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For those that don't know, a mildly derogatory term in Texas for the University of Houston is "Cougar High". I believe it refers to the fact that after four years of high school, so many Houstonians continue their education at the University of Houston. It's just four more years with the same faces you've seen all your life. Nothing's changed. The term isn't used as much as it was 30 years ago, maybe due to the growth of the university.
I see no need to use the term if you see any Houston fans on Saturday. I detest insulting opposing fans unless they become absolutely insufferable (cough*West Virginia*cough). I just thought I'd give some background on who we're playing this week since I live in Texas and have dealt with alumni from all of the old Southwest Conference schools.
More background ... everyone in Texas acknowledges that Texas and Texas A&M are the #1 and #2 public schools in the state. The fight for #3 is between Texas Tech, Houston, and North Texas. Tech probably has the inside track, but Houston has some arguments in their favor.
Actual research.
"Cougar High"
If you're not one to insult opposing fans, then why bring it up? The derogatory term comes from the fact that UH began as a Junior College in 1927; it was in the early 1930s that they became a university. I guess for the last 80+ years, no one could think of anything better...? (Well SMU did call us the "Coogroes", I'll let you break that one down yourselves...)
Texas Schools
There are four major universities in the state of Texas: University of Houston (UH), Texas Tech (Tech), University of Texas - Austin (UT) , and Texas A&M (AM). North Texas University isn't on anyone's radar. UT and AM are the two largest institutions in Texas, not because of natural growth but because of an exclusive pool of money called Permanent University of Funds (PUF). Back in the day, TX legislature amended the TX constitution so that UT-System and AM-System exclusively receive income from oil royalties and tax revenues, which to this day has generated over $15 billion. Public universities such as Tech-System and UH-System don't have access to these funds, so the growth of the schools have been considerably slower. Tech and UH have access to another educational fund, but the payout is MUCH MUCH MUCH less.
Deregulating the PUF is brought up almost every year, but the TX political system is ridiculously influenced by UT and AM.
*System Schools are those with a main campus and then satellite schools in other cities. UT - 14, AM - 11, UH - 3, Tech - 2. PUF money is distributed to their system schools as well, but keep in mind though PUF was available to UT and AM before they even had system schools set up and alot of the UT and AM system schools are in a poor state of affairs, especially those that serve minority communities because of the poor distribution of funds.
South West Conference (SWC)
Football is king in TX and is fiercely protected.
UH did well in recruiting black athletes (one of the first schools to integrate sports) and was seeing alot of success on the field. UT and AM noticed this and invited UH to the SWC to gain exposure in Houston and black athletes. UH dominated the SWC in the early years, but recruiting scandals came out affecting almost all SWC schools. Even though UT and AM were culprits, TX politics protected them and very little was done to them while UH got hit hard, the hardest of course was SMU.
Fast forward to the dissolution of the SWC... As the SWC died, the Big 12 (B12) was forming. There were only two spots available with four schools in the running: UH, Tech, TCU, and Baylor. Governor Anne Richards, a Baylor alum, and Lt. Governor Bob Bullock, a Tech alum, politically threatened UT and AM to accept Baylor and Tech and did. UH was then relegated to Conference USA.
I hope that helps.
GO COOGS!
