Friday, March 10th, 2017, will mark nearly one hundred years since a telegram arrived in Commerce indicating that the Texas legislature had voted to purchase the town's college from it's founder, William L. Mayo. (The date was March 14, 1917.)
Texas A&M University-Commerce Vice President for Public Relations and Community Engagement, Noah Nelson, shared that Mayo's "Lions" may have existed prior to 1917, but the milestone here is one hundred years as a state institution. And the lion mascot represents the commonality that binds the students, alumni, faculty, staff, and community from each iteration of the institution over the years.
A website has been created to support the occasion which also houses the imagery associated with a banner project that is on display along the walking mall that runs east to west on the Commerce campus.