The Ultimate Texas Southmost College - American History Information Guide and Reference

Texas Southmost College was established in 1926 under the name of The Junior College of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and admitted its first class on September 21st. of that year. The school was orginally a subsidary of the local school district in Brownsville. The college which has always been located in Brownsville, Texas since its inception. The college from 1928 to 1948 was housed with the Brownsville High School and Elementary Schools on Palm Boulevard between Washington St. and Jefferson St. Despite hard times in from the Great Depression the college continued to maintain nominal levels of enrollment. The name of the college would change in 1931 to Brownsville Junior College than again to Texas Southmost College in 1950. During World War II enrollment dwindled with the number of graduates halfed from 1943-1945. This changed in 1948 city of Brownsville acquired the lands owned by the decommissioned army base known as Fort Brown which was closed in 1944. In 1948 the college had enrollment of around 1,250 students, their own campus and a generous budget talks started within the district about creating a separate district for the college. It was decided that the new district would cover Southern Cameron County. In 1950 on the silver anniversary of the college the Brownsville Independent School District handed over the deed to the college to the newly formed Southmost Union Junior College District. The Texas Southmost College athletics program was flourishing in the 1950's the school had football, basketball, boxing and track teams many of these teams won accalades for their performance. Unfotunately in the mid to late 60's the TSC athletic program experienced a great decline and many competitive programs did not survive into the 70's. The 1960's despite declining competitive sports programs, actually saw the college gain a research center. This research center's name is Rancho Del Cielo, located 300 miles south of Brownsville, in Mexico, this few acre research center has abundant plant life and rainforset life conditions. In 1973 Texas Southmost College received its first Bachelor's degree programs and Graduate courses cooperating with Pan American University now known as University of Texas-Pan American, this Unviersity is located in Edinburg, Texas. This created the entity known as Pan American University at Brownsville which worked independently from Texas Southmost College. In the late 1980s Pan American University created a partnership with the University of Texas System and the entity in Brownsville became known as The University of Texas Pan American at Brownsville. Texas Southmost College and The University of Texas-Pan American at Brownsville combined their educational functions as The University of Texas at Brownsville on September 1, 1991. This created the University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College. Since 1991 UTB/TSC has continued to grow boasting over 10,000 students. On November 2, 2004 Voters in the Texas Southmost College district voted yes to a 68 million dollar bond package so the College could do a number of building projects.