Renovations to Whitaker Fields puts Legal Eagles' tradition on hold

Following five months of renovation, and with many months of work yet to come, the new and improved Whitaker Fields are beginning to take shape. And while the yearlong hiatus from outdoor intramural sports is somewhat of an oddity for the University of Texas campus, the absence of competition from the Legal Eagles has only added to the strangeness for a team that’s played on the fields for so many years.

Started by famed professor and attorney Charles Alan Wright in 1955, the Legal Eagles are a household name in the UT RecSports community. The team was originally founded so that Wright could continue to nurture his passion for football, which he played in both high school and at the collegiate level. Since then, the Legal Eagles have competed annually in the graduate division, and have won the All-University championship a number of times as well.

“The team is said to be the longest continuously operated intramural team in the country,” said Brian Rider, adjunct professor of law and current athletic director of the Legal Eagles. “We’ve played every year, and the program has also evolved over the years,” he added.

Compiling a record of 330 – 44 during Wright’s tenure as head coach and athletic director, the team has continued to compete and carry on the legacy he began over 60 years ago. RecSports officials have also granted them a consistent schedule each and every semester, until now.

“They [Eagle’s games] have always been on Wednesday nights at 7 o’clock,” said Randall Ford, associate director of sports clubs with UT RecSports. “We always will put a graduate league at that time.”

The tradition has been put on hold this spring as the renovations to Whitaker Fields has cancelled the usual spring flag football leagues. UT RecSports officials are hopeful that the renovations will be completed in time to have an abbreviated flag football season in the fall.

“If construction stays on schedule and we get the fields back sometime late in the fall semester, we plan to play flag football,” Ford said, superstitiously knocking on his wooden desk.

The lack of facilities for games has not deterred professor Rider from looking ahead and prepping for the season that looms six months away He contacted the team last week to wish them well on finals, but more importantly to keep them up to date on the team activities that will commence in the fall.

“We’ll start practicing in late August or early September like we usually do,” Rider said.

The Legal Eagles are a well-known team not only around the UT campus, but also across the country as their alumi network stretches coast to coast. Derek Kammerlocher, an Eagle’s alumnus, shared that for him and many of his former teammates being a part of the team served them well as they pursued their professional endeavors.

“It certainly came up in a lot of my interviews and was a conversation piece,” Kammerlocher said.

With his name now hanging on the walls of seemingly every corridor of the UT Law School, Charles Alan Wright’s legacy will always live on at the school he called home for so many years. But the tradition he created with the Legal Eagles may prove to be just as impactful as the mark he left in his professional career.

“It’s not just about football,” Rider stressed. “It’s about growth and your future career.”