UTSA's first Rowdy, Tony Gonzalez, hatches from an egg during the university's first NCAA event in Nov. 1981.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Sombrilla Magazine, Spring 2013.
Oct. 11, 2019 — Before there was Rowdy, there was simply the roadrunner. And rallying the fans at UTSA’s first basketball game in 1981 from inside the stuffy bird suit was Antonio Gonzalez III, UTSA’s first mascot.
Getting the role for Gonzalez happened quite by accident. A check of his business administration degree requirements during his senior year revealed that Gonzalez still needed one semester of physical education to graduate. “I decided to take gymnastics,” the self-described class clown says. “I didn’t know at the time, but our instructor was going to be in charge of the cheerleaders and the mascot. One day she called me over and said, ‘I want you to try out for the mascot.’”
When Gonzalez asked what he would have to do, his instructor didn’t mince words. “She said, ‘I just want you to behave on the basketball court the way you do in my class,’” Gonzalez says. He followed that advice at tryouts and won the mascot role over a handful of other hopefuls.
⇒ Read the rest of this story and relive other memories from UTSA’s history as we celebrate UTSA’s 50th anniversary year.
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Día en la Sombrilla, formerly Fiesta UTSA, is a festival hosted each spring as a part of Fiesta® San Antonio events. Sponsored by Roadrunner Productions, the event features music, food, confetti, games, event t-shirts, and more.
Sombrilla Plaza, Main CampusCovidence is a systematic & scoping review tool used to streamline the process of screening and reviewing articles. Using this software, research teams can easily import studies, perform automatic deduplication, and extract data using templates. This workshop will show attendees how to start a review in Covidence, add collaborators, and get started on screening.
Virtual (Zoom)In this workshop, attendees will be introduced to Pandas, a Python tool for working with data easily. It makes it simple to organize and analyze information when data is organized and categorized, like spreadsheets or tables.
Group Spot B, John Peace LibraryEach fall and spring semester, students convene at the Main Campus at UTSA with booths, ideas and prototypes. A crowd of judges, local organizations, students, faculty and sponsors walk around and talk to the students about their projects and ask questions. Students get the real-life experience of "pitching" their project with hopes of getting funding or support to move to the next level.
UTSA Convocation Center, Main CampusJoin the doctoral candidates for the Doctoral Conferreal Ceremony and celebrate their accomplishments.
Arts Building Recital Hall, Main CampusCelebrate the graduates from the Carlos Alvarez College of Business, College of Education and Human Development, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design and University College.
AlamodomeCelebrate the graduates from the College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Liberal and Fine Arts and College of Sciences.
AlamodomeThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
