Scott Wilson, a UT superfan who has made it to the last 1,000 UT baseball games played, during the NCAA men’s college baseball game at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin on Friday, March 4, 2016.
Austin American-Statesman
Scott Wilson, the longtime Texas Longhorns sports fan who hadn’t missed a baseball game in more than 25 years, died Friday, his sister posted on Facebook. He was 74.
“He passed as I sang The Eyes of Texas,” Nancy Wilson wrote. “Gabriel’s Horn announced his arrival at St Peter’s Gate.”
Article continues below this ad
Wilson was hospitalized in early October in Jacksonville, Fla. after suffering a medical emergency while traveling to see the Texas football team play at Florida on Oct. 4. His sister had recently announced that Wilson had been moved to hospice care.
“When you think about what makes Texas Baseball so special, it always comes back to the people — and Scott Wilson is one of those people who truly embodied everything this program stands for,” Texas baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle said Friday in a statement released by the school. “Scott’s been there through it all — from Opening Days to national championship runs — always wearing his burnt orange, always supporting our players and coaches with the same energy and love for the game. You could always count on seeing him in the stands, cheering, smiling and leading the Eyes of Texas. Scott Wilson will always be remembered for his unwavering loyalty and support, as a member of our Texas Baseball family.”
RELATED:Â A closer look at Scott Wilson’s north Austin home, a mecca to all things Texas Longhorns
An attorney by trade, Wilson also held down a full-time job of being a devout Longhorns fan. He regularly attended Texas football, volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball games, and it wasn’t a surprise to see him traveling for a UT golf or rowing event of consequence. Wilson’s home in north Austin was a museum of UT memorabilia.
Article continues below this ad
Wilson was set to attend his 595th straight Texas football game before he fell ill. A 1972 Texas graduate who also attended Austin’s McCallum High, Wilson told the American-Statesman in 2016 that he first went to a UT football game in 1958 with his father and still had possession of a UT pennant that he got at the Longhorns’ 26-10 loss to SMU.
From ESPN to the Daily Texan, Wilson’s love of the Longhorns was profiled by numerous media outlets over the years. The Los Angeles Times even sent one of its top columnists to Austin to write about Wilson ahead of the 2006 Rose Bowl. He was also a frequent subject for American-Statesman columnist John Kelso, who once had a problem that his friend had been named to the Statesman’s “Fortunate 500” list.
Wrote Kelso, who passed away in 2017: “I knew it was flawed when my running buddy, Scott Wilson, made the cut. Wilson drinks Milwaukee’s Best straight out of the can. And yes, he goes to a lot of parties. But there’s usually a bag of Doritos involved.”
Texas Longhorns fan Scott Wilson holds up the sign of the horns after leading the crowd in singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” during the game against Kansas at UFCU Disch–Falk Field on Friday, May. 17, 2024 in Austin. Friday’s game is Wilson’s 1500th consecutive baseball game. Wilson said he has not missed a Longhorns baseball game, home or away, since April of 2000.
Aaron E. Martinez/American-Statesman
Wilson was most known for his baseball fandom
But while Wilson hadn’t missed a football game since 1977, there was no question about what his favorite sport was. He ended this past baseball season having attended 1,564 straight Texas games played either at home, on the road or at neutral sites. Wilson last missed a Longhorns baseball game in 2000.
Article continues below this ad
Wilson wasn’t hard to find at Texas baseball games. If the Longhorns were playing at home, you could find him in his longtime seat on the end of the eighth row in Section 3 at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. If the Longhorns were on the road, Wilson would often be a friendly face greeting the team as they got off their bus. Even as he mellowed from his days as a founding member of the rambunctious “Wild Bunch” cheering section, Wilson had no problem with leading UT fans in the singing of “The Eyes of Texas,” and the Longhorns even let him perform the national anthem ahead of a 2023 home game.
David Pierce, who led the Texas baseball program from 2017-24, said he could remember being razzed by Wilson’s Wild Bunch group while he was a player at the University of Houston in the 1980s. Years later, it was a lot better to have Wilson on his side.
“He loved the university more than anything,” Pierce said. “He loved the players. He would always want a roster early so he would match their names and numbers so he could always call them by their first names and shake their hands as they got off the bus. It was pretty impressive.”
Throughout the day on Friday, some of the players who Wilson once rooted feverishly for shared their memories of the baseball program’s biggest fan. One of nine players to have had their numbers retired at Texas, Huston Street said that “Scott Wilson was a leader. He was the unofficial mascot, the ringleader and the most loyal fan — a true friend always with hope.”
Article continues below this ad
“No one person was more passionate about Texas Longhorns Athletics than Scott Wilson,” said Keith Moreland, the legendary UT infielder and broadcaster. “He was always there, cheering, supporting and doing everything he could to help the team. Scott didn’t just attend games, he lived every moment of Texas sports with genuine pride and heart.”
“He never bashed anyone or got mad at the players or cussed at us. He was loyal to us like we were his own,” said Austin Wood, the ex-UT pitcher who was a key figure in the Longhorns’ 25-inning regional game against Boston College in 2009. “I will miss seeing him with his horns up singing ‘The Eyes of Texas.’ But he has a front row view of every game now. He will be missed and I hope we can do something to honor him at the Disch, he deserves it.”
“We lost one of the greatest supporters of Longhorn sports in Scott Wilson,” said Drew Stubbs, an outfielder on the Longhorns’ 2005 national title team. “There is no one who embodied bleeding burnt orange quite like Scott. Â He was at every single game I played in a Texas uniform and that could be said by generations of players across several sports.”
Expressed Seth Johnston, the former team captain and two-time national champion: “What I’ll say about Scott is that he was a true fan. Not fair-weathered, always there, always with his Horns up. We should have more fans like Scott.”Â
Article continues below this ad
Kyle Russell, who played at Texas from 2006-08 and was a recent inductee into the Texas Hall of Honor, fondly recalled playing games at Texas A&M where Wilson would “lead the charge singing ‘The Eyes of Texas’ in front of 10,000 Aggie fans going absolutely nuts trying to get under our skin – it jacked us up.” During Russell’s time at Texas, the Longhorns went 6-0 in College Station.
“I don’t think we’ll even have another Longhorn fan like Wilson,” Russell said.