XL Fortunate 500

Sports stars

People who play the sports social scene

By Michael Corcoran
Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Donnie Little, the first African American to play quarterback for the University of Texas Longhorns, has been a father figure to Vince Young since the Greatest Longhorn Ever was a homesick freshman from the south side of Houston. In fact, the 46-year-old Dickinson High product and development manager for the Longhorn Foundation and Longhorn Legacy even looks a little like a computer-enhanced photo of what VY might look like in 25 years.

Asked his favorite memory of the first annual Urban Music Festival, which Little's Urban Life Group (sounds like an insurance company) produced April 8 on Auditorium Shores, and Little won't talk about Cherrelle or Ray J or one of the other performers, but his protégé with the overanalyzed sidearm delivery. "Vince was at the backstage fence signing autographs and he noticed a little girl, maybe 8 or 9 years old, in the crowd crying," Little recalls. The panicked girl had been separated from her mother. "Vince just dropped everything and brought that girl to security. He stayed there until the girl's mother came by to pick her up. That's Vince."

Little says the first Urban Music Festival "was not a financial success" — promoters had projected 7,000 as the break-even point and sold just under 6,000 tickets — but says he and business partner Homer Hill were delighted with how the concert, the feel-good event of the year, turned out. Several African American concertgoers, lifelong Austinites, told Little that they'd never seen the Austin skyline from that gorgeous vantage point before. Magic was in the air all day. History was made.

"It was such an incredible family environment," says Little, who has twin 8-year-old boys. Next year, he said, look for more hip-hop and maybe even some gospel.

That the gregarious Little and the soft-spoken Hill are two sides of a coin was evident at their roles during the fest. Little was backstage, getting performers onstage and showing sponsors around. Hill was at the ticket gate or checking with vendors. The pair, who met in 1989 when Little, a development manager for the Longhorn Foundation, was a frequent customer of Hill's Catfish Station restaurant, barely saw each other all day of the festival.

But during headliner Chaka Khan's show-closing set, they stood together onstage, with third partner Donell Creech, and smiled at what they and the City of Austin had created. Asked what he saw when he looked out over the crowd, Little says, "Potential. It's going to be bigger and better every year."

Katy and Robert Agnor
Hornfans.com

Mike Barnes
KVUE, Lone Star Paralysis Foundation, Children's Hospital

Rick Barnes
UT Longhorns basketball, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

Roy Bechtol
Bechtol Russell Golf, Planned Environments Inc.

Earl Campbell
Earl Campbell Meat Products, UT Longhorns football

Sheila and Paul Carrozza
Run-Tex, President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, Governor's Advisory Council on Physical Fitness, Mayor's Fitness Council

Dave Cody
Fox 7

Ed Clements
KLBJ-AM

John Conley
Austin Sports Commission, Austin Marathon

Jody Conradt
UT Longhorns basketball, Texas Civil Rights Project

Julie and Ben Crenshaw
PGA, Coore and Crenshaw, St. Andrew's Episcopal School

Marianne and DeLoss Dodds
UT sports, Caritas of Austin

Doug English
Lone Star Paralysis Foundation, Caritas of Austin

Augie Garrido
UT Longhorns baseball, Hospice Austin

Rachel Harrison
University Interscholastic League

Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson
East Side Youth Services and Street Outreach

Christy and Tom Kite
FedEx Kinko's Classic, Kids Classic, Children's Medical Center of Central Texas

Doug MacGregor
Austin Wranglers, Austin Wranglers Foundation

Glen Norman
Austin Ice Bats, Ice Bats Children's Charities

Christine Plonsky
University of Texas

Andy Roddick
Andy Roddick Foundation

Edith and Darrell Royal
UT Longhorns football, Caritas of Austin

Reid Ryan
Round Rock Express

Bill Stapleton
Capital Sports and Entertainment

Nick Voinis
University of Texas

Jeff Ward
KLBJ-AM

Norman Watkins
Austin Renaissance, UT Longhorns football

Craig Way
KVET-AM