Athletic department seeks opinions on changing TexAnn to Texan 

By Lorynne Benavides— 

Sports Editor 

The Tarleton State University Athletic Department recently issued an anonymous survey to random female student-athletes, seeking their opinions on the athletic department’s female mascot, the TexAnn. 

The results were in favor of changing the name from TexAnn to Texan, the current male mascot, by 77 votes. Eleven votes were for keeping the original name TexAnn, and 10 answered with no opinion.  

“I said, ‘We would like a survey of your opinion on the mascot of the athletic department. Write down on a paper ‘Texan’ or ‘TexAnn’, or if you don’t care, write ‘don’t care’’,” said Nate Bural, Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Communications.  

Bural says the administrators within the athletic department who decided to issue the survey want to remain anonymous because “at this point, it is just data collection.”  

“Well, considering that you guys (Texan News) are trying to make something out of nothing, we’re trying to stay anonymous so that way you don’t print inaccurate information,” Bural said.  

When Texan News first spoke to Bural regarding the survey, he said the only reason the survey was issued was to collect data for the athletic department to have. However, he later said a student-athlete came to the athletic department on several occasions asking why the name TexAnn was used for female student-athletes.  

“The reason behind the survey came when a female student-athlete asked why we had two team names. We wanted to take an anonymous survey of our student-athletes to see where our female student-athletes stood on the matter. We have collected the data and will keep it in mind, but there are currently no plans whatsoever to remove the TexAnn name.”  

“We love the name TexAnns,” Bural said. “It’s got a rich history here at Tarleton State University.”  

Regarding the results of the survey, Bural says the athletic department has opinions they are unwilling to share at this time. He said the athletic department plans to do nothing with the results of the survey.