The Grovers

On a football weekend in 1995, a group of UT alums met for dinner at an Austin hotel ballroom. Although this kind of gathering is common, this meeting was something special. It was the first reunion of former members the Oak Grove Co-op, an organization with an outstanding history of participation in UT Intramural sports.

Just wander along the Wall of Fame pictures from the period 1940 to 1960 and you will see that the number of Oak Grove champions is remarkable. During that period, Oak Grove teams or individuals won or were runner-up in over 100 IM sports events. They won the All Year Trophy a record 15 years in a row. A Grover almost always won the Best All Round Athlete. During the period 1955-60, Jack Boston won Best All Around twice and was in the top ten every other year.

Oak Grove would seem to be just another one of the several cooperative boarding houses that existed at UT in the 40’s and 50’s. However, ask any ex-Grover and he will tell you that intramural sports made it a special place. IM allowed a bunch of high schools jocks to continue to enjoy the competition, teamwork, and life lessons that sports provide.

Oak Grove waited 35 years to have it’s first reunion. Amazingly, attendance was terrific and it was sucha success that they agreed to meet again every two years. More importantly, their UT spirit was so strong that they established the Oak Grove Co-op Scholarship Endowment at UT. To date, 17 deserving students have received funding from this ongoing endowment. The group's generosity continues to reach far and wide as they've realized a new and unique opportunity to assist in maintaining the tradition of intramurals on the UT campus by launching their own Intramural Endowment campaign. They ask that you please consider this opportunity to give back to a great institution and to a program that helped shape not only their experiences as students but also their lives.

Despite the fact that their co-op closed 35 years ago, these proud alums never tire of enjoying the UT spirit fostered by their time at Oak Grove.                                  

The Intramural Program Today

Over the 94-year history of the Intramural Sports Program much has remained the same but much has changed. Men, women and, beginning in 1974, coed teams, still compete in all of the major team sports as well as every imaginable individual/dual sport. In 1982 the Intramural Sports Program began generating income to pay expenses. Teams were charged a $10 entry fee to play. In 2010 the cost has escalated to $75 per team. With the current economic climate at the University, there is growing pressure to find ways to increase revenue (such as increasing the fees to play intramurals) or cut costs (such as reducing the number of games played or hiring fewer officials). The answer to this current and likely future economic uncertainty is to establish an Intramural Endowment to enable the intramural program to become self-sustaining.

Make an Endowment Contribution

Your 100% tax-deductible contribution to the endowment is welcomed and planned giving opportunities are available. If your employer offers a charitable matching gift program, you can increase the size of your gift. Checks should contain "Oak Grove campaign" on the memo line, be made payable to The University of Texas at Austin and mailed to:

Division of Recreational Sports
Attn: Development Coordinator
1 University Station D7500
Austin, Texas 78712-0395

Online contributions can be made through UT Online Giving.

Click here for an Intramural Endowment gift and pledge card to accompany your gift.

Intramural Endowment FAQ's. Click here.