The clock was ticking down over the summer to an Aug. 30 kickoff on the sports websites of the nascent UTRGV Vaqueros football program.

A “T-minus” ticker was going until a Saturday evening kickoff under the summer lights of a converted soccer stadium in Edinburg. It was the UTRGV Vaqueros versus the Sul Ross State Lobos in the first ever college football game in Rio Grande Valley history. It was a game that culminated a long process that began in November 2021. That’s when UTRGV students approved a referendum to increase the athletic fee to fund football and add the program to the university’s athletic portfolio.

From there, the work began to hire a head football coach and form a staff to begin recruiting players. A stadium needed to be found as did a conference to play in, and logos and uniforms designed to represent the orange-themed Vaqueros.

The anticipation of it all led to a sold-out venue on a late August evening at Robert & Janet Vacker Stadium. No matter the outcome of that inaugural game, UTRGV President Guy Bailey said the university and the region it serves would never be the same. 

“This will transform everything,” Bailey said before the Sul Ross game. “Having a college football program will transform how people see the institution.”

History Of High School Football

The launch of UTRGV football comes in a region steeped deep in its love for the game.

High schools in the Valley have been playing football games since the early 1900s. Many of the old rivalries that endured for decades such as McHi versus Edinburg or the Los Fresnos-Port Isabel Battle of Highway 100 are now distant memories. The Valley has grown way past one high-school towns and the rivalries that once gripped communities on Friday nights. 

There is still some high school football intensity in the RGV. The Battle of the Arroyo pitting Harlingen High and San Benito still packs the house when the two teams play every season. Inner city rivalries such as Harlingen versus Harlingen South do the same. The over 100 years of high school football provide a sturdy foundation for the launch of college football in the region.

“We know they love their football in the Valley,” said Travis Bush, UTRGV’s head football coach, whose father Bruce was a head coach at high schools in the PSJA school district and in Donna. “And now they have a Division 1 (college football program) in their backyard. It has been phenomenal to watch. The excitement has continued to grow.”

Homegrown Talent

Having a college football program will give Valley athletes a new pathway to playing the sport at a higher level. There are 12 Valley players on UTRGV’s first football roster. One of them is quarterback Eddie Lee Marburger from Sharyland Pioneer High School. He transferred from UT-San Antonio for his senior year of college ball and was considered a likely starter for the inaugural game. 

“Being part of history is always a cool moment,” Marburger said in a television interview. “I had other offers, but this is where I wanted to be. Coach Bush’s main thing was to come home, and it’s big for me and my family, for my grandparents, to be able to see me play.”

Ready To Play

The Vaqueros will play in a Southland Conference that is full of Texas schools.

Some of the notable Southland schools are Incarnate Word of San Antonio, Lamar from Beaumont and Stephen F. Austin of Nacogdoches. There are also three Louisiana universities in the SLC – McNeese, Nicholls and Southeastern. The league is a Division 1 Football Championship Subdivision conference and one step down from the mega-college programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision, which include schools like the University of Texas and Texas A&M.

UTRGV’s roster is predominately made up of Texans with lots of freshmen and sophomores and a few upper-class transfers such as QB Marburger. The young Vaqueros may take their lumps in a Southland with well-established football programs and rosters that are loaded with juniors and seniors. No matter, the Vaqueros were ready to finally start playing real games after months of practice.

“The community has been amazing,” said Oscar Nnanna, a redshirt freshman defensive back from Cypress, a Houston suburb. “We feel like we’re doing this for the 956 and the Valley.”