AUSTIN, Texas — Five distinguished former University of Texas student-athletes and a current staff member will be inducted later this fall into the UT Women’s Athletics Hall of Honor, the Women’s Hall of Honor Committee announced Wednesday. The 11th Longhorn Women’s Hall of Honor class includes: Erin Aldrich, dual-sport All-American in volleyball and track and field who claimed four NCAA high jump titles; Kathleen Bogue Cummings, tennis All-American and the 1984 Southwest Conference Player of the Year; Jo Beth Palmer, dual-sport All-American in volleyball and track and field; Carol (Borgmann) Robertson, three-time AIAW swimming individual national champion and 18-time All-American who led Texas to two AIAW national team titles; Eileen Vanisi, three-time NCAA shot put champion; and Tina Bonci, long-time Co-Director of the Division of Athletic Training/Sports Medicine for UT Athletics.
The Class of 2010 will be inducted at an 11:30 a.m. (Central) ceremony and luncheon on Friday, Nov. 19 in the Lone Star Room at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin. They will be enshrined during ceremonies at the Texas-Florida Atlantic football game the following day. Tickets to the Friday luncheon are $35 and available through the Longhorn Foundation at 512-471-4439. Interested patrons may also sponsor a table of 10 for $450.
“This class is dually impressive in that it’s representative of a springboard era in UT Athletics and also features multiple dual-sport student-athletes and individual NCAA champions,” said Chris Plonsky, UT Women’s Athletics Director and Senior Associate AD of Men’s and Women’s Athletics External Services. “The inductees also share appreciation for what Tina Bonci has meant to our program as a sports medicine genius.”
A dual-sport All-American in track and field (high jump) and volleyball, Aldrich is one of the most decorated high jumpers in school and Big 12 Conference history. A four-time NCAA Champion, six-time All-American and six-time Big 12 Champion in the high jump, she helped lead the Longhorns to four consecutive NCAA Track and Field team titles and set the NCAA indoor collegiate mark (6-5.5) in 1998. Aldrich also claimed AVCA All-America First Team and Volleyball Magazine All-America Third Team honors in 1999 and was named the Big 12 Conference Female Athlete of the Year in 1999-2000. She competed in the high jump at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and earned spots on three U.S. World Championships teams (2001, 2005, 2007). Aldrich also played three seasons (2001-03) of volleyball with the U.S. National Team, leading the squad to a bronze medal at the 2003 Pan American Games.
Cummings is still regarded as one of the top tennis players in school history despite playing just one season at Texas. After earning All-America accolades in each of her first three years at Colorado (1979-82), Cummings transferred to UT and earned All-America singles honors as a senior in 1984 while posting a 29-7 singles mark in dual-match play. She concluded the year ranked fifth nationally in the final ITA rankings. Cummings was tabbed the 1984 Southwest Conference Player of the Year and was the league champion at No. 1 singles and No. 2 doubles. She led the Longhorns to the SWC team title and a trip to the NCAA quarterfinals. A member of the SWC All-Decade Team for the 1980s, Cummings went on to play for three years (1984-86) on the professional tennis circuit in the United States, England, France and Australia, competing in all four Grand Slam events.
A dual-sport All-American in volleyball and track and field (discus), Palmer was the first female two-sport All-American in school history. On the volleyball court, she earned Volleyball Monthly All-America Third Team honors as a junior in 1982 and honorable mention All-America accolades by the same publication as a senior in 1983. A two-time All-Southwest Conference First Team choice, she still holds the school single-match record with nine service aces. Palmer also earned All-America honors with the track and field team, recording a fifth-place finish in the discus at the 1982 AIAW National Outdoor Championships with a throw of 160-5. She helped lead the Longhorns to the school’s first-ever AIAW national outdoor team title that season.
A three-time AIAW individual national champion, 18-time All-American and three-time honorable mention All-American, (Borgmann) Robertson was one of the top individual medley swimmers in UT history. She paced the Longhorns to back-to-back AIAW national team titles in 1981 and 1982. (Borgmann) Robertson won the national title in the 100 individual medley and was the third-highest individual point scorer (87 points) at the 1981 AIAW National Championship, helping the squad become the first UT women’s athletics team to win a national title. She led the Longhorns to a second straight AIAW national team championship in 1982, claiming national titles in the 100 and 200 individual medleys and helping the 400 medley relay to a first-place finish. Competing for the U.S. team at the 1981 World University Games, (Borgmann) Robertson claimed the silver medal in the 100-meter butterfly and won gold in the 400-meter freestyle relay and silver in the 400-meter medley relay.
Vanisi is one of the most decorated throwers in school history, claiming three NCAA shot put titles and eight All-America honors in the shot put. She recorded top-six finishes in the shot put in each of her four NCAA Indoor and four Outdoor Track and Field Championship appearances and claimed eight Southwest Conference individual titles (four shot put, four discus) during her four seasons in Austin. Vanisi won the shot put national title at the 1991 NCAA Outdoor meet as a freshman and recorded a fourth-place finish in the event at the NCAA Indoor meet that season. She also swept the shot put national titles at the 1994 NCAA Indoor and 1994 NCAA Outdoor meets as a senior. Vanisi led the Longhorns to four top-three team finishes at the NCAA Championships and eight consecutive SWC team titles in her collegiate career. Her shot put of 60-0.5 during her senior year still stands as the top throw in school outdoor history. She went on to earn the bronze medal in the shot put at the 1995 USA Indoor, 1995 USA Outdoor and 1997 USA Indoor Championships.
Bonci is the Co-Director of Athletic Training/Sports Medicine for Intercollegiate Athletics and has spent the last 26 years working daily with UT student-athletes. In addition to her role as Co-Director, she also serves as Assistant Athletics Director for Sports Medicine in the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. During her time in Austin, Bonci and her staff have worked with student-athletes who have claimed 20 NCAA Championship team titles in seven different sports. She received the Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer of the Year award from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association in 2006, and earned the same recognition from the Southwest Athletic Trainers’ Association in 2010. Bonci was appointed to the U.S. medical staffs of the boycotted 1980 Moscow Olympics and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. She served as the head athletic trainer for the gold medal-winning U.S. Women’s Basketball team in 1984.
The six inductees were selected by the 22-member UT Women’s Athletics Hall of Honor Selection Committee. The committee is chaired by Dr. James Deitrick, professor of accounting in the Red McCombs School of Business. In addition to Deitrick and Plonsky, the committee includes: Tina Bonci, Beverly Bowes Hackney, Brad Buchholz, Jody Conradt, Stephanie DeMunbrun, Dr. Linda Ferreira-Buckley, Mary Herman, Courtney Houston, Jan Hughes, Becky Marshall, Howard Nirken, Sonia Perez, Lynn Pool, Dr. Robert Prentice, Dr. Randa Ryan, Sally Schlobohm Tan, Jill Sterkel, Craig Way, Lynn Wheeler and Joan Whitworth.
