Texas Longhorns

The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and are now the official "large animal" of the state of Texas. Generally, both the men's and women's teams are referred to as the Longhorns, and the mascot is a Texas Longhorn steer named Bevo. The Longhorns have consistently been ranked as the biggest brand in collegiate athletics, in both department size and breadth of appeal. The Longhorn nickname had begun appearing in Texas newspapers by 1900. The University of Texas at Austin is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. It offers a wide variety of varsity and intramural sports programs, and was selected as "America's Best Sports College" in a 2002 analysis by Sports Illustrated. Texas was also listed as the number one Collegiate Licensing Company client from 2005 to 2013 in regards to the amount of annual trademark royalties received from the sales of its fan merchandise. Until Athletic Director Chris Del Conte altered the organizational structure of the athletic department in 2017, Texas was the only remaining NCAA Division I school to operate separate men's and women's athletic departments, after the other remaining holdout, the University of Tennessee, merged its men's and women's athletic departments at the end of the 2011–12 academic year.