On Thursday, April 17th, a full house of Headliners Club members, sports fans and Foundation supporters joined legendary sports broadcaster Verne Lundquist and his special guest, former New Orleans Saints quarterback Archie Manning, to raise funds for the Verne Lundquist Sports Media Institute, a program of the Headliners Foundation. KLBJ Radio personality Ed Clements served as the Master of Ceremonies again and shared some highlights of last year’s Lundquist Institute programming. Clements introduced the 2022 and 2024 Lundquist Scholarship recipients, who were both in attendance, and treated guests to a peek behind the scenes of the 2024 Verne Lundquist Sports Media Camp, an annual event hosted by the UT Center for Sports Communication & Media with significant funding from the Headliners Foundation.
The evening's main event featured Verne and Archie swapping funny, nostalgic, and heartwarming stories of their careers in sports and broadcasting. Archie spoke about his humble beginnings, his famous family, including Super Bowl champions Peyton and Eli, his eldest son, Cooper, and grandson Arch, who is now the starting quarterback for the Texas Longhorns.
A record crowd of 180 guests enjoyed the dinner and program, including Denver Broncos and former UT Longhorn quarterback Sam Ehlinger, former Kansas City Chiefs and UT Longhorn linebacker Derrick Johnson, former UT Longhorn quarterback Jon Aune, former TCU, Houston Oilers, and Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Mike Renfro, former UT Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds, award-winning journalist and author Neal Spelce, CBS Austin Sports Director Bob Ballou, CBS Austin News Anchor Walt Maciborski, Austin American-Statesman Sportswriter Cedric Golden, Houston Chronicle sports columnist Kirk Bohls, and Austin Symphony Orchestra Musical Director and Conductor Peter Bay. The event raised more than $90,000 to support scholarships and other programming of the Lundquist Institute.
Special thanks to Verne and Nancy Lundquist, Archie Manning, Ed Clements, Scotty Sayers, Lundquist Institute Chair Mark Morrison, Foundation Board Chair Patti Ohlendorf, the Lundquist Institute leadership team, Headliners Club Chairman Meade Bauer, Headliners Club President Wick Alexander, and our generous sponsors for another unforgettable evening!
Verne Lundquist, a longtime Headliners Club member, has been at the center of covering major sporting events for more than 50 years. He began his career at KTBC-TV in Austin, then owned by Lady Bird and President Lyndon Baines Johnson. He was also the long-time voice of the Dallas Cowboys. Lundquist joined CBS Sports in 1982 and broadcast more than 20 sports for the network, including national and international coverage of football, basketball, Olympic figure skating, and golf.
He retired from covering SEC football in 2016 and continues to cover the Masters and other golf tournaments for the network. Lundquist played himself commentating on golf tournaments in the 1996 motion picture Happy Gilmore.
Archie Manning is a Former Saints star quarterback who was enshrined in the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame in 1988, a nod to the illustrious career he had with the Black and Gold.
The Drew, Miss. native was drafted by the Saints in the first round (second overall) of the 1971 NFL Draft out of Mississippi. Manning was immediately thrusted into the lineup, starting 10 of the 12 games he appeared in during his rookie campaign. His breakout season came in 1972 during his sophomore season, when he started all 14 games, completing 230-of-448 passes for 2781 yards and 18 touchdowns. The pass attempts and completed by Manning that year led the league despite the team going 2-11.
In 1979, Manning led the infant franchise to their first .500 season as he went 252-of-420 for 3,169 yards and 15 touchdowns, earning him a spot on the Pro Bowl roster for the second consecutive year. Overall, Manning played ten full seasons for New Orleans and missed one due to a shoulder injury. He played in 134 games with 129 starts, accumulating career totals of 1,849-of-3,335 passes for 21,734 yards and 115 touchdowns. He finished his career with the Houston Oilers and Minnesota Vikings before retiring from football following the 1984 season.
Following his retirement from football, Manning settled in New Orleans. He has served as an analyst with Saints' television and radio broadcasts, and has worked as a commentator for CBS Sports' college football broadcasts. Manning and his wife Oliva have three sons – Cooper, Peyton and Eli – who he runs the Manning Passing Academy with, which develops young players from grades 8–12 by having them work with high school coaches and college players, while raising money for Special Olympics of Southeast Louisiana. For 25 years, Manning also hosted golf tournaments with his name in Louisiana and Mississippi to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis research. Payton and Eli were signal callers in the National Football League for the Colts, Broncos and Giants, winning two Super Bowls apiece and now star in the Manningcast on ESPN2 and ESPN+, where they provide an alternate broadcast on select Monday Night Football games. In honor of the football accomplishments of Archie, Peyton and Eli, the Allstate Sugar Bowl created the Manning Award to go to the nation's best college quarterback. Archie also has a grandson, Arch, who currently plays quarterback for the University of Texas. Manning is also an owner/investor in a restaurant, Manning's on Fulton Street.
Ed Clements will serve as the event’s Emcee. He is an Austin radio personality, a member of the Headliners Club and has served on the Headliners Foundation’s Verne Lundquist Sports Media Institute Committee since 2018. He was the Emcee for the Institute’s inaugural fundraising event in 2019, An Evening with Verne Lundquist. Clements has spent more than 30 years as a talk show host at KLBJ-AM in Austin. He is also the host for “Crenshaw on Golf” on SIRIUS-XM PGA Tour Radio. Clements is the starter for the Dell Technologies Match Play Tournament and was honored in 2018 by the Southern Texas PGA and the First Tee of Greater Austin for his contributions to the sport of golf. He is currently on the Boards of Texas Alzheimer’s, United Heritage Charity Foundation, the ARC of the Capital Area, and the Save Muny Conservancy.
