Joplin, Seriff, Denius, Kite, Wong Among Additions to 125 Extraordinary Exes List

By Tim Taliaferro in Blog on May 4, 2010 at 11:49 am | 2 Comments

It’s quite clear now — the nine-page spread of Extraordinary Exes you saw in the magazine was just for starters.

For our May-June cover story, we compiled a list of 125 of the greatest people to have attended UT. We asked the University community to submit more names of former Longhorns who went on to greatness in sports, medicine, journalism, Hollywood, public service, activism, the arts, and more. 

And we’ve been humbled by what has come in. More than 150 names already have been submitted, underscoring just how well this University prepares people to go out and achieve.

Here are a sampling of those: singers Janis Joplin and Tex Ritter; athletes Tom Kite, Sanya Richards-Ross, Clyde Littlefield, and Ricky Williams; businessmen Roy Spence and Mike Myers; educators Juliet Garcia and Americo Paredes. 

And there’s more. AOL founder Marc Seriff. New York Observer editor Kyle Pope. Ultimate UT booster Frank Denius. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Asian-American trailblazer Martha Wong. Surgeon Charles Baxter (who valiantly tried to save John F. Kennedy, and who did save John Connally). 

And yes, celebrity watchers, the ubiquitous Matthew McConaughey’s name was submitted early on.(He may be a goofball off-screen, after all, but he’s our goofball. He spreads a big Texas flag across the front of his suite at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium every year, and you can spot him at most of the home games.)

While the Alcalde has published its 125 list, the list on the Web is ever-evolving. Check out the latest, and submit somebody deserving if you haven’t already.