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.
