX

I always love it when I get the opportunity to go out on the road and talk to people around the state about the great things going on at the alumni association and Texas Tech. It truly is the best part of my job.

Well, that and the fact that I basically have a job where i feel like I get to keep going to Tech without having to go to class.

On Tuesday, Texas Tech Alumni Association executive director Dr. Bill Dean, his wife Peggy, and I traveled to Vernon, Texas to talk at it’s annual dinner and chapter meeting.

We were met with a warm Red Raider welcome as we entered the Willbarger County 4 H Event Building and started walking around the room to meet and greet our fellow Techsans.

Oh yeah, the other great part about going out to chapter meetings is getting to eat all the great and unique cooking at each one. I’m not going to lie, I’m always all about some good catering at an event, but it’s really hard to beat good Texas home cookin’.

So after I finally got my presentation set and digital equipment ready, I slapped together a sloppy joe with some of the tastiest jalapeños I’ve ever had and a brownie to go down nicely afterward.
OK … two brownies.

I was really excited to hear about the chapter news and how much success they were having. Vernon is a solid chapter that grows stronger each year and the financials prove it! They were happy to report they are now at $14,445 in their chapter fund to help out with area scholarships to Texas Tech. Three lucky students from the area will get help from the chapter as they embark on a new chapter of their life and hopefully will have the chance to give back to their school one day, just as these loyal Red Raiders have.

They are also looking into helping out Vernon College students who will be transferring to Texas Tech this next year. Great news guys!

After Dr. Dean did his part on reporting about the association, university and Legacy Program, I too center stage and did my spiel on Texas Tech athletics.

It’s fun to tell everyone about the teams and how they are doing, what the latest rumors are and if I think the football team will be better than last year.

I’ll let everyone in on that secret – yes, they will be better and keep getting better for years to come. They have the coaching staff to prove it and the recruiting to fill the spots with the best talent. Exciting years are heading to the South Plains.

Really, the presentation is no different than journalism and writing a story. Maybe that’s why I enjoy it so much. You trade in the laptop or paper for words and a a face-to-face encounter with your audience that you sometimes never get to have that contact with ever again. It’s our one chance to regain some of the personalization lost over time with computers, cell phones and other things that take us away from talking to each other, in the same place, at the same time.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m one of the biggest gadget geeks you will ever meet, but I would never trade in an experience of talking to a group and sharing my experiences.

I hope everyone in Vernon enjoyed the time we got to spend with them and I look forward to coming back next year!

Travis Cram
Multimedia and Communications Director