Being an avid sports fan doesn’t often get you into a Hall of Honor.
But then again, few sports fans are as avid as Betty Hines. The 82-year-old Wylie Bulldog fan is known by Wylie parents, students and coaches for attending every Wylie sporting event whether home or away, and dragging along two or three sports-loving friends. The group has become known as the Gray-Haired Ladies, or Golden Girls, and they were featured in the Wylie Growl this past spring.
Betty has been a sports fan since she was a young girl and has been attending Wylie events for more than 60 years. For her devotion to Wylie sports, she was inducted into the Wylie Hall of Honor at Homecoming.
“It’s just unbelievable,” she said. “I am being honored for having fun.”
Betty said she has been attending sporting events since she was a child, mostly because of her grandmother.
“My love of sports came from my grandmother, and I was my grandmother’s favorite grandchild,” she said. “I can look in the mirror and see her. My grandmother loved sports. We went to anything that came along. My sports started out like that.”
Betty’s uncle, Raybon Landers, coached at Wylie and later was superintendent. So Betty began going to Wylie sporting events in 1949. Later, Betty’s children and grandchildren attended Wylie. But when her children and grandchildren graduated, she kept right on going to Wylie games and began dragging her friends with her – although she did not have to convince them. They too are avid sports fans, and thanks to Betty are now avid Wylie fans.
Over the years, Betty has gotten to know some of the coaches and players.
“There’s a lot of really great players and a lot of coaches I’ve made lifelong friends with,” she said. “That’s kind of special.” She has a tough time when asked what her favorite sport is, but when pressured she has to admit it is probably girls’ basketball.
“There’s nothing like Friday Night Football but you don’t get to know the kids like you do in the gym,” she said. “Basketball and volleyball, you get close to those girls.”
Sports aren’t the only thing that gets Betty’s blood pumping. She is a thrill-seeker.
“I love fast lanes in life,” she said. “I’m a roller coaster junky. I love parasailing. I’ve done zip lines, and I’ve done rapids on the river. Anything that makes you holler.”
Her grandson, Terrance Hines, inducted her into the Hall of Honor during the October ceremony and said he remembers taking many trips with his grandmother.
“There were road trips to Disney World,” he said. “She loves Mickey Mouse.”
In fact, Betty has been to Disney World 27 or 28 times, she said.
If people are surprised to see her going to sports games at 82, you ought to see the look she gets when she gets on a roller coaster. She said she often gets preferential treatment from roller coaster workers.
“It kind of fascinates them when they see people my age,” she said. “They will put us right back on again.”
Betty has no intention of slowing down any time soon, and that includes Wylie sports.
“I’m looking forward to many, many years of Wylie sports,” she said. “I feel like I have done what I needed to do by supporting the kids.”
And if you are planning to attend a Wylie sporting event, particularly a home game, Betty has just one request of you. “Please do not sit in our seats,” she said.