University Interscholastic League

TTU UIL Forms & Documents

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Our Mission

Texas Tech University is proud to serve more than 10,000 students, families, educators and community partners annually through University Interscholastic League (UIL). Established at Texas Tech in the 1930s, UIL offers fall, spring and summer UIL regional and open competitions, workshops and summer camps for public high school students.

Our Vision

UIL was established to create educational extracurricular academic and athletic contests for the Texas high school community. The earliest documentation identifying Texas Technological College as a host of a UIL event was in March 1938 in the “Texas Tech Magazine: Engineering Edition.” Texas Tech has since expanded its support of Texas public high school education by creating a specialized unit. Texas Tech UIL provides high school students with unbiased competitions, quality venues, and promoting partnerships and collaborations with local and regional educators and business establishments.

UIL: A History

The seeds of the UIL were planted in 1904 when Dr. S.E. Mezes, president of The University of Texas, decided the state's foremost university needed to serve the entire state. At the time, it was felt that the university would become elitist and isolated from society unless an outreach program was initiated.

Mezes dispatched William Sutton, dean of the school of education, to visit Wisconsin, which had the nation's premier extension department, offering reference libraries, specialists as lecturers, and other off-campus services. On June 7, 1909, Sutton described the "Wisconsin Plan" to the UT Board of Regents, which promptly allocated funds to create the UT Extension Bureau.

Mezes created the Debating League of Texas High Schools the following year as part of the Extension Bureau. Twenty-eight schools joined the League, which came under the direction of Dr. E.D. Shurter. He also appointed Professor Charles Ramsdell to investigate the need for a high school athletic organization. After talking with public school officials, Professor Ramsdell suggested organizing an Interscholastic Athletic Association. The proposal was approved, and the UIL's two parent organizations, the Debating League of Texas and the Interscholastic Athletic Association, became operational.

In 1913, the Debating League and the Athletic Association merged to form the University Interscholastic League, centered in the Bureau of Public School Services, then a part of The University of Texas Extension Division.

Since 1910, the records and achievements of state high school participants have justified the university's decision to support this public school service program. The UIL has grown into the largest interschool organization in the world and is the envy of similar groups nationwide. The UIL exists to provide educational extracurricular academic, athletic and music contests. The program is so successful that one of every two high school seniors has participated in a UIL event before graduation. The initials "UIL" have come to represent quality educational competition administered by school people on an amateur and equitable basis.

To read more about the history of UIL, visit the  UIL Texas website.

 

For more information related to State UIL Academic, Athletic or Theatre events, please click on the following buttons:

 

For additional information, please contact:

Cory S. Powell, M.A.
Senior Director
cory.powell@ttu.edu