Albert A. “Sonny” Rooker

In 1942, Albert A. “Sonny” Rooker arrived on the Forty Acres as a member of the freshman football team but soon left to serve in the U.S. Air Force for the duration of World War II. He returned to Austin in 1945, graduating three years later. In July 1948, Albert A. "Sonny" Rooker was hired as the assistant director to Berry M. Whitaker, who at the time was director of Men’s Intramural Sports. Upon Whitaker's retirement in 1960, Rooker was appointed Whitaker’s successor.

One of Rooker’s first undertakings was to introduce a sport club program for male students. The program became known as the University of Texas Sports Association for Men. Initial clubs included bowling, gymnastics, handball, soccer, softball, tennis, weightlifing and wrestling. Rooker later expanded the program to include cricket, fencing, sailing and squash.

Rooker’s legacy lives on for other remarkable achievements. Under his leadership, the Gregory Gym Annex was constructed, the intramural fields were relocated and expanded to their present location at 51^st and Guadalupe Street, and the intramural program flourished beyond all expectations to become one of the largest and best programs of its kind in the nation.

Sonny Rooker was active in the National Intramural Association, today known as NIRSA (National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association), and in 1967 received the organization’s highest accolade, the Honor Award. A fervent supporter of sports and recreational activity, he lived and worked by this guiding principle that, in his words, “Society’s future leaders should be skilled and knowledgeable of leisure time use and should be capable of exerting leadership by example.” He continued to live up to that principle even after he left the university in 1972 to become director of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness for the State of Texas. He traveled throughout the state, visiting schools to present physical fitness and exercise programs to students in an effort to teach them the value of living a healthy life.