Baylor: Oldest University in Texas
Near Waco, Texas
Baylor University has the unusual distinction of being founded before Texas was a state. Republic President Anson Jones signed the charter on February first, eighteen forty-five, making it the oldest continuously operating university in Texas. It was started by Texas Baptists at Independence, about eighty miles east of Waco, and its first class of twenty-four students met in eighteen forty-six.
The school relocated to Waco in eighteen eighty-six. The athletic program dates to eighteen ninety-nine, when the Bears played their first football game. Baylor joined the Southwest Conference as a founding member in nineteen fourteen, then moved to the Big Twelve in nineteen ninety-six.
In recent years the football program won an outright Big Twelve title in twenty thirteen under head coach Art Briles, shared the title with Texas Christian University in twenty fourteen also under Briles, then won it outright again in twenty twenty-one under head coach Dave Aranda. McLane Stadium on the Brazos River opened in twenty fourteen, putting the campus right at the water's edge.
