Looking around at the expanded Texas Sports Hall of Fame, Kim Mulkey could hardly believe she’s part of the latest class of inductees.

She’s coached a national championship team at Baylor and played for two national champions at Louisiana Tech. But going into a hall of fame with some of the greatest figures across the sports landscape was even overwhelming for someone with her credentials.

“I look around this room and see some of my heroes,” Mulkey said. “This is such a big state, and you just think of the people who are in this Hall of Fame. It’s very humbling. I’m too young to be here.”

Mulkey was among 10 people inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame on Monday night. Though she’s already in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, entering the Texas Sports Hall of Fame is one of her biggest honors.

“You can’t take Louisiana out of me because I spent 38 great years there, but Texas is my home now,” Mulkey said. “I was just smart to pick Baylor and Louisiana Tech because both schools gave me a chance to be successful. It’s a little embarrassing because all I wanted to do was coach at Baylor and win a few ballgames.”

Mulkey is joined in the 2009 class by six inductees with football ties, including former Baylor All-America receiver Lawrence Elkins, former Rice and Minnesota Vikings quarterback Tommy Kramer, former Houston Oilers and current Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams, and former Dallas Cowboys Chuck Howley, Dan Reeves and the late Harvey Martin.

The rest of the class includes Houston Astros first baseman Lance Berkman, former Texas Longhorns and Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Burt Hooton and former Dallas Chaparrals basketball general manager Max Williams.

Elkins helped revolutionize the passing game in college football when he teamed with Baylor quarterback Don Trull in the early 1960s.

“I feel like this is a bigger deal than getting into Canton (the Pro Football Hall of Fame) because there are so many people in here from different sports in Texas,” Elkins said. “This is the ultimate honor for me. It’s probably the last one I’m going to get, so I better enjoy it.”

The youngest inductee of the night was Berkman, who turns 34 on Wednesday. Born in Waco, Berkman is in the middle of a tremendous career for the Astros with a .299 career batting average with 313 homers and 1,041 RBIs. Berkman graduated from New Braunfels Canyon High School before becoming the national college player of the year at Rice in 1997.

“This means a lot to me especially since I was born in Texas,” Berkman said. “It’s probably the highest honor I’ve ever received. Not until you walk around and see all the displays in the museum do you realize all the great players from this state.”

Berkman was excited to see the new Southwest Conference wing of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame which includes exhibits from all nine schools that played in the league before it disbanded in the mid-1990s.

“It broke my heart when the SWC broke up,” Berkman said. “I had a tremendous amount of pride to be able to play in the SWC during my first two years at Rice. I’ve got some younger teammates with the Astros who don’t even remember the SWC, but I played in it.”

“I grew up listening to SWC games on the radio,” said Kramer, an All-America quarterback for Rice in 1976. “To be able to play in the SWC was a big deal. I’m just glad the Hall of Fame has a wing where we can relive the history of the league.”

The oldest inductee was Adams, the 87-year-old owner of the Tennessee Titans. Adams helped establish the American Football League when he started the Houston Oilers franchise in 1960 before relocating the team to Tennessee in a controversial move in 1997.

For Monday’s ceremony, Adams wore a Houston Oilers jacket and a Tennessee Titans tie.

“To get into the Hall of Fame at my age is a wonderful thing,” Adams said. “We’ve got a lot of (former Oilers) players in here, but I thought that maybe I was past my stage to get in.”

Howley was an All-Pro linebacker for the Cowboys, while Reeves was a running back who later went on to fame as an NFL coach with the Denver Broncos, the New York Giants and the Atlanta Falcons. Howley and Reeves played together with the Cowboys in the 1960s and early ’70s under Tom Landry.

“I was fortunate to be around a great organization with a lot of great coaches to start my career,” Reeves said. “I was able to fulfill a dream I had all my life. To get into this Hall of Fame is a thrill, and I’m very honored.”

jwerner@wacotrib.com

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