Letter from the Executive Director: Golden Tickets
If you happened to be at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta this January ... how are you holding up? I was there and it was a heart-pounding, hair-pulling four hours and five minutes. Even though I wish it hadn’t been so stressful, it was riveting and, in the end, after double overtime, we came out on top.
Tickets were in crazy high demand, and that’s why I love this story about how a group of local alumni helped send dozens of very-deserving children, families, and staff from Atlanta-area nonprofits to that unforgettable game.
Ryan Esparza, BA ’06, Life Member, the vice president of the Texas Exes Atlanta Chapter, had seen posts from people trying to sell their tickets online—not brokers, but fans who genuinely wanted to be there and just couldn’t. So, Esparza, a die-hard Longhorn living in Bulldog territory (good man), took it upon himself to reach out and encourage folks to donate their ticket to organizations that serve families, such as the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Atlanta and Agape Youth & Family Center.
“This wasn’t some big corporate block of tickets,” Esparza wrote in a LinkedIn post. “These were individual Longhorns, all making individual decisions to start the new year off generously. Little did the 68 ticket recipients know, they were in for an instant classic.”
Esparza’s post garnered tons of attention, resulting in stories on local news outlets in both Austin and Atlanta. With the constant chatter about surging ticket prices and the open market these days, it was refreshing to see them traded for their ultimate value—UT pride.
“Maybe we made a few new University of Texas fans,” he wrote. “Maybe we inspired someone to attend UT and [become] a future Texas Ex.” That’s what our chapters are all about.
And who knows? Maybe that moment will spark something bigger, a seed of generosity that will only later bear fruit. For those kids who got to be there to witness a genuinely thrilling game, they experienced something that went beyond the field—the kindness of the Longhorn family.
Thanks, Ryan. Let’s all do more of this.
Hook ’em,
@chuckjharris
Chuck Harris, BBA ’86, Life Member
Executive Director & CEO, the Texas Exes
