Jeff Newman
Jeff is a popular member of the TCPA mentor program because many of the cheer squad are interested in physical therapy. Jeff’s career started with physical therapy and morphed into building clinical practices, which eventually led to building and running hospitals. Pretty good for a guy whose first semester as a UT cheerleader ended with a 1.7 GPA and big trouble with Dad!
After taking his sophomore year off to get his grades back up, Jeff returned to the squad as head cheerleader. “There were five couples back in those days. Tryouts were controlled by the band and done in Gregory Gym.” Rumor has it the ’69-70 squad was late to games, and the band was so upset they took over choosing the cheerleaders.
As head honcho, Jeff used the cheer speaker system and was charged with motivating the student section when the band was not playing. “The band ran the game in those days. Vince Denino (legendary UT band director) was calling the shots. We were always following his lead.” I concur it was the same in the 1980’s before the jumbotron was invented.
Jeff reports the squad had no oversight in those days and were on their own traveling to road games. “We made it to Miami for the ’73 season opener, but we couldn’t get back home after the game.” Assistant Sports Information Director Bill Little stepped up and found the squad a ride back to Austin and subsequently volunteered to be the first cheerleader sponsor. “Bill got us into all kinds of things: basketball, baseball, extracurricular stuff. He really helped give the squad recognition within the athletic department.”
I ask about cheer tryouts and Sue recalls an open session at Gregory Gym in front of a bunch of student judges. Details are a bit vague these days because, frankly, at age 91 there are too many to recall. Her tumbling skills earned her a spot on the 1953-54 squad along with one other female, Pud Payne. This is before partner stunts, so the squad of eight built pyramids, led the crowd in special cheers like the Whisper Yell, and tumbled on the field after touchdowns. I found a flipping Sue photo in the Cactus Yearbook. “Those were very exciting days,” Sue smiles.
Jeff laughs and tells his favorite cheer moment when he was in the UT athletics office under the stadium with Bill and Coach Darrell Royal before a road trip. “Coach was very supportive of the cheerleaders traveling to all the games, but he didn’t care so much for the band to make the trip.” Jeff does his best Royal impression: “Sure is a lot of money for a bunch of tootin’.”
After receiving a BA in Biology, Jeff got a BS in physical therapy and started working in Amarillo and then back home in Fort Worth. A few years later, he and his wife, Barbie, moved to Colorado and took over the Colorado clinics for HealthSouth. “We spent 23 years in Colorado Springs.” Jeff sold his clinic to Health South in 1990 and started working transitions for Health South, putting together a system of clinics. “When we first started, there were two of us in the office, and we ended up with a staff of 52.”
At the turn of the century, Jeff decided to change fields and became President and general manager of a professional hockey team. After a couple years, he realized sports was not his calling, and moved to assisted living facilities, and then began a consultancy company, advising doctors on how to negotiate contracts with hospital administrators.
Somewhere along the way, the Newmans moved back to Fort Worth, and Jeff began working as COO for a non-profit company on international hospital projects. “I built a hospital for the Crown Prince in the United Arab Emirates in 2014.” The construction guy and the architect were bleeding the Prince dry, and the company brought Jeff in to finish the project. “I made the construction company sign an agreement that it would cost them $100K for every day they go past the finish date, which they chose. At the end they paid us $4 million!”
Jeff’s latest project is a 50,000 sq ft hospital in Rwanda. It’s the final piece of an award-winning boarding school complex, where they have dug five water wells, started micro-economies, and built student housing and kitchens next to the school. “I’m working with two very good guys there, the marketing head and the construction foreman, who were both child soldiers during the Rwanda genocide.” Jeff is proud of this one, which is coming on budget and on time, exactly the opposite of UT cheer, which had no budget and was occasionally on time! Oh, the ’70’s!
Please contact TCPA if you would like to donate some time to mentor members of the cheer squad. Your professional experience is of real value to the program, which strives to guide these young adults to successful careers and very high GPA’s.
