On the Sunday evening of September 22, 1929 Dr. Cousins was strolling on the campus when he saw approaching him one of the three Javelinas that were considered the school’s mascot. The three were named Baby, Frank and Joe. Joe was the largest and it was he who approached Dr. Cousins that evening. The Javelinas typically roamed the campus and were not generally a threat. On this evening Joe did attack the President who in trying to defend himself shook the Javelina by the nose until they were both tired and went their separate ways. Dr. Cousins went home to clean up his wounds. Mrs. Cousins grew quite alarmed and had the faculty capture Joe, cut off his head and sent it to Austin to determine if Joe was rabid.  Indeed it was rabid and Dr. Cousins was forced to go through the dreaded rabies shots. When the little President returned to the campus the faculty and students felt they should change the mascot for fear it would have bad memories for their beloved president. But, Dr. Cousins said that this only proved that the Javelina was truly our symbol. For the javelina is a pack animal, loyal to his group and his land. He will not fight unless his group or his home territory is threatened. This was so of Joe and he fought to the death. To Dr. Cousins this was the symbol that stood for the character of the students at this school.

     From the beginning the school had faced a problem with housing and by the early 1930s the problem was critical. There was no state funding available due to the Great Depression,  so PWA money was sought and won to build the first dorms on campus. Another fortunate event was that a little known administrative aide to Congress Richard Kleberg was then interested in returning to Texas to establish his own political reputation. Lyndon Baines Johnson thought he should become president of  TCAI to establish his own reputation, then seek office. He did not ultimately become president, instead he became Texas director for the NYA program, but, he did help us gain some of those NYA funds to finance student education and provide funds for students and faculty to build cooperative housing on the campus.  The school provided the land, NYA provided some funds, and the students provided some funds, and a lot of labor to build the college housing under the supervision and direction of the faculty.

1930-1941