Name: Bouj
Homepage: Bouj Blog
School: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Location: Kingsville, TX
School Colors: Royal Blue & Gold
School Mascot: Javelina
Do outsiders “get” your mascot?: It is basically a ferocious horned pig. I will rip this liberally from my school’s website, because they expain it better than I could: “TAMUK is the only college or university in the nation with a javelina as mascot. The word javelina is pronounced hah-vuh-lee-nah, with the accent on the third syllable.”
School Fight Song: Our fight song is “Jalisco”. It is an old Mexican folk song that was first played at the then-named Texas A&I football game. It was named an official fight song in 1969.
Traditions: Although it has been around for 82 years, TAMUK hasn’t gotten bogged down in a bunch of silly traditions like the College Station bunch. We throw tortillas at football games, the school lights the tower at College Hall after big wins, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Geographical Features: Kingsville is located on the flat arid land just west of the Texas Gulf Coast southwest of Corpus Christi. There is nothing extraordinary about the geography except the lack thereof.
Architectural Features: Most of the buildings on campus are built with old-Spanish style architecture that harkens back to the beginning of the 20th Century. Tan brick buildings are covered with red tile roofs.
Notable Alumni: Gene Upshaw (Hall of Famer and current NFLPA head), Darrell Green (future NFL Hall of Famer), Al Harris (Green Bay DB), Eva Longoria (actress, “Desperate Houswives”), Lt. Gen Ricardo Sanchez, US Army
Anything else we need to know?: It’s a small school (6,200 students, & we compete in NCAA Division II), but we are a national power in football. It is one of the only schools in the US that offers a degree in Natural Gas Engineering, and the first school to offer a graduate degree in Bilingual Education. TAMUK is the oldest continuously operating public institution of higher learning in South Texas. It has operated under several names, but was most widely-known as Texas A&I.
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As former Javelina John Randle used to say on Monday Night Football intros: “Still Texas A&I!”
[...] finally, College Rule Notebook has caught sight of the elusive Javelina. I’m going to send Jim in to wrestle the beast while I sit in the Land Rover and drink [...]
You can’t spell J-A-V-E-L-I-N-A-S without A & I!
TEXAS A&I University will live forever!
The name needs to come back!
A&I!
There are way too many TEXAS A&M’s…