Kingsville · Kleberg County · Public · Official site
Texas campuses and the stories they hold.
About the campus
Kingsville's civic leaders won a state normal school in 1917, but World War I delayed its opening until June 1925. Under first president R. B. Cousins the campus took on a Spanish Mission Revival look, with red tile roofs, towers, and curved parapets, and the school chose the javelina as its mascot. This walk covers the historical marker and the administration tower, a regional museum in the old dining hall, a 1930s home economics house, the library archives, and the stadium where the Javelinas built a small-college football dynasty.
About this site
Texas A&M University–Kingsville is a public college or university in Kingsville, Kleberg County.
The site sits at 27.5229, -97.8795 near Kingsville. The nearest cataloged historic site is Texas A&M University-Kingsville (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include John E Conner Museum, South Texas Archives, and Kleberg, Robert J., Public Library.
The Texas Legislature authorized a South Texas normal school in 1917, but World War I put the plan on hold; after lawmakers revived it in 1923, a locating board picked Kingsville, and the school opened in June 1925 as South Texas State Teachers College under president Robert B. Cousins. Just four years later the school widened its mission beyond teacher preparation and became the Texas College of Arts and Industries, a name generations of South Texans shortened to 'Texas A&I.' Programs in engineering, agriculture and business followed, and by 1946 the campus had gas-engineering laboratories that reflected the region's energy economy. The college became Texas A&I University in 1967, joined the University System of South Texas in 1977, entered the Texas A&M University System in 1989 and adopted the name Texas A&M University–Kingsville in 1993. Along the way it created the country's first doctoral program in bilingual education, founded the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute in 1981, and built a serpentarium that anchors the National Natural Toxins Research Center. When the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy welcomed students in 2006, South Texas gained its first professional school of any kind below San Antonio. Commonly described as the oldest continuously operating public university in South Texas, the R2 institution marked its centennial in 2025 and serves a majority-Hispanic student body.
The campus tower lit in blue and gold after a victory, with the javelina statue in front. Photo: Matthew W. Jackson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy building (2008). Photo: Ccchhhrrriiisss (talk), Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsJames C. Jernigan Library. Photo: Ccchhhrrriiisss (talk), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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