Lions Municipal Golf Course, first to desegregate, celebrates 100 years

AUSTIN, Texas — Volma Overton III asked the audience to imagine what the trees would say.

What would those Heritage trees overlooking Lions Municipal Golf Course — those iconic canopies strewn across those 141 acres in West Austin — tell us about its history?

“Imagine if all the trees out here could talk,” the 46-year-old lifelong Austin resident said of the 100-year space which opened in 1924. “Imagine the stories they would tell us.”

Overton, a third-generation golfer whose grandfather was one of the first Black residents to play on the city’s municipal course when it became South’s first to desegregate in 1950, honed in on that idea during the course’s centennial milestone celebration on Thursday, that Muny’s memories and traditions will be lost if redevelopment of the land and the course takes place.

A Texas Historical Marker at the entrance to Lions Municipal Golf Course in Austin, Texas. (Austin American-Statesman)

With fears raised following plans by the University of Texas to tear down the former University Junior High School, listed in the National Registry of Historic Places, to build a football facility, conservancy was front and center. “Muny,” as it’s called, also is on the National Registry.

Preservation of the course’s long-term impact for residents became a rallying cry during Thursday’s celebration, which included speeches from Mayor Kirk Watson, Congressman Lloyd Doggett and former LPGA and PGA professionals Cindy Figg-Currier and Mark Brooks.

Saving Austin’s oldest golf course

Watson was adamant that he would push to save the 100-year-old golf course, which is the second-largest green space in Austin outside of Zilker Park. UT owns a rolling lease on the land and has remained quiet about what the future might hold around it. While in the Texas Senate, Watson passed a bill — S.B. No. 2553 — enacted to help preserve the landmark.

But questions remain about its future.

“It’s a part of the effort I’ve been involved in and will continue to be involved in, to solve the longstanding uncertainty surrounding the future of this significant Austin treasure,” Watson said.

Watson finished his time at the podium by declaring a proclamation in honor of Lions Municipal Golf Course: “I, Kirk Watson, Mayor of the city of Austin, do hereby Proclaim October 3, 2024, as Lions ‘Muni’ Golf Course day in Austin.”

A celebration of Muny’s history

Watson and Doggett were ushered into their seats following…