Year of splashes topped by invitation
Call from the Big 12 changes course for Cougars’ programs
A memorable 2021 for the University of Houston can be summed up as the “Return of the Cougars.”
The school’s two major sports made the biggest splashes, as Kelvin Sampson’s men’s basketball team went on a magical run to the Final Four in March and the football team won 11 in a row to reach the American Athletic Conference championship game for the first time in five years.
Without a doubt, 2021’s biggest moment for the Cougars came off the field, with secret phone calls, backroom negotiations and a Zoom call announcement.
On Sept. 10, UH’s long-awaited pursuit of a place among the power conferences in college athletics was finally realized when the school accepted an invitation to join the Big 12.
The move from the AAC to the Big 12 — which is expected to formally go into effect in summer 2023 — was part of a conference realignment tsunami set off by the summer blockbuster that the University of Texas and Oklahoma University would join the Southeastern Conference. Among the top candidates considered during the last round of realignment talk in 2016, UH was not a certainty this time around and needed some 11th-hour assistance from Tilman Fertitta, the school’s billionaire board of regents chairman. In what the university called a “historic step,” the Cougars accepted invitations along with Cincinnati, Central Florida and BYU.
After COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA Tournament, the 2021 event was held in a “bubble” setting in Indianapolis and surrounding cities. A No. 2 seed, the Cougars survived a Midwest Region of upsets — narrowly escaping themselves in nail-biters against Rutgers and Oregon State — to advance to the Final Four for the first time since Phi Slama Jama in 1984. UH’s run came to an end with a loss to eventual champion Baylor in the national semifinals.
More good news came in November as Sampson signed Jarace Walker, the top-rated power forward in the nation.
Year 3 of the Dana Holgorsen era got off to an inauspicious start as the Cougars blew a 14-point halftime lead in a loss to Texas Tech in the season opener. That began a three-month run of perfection to finish unbeaten in conference play for the second time in the program’s 75-year history. In the AAC championship game, the Cougars lost to Cincinnati, which became the first Group of Five team to make the College Football Playoff.
Women’s basketball took another step under coach Ron Hughey, just missing the NCAA Tournament and playing in a second straight WNIT.
Track and field continued its dominance by sweeping the AAC men’s and women’s titles, the 42nd and 43rd under coach Leroy Burrell.
Swimming and diving delivered its fifth straight conference title, a fitting sendoff for coach Ryan Wochomurka, who left to return to his alma mater, Auburn. Tanica Jamison, the associate head coach at Texas A&M, was named the eighth coach in program history.
Women’s soccer coach Diego Bocanegra was named AAC coach of the year after a record-breaking 13-win season, which included victories over three ranked opponents.
Volleyball, under coach David Rehr, finished second in league
play and posted 25 wins, the most for the program since 1994.
And what would a year be without a regional appearance by the women’s golf team, which has advanced in each of its six years of existence? Longtime coach Gerrod Chadwell took a job at Texas A&M and was replaced by Lydia Gumm.
Shaun Maswanganyi finished second in 100-meter and third in
200-meter at the NCAA outdoor championships and participated in the Summer Olympics for South Africa.
Marcus Jones dabbled in everything for the Cougars as a return specialist (four touchdowns), cornerback (five interceptions) and even played wide receiver. Fittingly, Jones was named winner of the Paul Hornung Award as college football’s most versatile player and a consensus All-American.
Quentin Grimes became UH’s first men’s basketball All-American in 21 years, while Karen Fredgaard was a first-team All-American in women’s golf. She finished third at the prestigious Augusta National Women’s Amateur in April.