Yesterday

TXST’s first classes begin with 303 students and 17 faculty members. 

Students could be as young as 16 and had to be residents of Texas or promise to become Texans. They pledge to teach in public schools for at least as many sessions as they attend at TXST. Students who complete three years of courses earn permanent state teaching certificates.

On a hot summer day in 1916, Dr. S.M. Sewell, a mathematics professor, wades into the San Marcos River and decides that the university needs a park with an area to swim. Back then, the river was only three feet deep and was clogged with mud and debris. 

In 1917, the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries leases the college four acres of land along the river. College students, armed with mud scrapers and mules, clean the river bottom, build up the banks, and smooth the slopes. The new park opens in the summer of 1917, and it's called Riverside Park until 1946, when it's renamed in honor of its founder, Sewell.

Homecoming, previously held during spring commencement week, is moved to Thanksgiving to give working teachers a chance to come home for the big day — and to make football the main event.

The Bobcats face archrivals North Texas State Teachers College from Denton (now University of North Texas) in a showdown for the State Normal Championship. The Bobcats are undefeated going into the game, but they’ve never beaten North Texas.

In what the Normal Star calls “the most important game ever played on Evans Field,” the Bobcats win 14-0, securing the Normal championship and capping off an undefeated season.

Lyndon B. Johnson graduates with a bachelor of science in history and a permanent high school teaching certificate. Texas State is the only university in Texas to graduate a U.S. president.

LBJ’s legacy can be seen across campus in various building and event names, and a statue of the former president stands tall on the Quad.

In 1946, a member of the Rogers family rigs a paddle boat with a glass bottom and takes family and friends to see the bubbling springs, plants, and animals of Spring Lake. After purchasing the property from his parents, Paul Rogers develops Aquarena Springs into a theme park with glass-bottom boats, a submarine theater, mermaids, and other underwater performers.

Glass-bottom boat tours are still offered at TXST’s Meadows Center for Water and the Environment today.

To better serve the needs of the people of San Marcos and the surrounding areas, the college has begun to offer pre-professional training for subjects other than education. The name change to Southwest Texas State College reflects this broader service to the state.

Degrees offered include a bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, bachelor of science in education, bachelor of science in home economics, bachelor of science in industrial arts, bachelor of science in vocational agriculture, bachelor of music education, bachelor of business administration, and two master’s degrees.

Founded by Mrs. Barbara Guinn Tidwell, the Texas State Strutters dazzle audiences for the first time in 1960. The Strutters hold the distinction of being the first dance team organized on any four-year college campus in Texas.

The Strutters go on to perform at two U.S. presidential inaugurations, participate in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and appear on television and in feature films.

In response to a lawsuit filed by Dana Jean Smith, a U.S. district judge signs a court order that ends segregation at TXST. Dana Jean Smith, Georgia Faye Hoodye, Gloria Odoms, and Mabeleen Washington enroll at Texas State on the same day the order is signed. Helen Jackson enrolls the next day. 

In 2021, a residence hall is renamed First Five Freedom Hall to honor these trailblazing women.

“Here the seeds were planted from which grew my firm conviction that for the individual, education is the path to achievement and fulfillment; for the nation, it is a path to a society that is not only free but civilized; and for the world, it is the path to peace — for it is education that places reason over force.” — Lyndon B. Johnson, remarks at the signing of the Higher Education Act

LBJ returns to TXST to sign the Higher Education Act, one of his defining achievements as president. The act makes higher education available to hundreds of thousands of young Americans thanks to federal scholarships and loans. The act also expands libraries’ resources, improves the level of education in elementary and secondary schools, supports community service programs, and funds higher education institutions’ investment in their facilities, faculty, and student resources.

To meet the demand for trained healthcare professionals in Texas and the nation, TXST establishes the School of Allied Health Professions. The first health professions program, inhalation therapy (now respiratory care), is offered to an initial enrollment of 24 students.

Today, more than 4,000 students are enrolled in 18 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the College of Health Professions.

Bobcat Stadium becomes the home of TXST football, replacing Evans Field. The stadium is renovated several times to increase its capacity to 30,000 seats and add facilities like the Jerry D. and Linda Gregg Fields West Side Complex, the Linda Gregg Fields Strutters’ Gallery, and the upcoming Johnny and Nathali Weisman Football Performance Center.

Harold Freeman bequeaths 3,485 acres of ranchland in Hays County to Texas State University in 1981. The university officially takes over managing the ranch in 1985 after Freeman’s death.

The Freeman Center is now used by Texas State University for research, education, and farm, ranch, and game management.

Bill and Sally Wittliff create the Southwestern Writers Collection with a donation of author and folklorist J. Frank Dobie’s papers.

Located on the seventh floor of Alkek Library, what’s now known as The Wittliff Collections has grown to include the Southwestern Writers Collection, the Southwestern & Mexican Photography Collection, the Lonesome Dove Collection, and the Texas Music Collection.

The Wittliff collects, preserves, and presents the cultural heritage of Texas, the Southwest, and Mexico through works of the region’s storytellers. Its collections include artifacts from authors like Cormac McCarthy and Sandra Cisneros, musicians like Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and photographers like Manuel Álvarez Bravo and Yolanda Andrade.

Alkek Library opens in the summer of 1990, with twice the collection and study space that was available in the library’s previous location in J.C. Kellam. To celebrate the opening, students, faculty, and staff participate in the Book-It Brigade, forming a line of people from JCK to Alkek to pass the first four books from person to person to the new library. 

Alkek remains the most important information resource at TXST, and it’s been updated over the years to offer state-of-the-art spaces and equipment for students to explore, create, and discover.

The university buys the Aquarena Springs Resort property for $7 million. The popular theme park and tourist destination is at Spring Lake, the headwaters of the San Marcos River. The university restores the habitat around the lake, transforming the theme park into a world-class nature center dedicated to research and education.

The institute is renamed twice, becoming the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment in 2012 after a generous contribution from The Meadows Foundation. The Meadows Center’s mission is to inspire research, innovation, and leadership that ensures clean, abundant water for the environment and all humanity.

“Our new name is a reflection of what we have become by building upon a foundation of excellence and hard work. Our reputation as a first-rate educational institution is longstanding. But that reputation has broadened in scope and strengthened over the years.” 
— President Denise M. Trauth

With the support of the student body president and vice president, the Texas legislature proposes changing the university's name from Southwest Texas State University to Texas State University-San Marcos. The bill passes and is signed into law in June. 

The widely debated name change signals Texas State’s growth from a regional institution into a large, nationally recognized public university. 

Students at TXST create this day of service as a way to give back to the surrounding community. Bobcats come together to volunteer their time and engage in service projects like landscaping, painting, and cleanup at homes, schools, parks, churches, and neighborhoods throughout Hays County.

Bobcat Build has grown from 700 volunteers working at 50 jobsites to more than 3,000 volunteers at 300 sites.

Emmett and Miriam McCoy pledge $20 million to Texas State and the College of Business Administration is renamed in their honor. The Emmett and Miriam McCoy College of Business Administration Development Foundation is also created to manage major gifts to the college.

In 2006, McCoy Hall, a new 126,000 sq. ft. building, opens as the new home to McCoy College.

In 2005, the Avery Building opens on 101 acres of land donated by the Avery family to TXST. Since then, two more academic buildings have been added to support the College of Health Professions.

Today, the Round Rock Campus is home to a growing number of undergraduate and graduate programs in education, health, business, communications, computer science, and more.

With endowments from Bruce and Gloria Ingram of Ingram ReadyMix Concrete, the Ingram School of Engineering is created. The school’s mission is to serve the State of Texas and the nation by creating highly skilled, diverse, and motivated professionals capable of technological innovation and dedicated to the improvement of society.

In 2018, Ingram Hall, a 166,000-square-foot science and engineering building, opens. Funding for the building was made possible through the combination of a generous donation from the Ingrams and the support of the Texas Legislature.

In spring 2020, for the first time in the university's history, all classes are moved online and all face-to-face activities on TXST campuses are canceled as COVID-19 sweeps across the world. Faculty and staff rally to move hundreds of classes online and support students remotely.

With rigorous safety precautions in place and the hard work and support of the Bobcat community, students, faculty, and staff are able to return to our campuses in fall 2020 and successfully operate throughout the pandemic.

For the first time in TXST’s history, research and development spending exceeds $100 million. Texas State is committed to applied research that matters, and TXST’s faculty and students are creating new knowledge, cultivating tomorrow’s prosperity, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in every discipline.

The university was selected to become the first site in Texas to host a presidential debate. Regrettably, the event, which would have taken place on Sept. 16, 2024, was canceled by the Commission on Presidential Debates. TXST remains optimistic that it will be considered as a host in future election years.