Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Sombrilla Magazine in Spring 2008.
(July 26, 2019) — Twenty years ago a university graphic designer named Tom Palmer was approached by then–Athletics Director Bobby Thompson and Sports Information Director Rick Nixon to come up with a new image and rallying point for the Roadrunners.
Palmer, who still works at UTSA, recalls Thompson’s attending a basketball game and complaining about the “flat roadrunner.” This epithet referred to the official logo from the late ’80s, which was a silhouette of the familiar bird. Thompson felt that an athletics department trying to build its program needed a stronger and more animated symbol.
“He [Thompson] wanted a roadrunner that embodied both strength and fierceness, hence Rowdy’s muscular stride. Thompson was also impressed with the University of Georgia logo, which at the time featured a snarling bulldog. That icon’s striking facial expression reflected the appropriate ‘game face,’ and is exactly what the athletics director wanted his mascot to communicate,” Palmer explains. Three months later Palmer had created the Rowdy we all came to know and love.
>> Read the rest of this story and relive other memories from UTSA’s history as we celebrate UTSA’s 50th Anniversary.
