Texas Blazers

The Texas Blazers is a men's honorary service organization at The University of Texas at Austin. The organization was founded September 7, 1994, on the patio of the Texas Union by a group of men desiring to create an organization on campus committed to a more “hands-on” approach to service. Members are distinguished for their active leadership roles on campus and within the UT community. The organizational pillars are: commitment to campus spirit and traditions, service, scholarship. The organization is led by an elected Chairman and ten other executive board members. The organization is known for selecting members holding prominent roles within student politics and leadership positions within similar spirit groups on campus. The Texas Blazers' sister organization is the Orange Jackets, an accomplished group of women who also serve as official hosts for the university during on-campus events and conferences. The Texas Blazers is one of the nine original spirit groups within the Texas Roundtable.

Texas Blazers' Logo

Purpose

The Texas Blazers have stated that the purpose of the organization is to:

1. Support the greater Austin community through service.
2. Uphold and promote the spirit and traditions of The University of Texas.
3. Serve The University of Texas and campus community by exhibiting campus leadership while maintaining high standards of academic excellence.

History

The Texas Blazers was founded September 7, 1994, on the patio of the Texas Union by a group of men who wanted to create an organization committed to a “hands-on” approach to service that included high standards of academics, leadership, and spirited support of the University. The founders also desired the Texas Blazers to be an organization that was a strong representation of the student body in order to better serve the University. These student leaders came from various student organizations across campus to perform service for the UT and Austin communities. Finally, the founding members desired an organization free of hazing and other activities unbecoming of a quality student organization.

In fall 2020, they chose to degender their language to better reflect their membership on campus and combat queerphobia and connected forms of oppression. Changes included referring to new members as “Ember”, older members as “Member”, replacing “Chairman” with “Chair”, and replacing the term “brotherhood” with “community”.

Awards

In 1994, UT recognized the Texas Blazers with the “Most Outstanding Service Organization” award at the UT Swing-Out Awards. In 2003, the Texas Blazers were named the “Most Outstanding Organization” at the UT Swing-Out Awards.

In 2007, the Texas Blazers created the “Texas Blazers Endowed Scholarship” at The University of Texas.

Honors and awards

• 1994 Swing Out award as UT's “Best Service Organization"
• 2003 Swing Out award as UT's “Best Service Organization"
• 2009 Swing Out Award as UT's "Best Service Organization"
• 2014 Swing Out award as UT's “Best Service Organization"
• 2014 Tower Award for "Outstanding Student Organization"
• 2014 Eastside Memorial High School’s Official Business Partner of the year
• 2015 Tower Award for "Most Outstanding Student Organization"
• 2015 Tower Award for "Outstanding Service Project"
• 2015 Swing Out Award as UT's "Best Spirit Organization"
• 2015 Swing Out Award as UT's "Best Organizational Ethics"
• 2015 Swing Out Award as UT's "Most Outstanding Organization"
• 2016 Swing Out Award as UT's "Best Service Organization"
• 2016 Swing Out Award as UT's "Best Organizational Ethics"
• 2017 Swing Out Award as UT's "Best Spirit Organization"

Past Texas Blazers Chairs

Year	Chair
1994–1995	Paul Massingill and Robert Bleaker
1995–1996	Paul Massingill and Robert Bleaker
1996–1997	Shaarik "Rik" Zafar and Michael Danziger
1997–1998	Jeff Rouse and Chris Crear
1998–1999	Matthew McConaughey
1999–2000	Landon Duyka
2000–2001	Tim Rybacki
2001–2002	Brian Wisnoski
2002–2003	Nolan Fields
2003–2004	Tommy Vanelli
2004–2005	Chaitanya Indukuri
2005–2006	Matthew Tabbert
2006–2007	Andrew Limmer
2007–2008	David Yount
2008–2009	Cody Cheek
2009–2010	Reese Mathieu
2010–2011	Christopher Fox
2011–2012	James Limmer
2012–2013	Jake Alford
2013-2014	Thomas Pigeon
2014-2015	Neal Makkar
2015-2016	Lee Alford
2016-2017	Sam Karnes
2017-2018	Gregory Ross
2018-2019	Seth Krasne
2019-2020	Alan Shaw
2020-2021	Billy Li
2021-2022	Nikola Skerl
2022-2023	Nick Acevedo
2023-2024	Gabe Rocha-Pérez and Andrew Pham

External links

• Blazers Website
• Blazers Documentary Website