The Tarleton State University women’s athletic teams will no longer be named the TexAnns. On November 11, 2018, a resolution (H-18 Minutes 11-7-18) proposed by the Student Government Association Athletics’ Congresswoman Mackenzie Hailey, Madeline Oliver and Hannah Hyde to change the name TexAnns to Texans passed unanimously. Hailey, Oliver and Hyde are the sponsors for the bill. Hailey and Hyde play for the women’s basketball team and Oliver is the Head Manager for women’s basketball team.

Tarleton’s athletic nickname hasn’t changed since 1968.  According to the Tarleton website, the term TexAnns was adopted as a feminized version of Texans. Hailey explained that originally the name change was also because of the fact that the women’s team wanted something which separated them due to the women’s team outperforming the men’s team and low attendance at the women’s games.

“We wrote a bill that stated that we wanted to change from TexAnn to Texans. One, we said cause that’s not a real word,” Hailey said. “Two, if you go any other student on campus who’s not a female athlete and ask them what our mascot is, they’re a Texan. But if you ask one of us we’re a TexAnn. So that kind of separates us from the rest of the student body, so we wrote a bill asking to change it.”

Over the course of the year that the SGA Congresswoman were working on the bill, they researched and talked to the coaches, alumni, donors, students and players.

“I called alumni and asked if we were to change the name, would the donations stop and everyone was for it. I asked all the coaches again, I asked everyone else again and we all agreed it was time for change, “Hailey said. “We considered the cost, cause in in Wisdom Gym they have TexAnn written a lot. But the gym gets redone every year basically, so it wouldn’t be too big of a cost,”

They wrote the piece saying that wanted it to be just Texans and from there it will go to administration and they will take care of the nuts and bolts of it,“ said Tayler Berlin, Tarleton student body vice-president. “With congress and SGA, the congressperson’s job is to talk to constituents and find ideas for change they would like to see on campus and that’s what these three women did. They saw that there was a need for this change and with them being a part of athletics, they wanted the change, too.”

The resolution was approved by the administration and the change is coming. However, with the 2018-19 athletic season still underway, the change from TexAnn to Texan is expected to be in August, 2019.