Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi occupies Ward Island on the Texas coast, a former naval radar-training site. It opened in 1947 as the Baptist-affiliated University of Corpus Christi. After Hurricane Celia damaged the campus in 1970, plans for a public institution led to the opening of Texas A&I University at Corpus Christi in September 1973. The institution became Corpus Christi State University in 1977 and joined the Texas A&M University System in 1989. Its present name dates from 1993. Admission of first- and second-year students in 1994 completed its transition from an upper-level institution to a four-year university. The campus on Ward Island opened in 1947 as the private University of Corpus Christi, run by the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Hurricane Celia wrecked it in 1970 and the school, short of money from the start, asked the legislature for help; the state took it over as a branch of Texas A&I, then as Corpus Christi State University, and it reached its present name on joining the Texas A&M System in 1989.