Стивен Ф. Остин штаттық университеті: Техас тарихы мен жетістіктері

Public university in Nacogdoches, Texas

Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU or SFA) is a public university in Nacogdoches, Texas. It was founded as a teachers' college in 1923 and subsequently renamed after one of Texas's founding fathers, Stephen F. Austin. Its campus resides on part of the homestead of Thomas Jefferson Rusk. On May 11, 2023, the university joined the University of Texas System; it was previously one of two public universities in the state not affiliated with one of Texas's seven university systems. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. Though the university is located in the rural East Texas college town of Nacogdoches, the vast majority of SFA students come from Greater Houston, the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and other cities throughout Texas. SFA has also served students from 46 states outside Texas and 42 countries outside the United States. The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks are members of the Western Athletic Conference and compete in Division I for all varsity sports. The Lumberjacks football team competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision. The Lumberjacks basketball team has made five appearances in the NCAA Division I Tournament, with two upset first round wins in 2014 and 2016.

In addition to the main campus which encompasses 430 acres, the university maintains a agricultural research center for beef, poultry, and swine production and an equine center; an observatory for astronomy research, a 2,650 acre experimental forest in southwestern Nacogdoches County and a forestry field station on the Sam Rayburn Reservoir. SFA has purple lights visible on top of the tallest buildings on campus, Steen Hall. A purple light also is illuminated in the Student Center clock tower.

In tribute to the forestry industry, which is a major component of the area's economy, the men's athletic teams are called Lumberjacks, and women's teams are known as Ladyjacks. Lumberjacks name was chosen in 1923, when T. E. Ferguson, a professor of English at SFA, submitted name to the students and faculty assembly. The choice was made given the university's location in the Piney Woods, where forestry and timber products are a major part of the area's economy. They lost 59–44 to Syracuse. In their second appearance in 2014, they upset VCU in overtime, 77–75. In their third appearance in 2016, they upset 3rd seeded West Virginia 70–56. In the second round against 6th seeded Notre Dame they lost 77–76 on a buzzer beater by Notre Dame's Rex Pflueger. On November 26, 2019, in arguably the biggest upset in NCAA Division I basketball in 15 years, SFA upset #1 ranked Duke in overtime by a score of 85–83. This was the first home game against a nonconference opponent that Duke had lost in the Blue Devils' past 150 home games. In 2020, the athletic department of Stephen F. Austin was found by the NCAA to have had several administrative errors in reporting the grades of the student athletes from 2013 to 2019, which resulted in the university having academically ineligible players to be on rosters. As a result, the SFA's football, men and women's basketball teams victories from this time span (including the 2016 men's basketball team win over WVU and the Southland Conference titles from 2014 to 2018) had to be vacated. In July 2021, SFA joined the Western Athletic Conference. SFA houses three sports outside the WAC—football in the UAC; beach volleyball (a women only NCAA sport) in the Sun Belt Conference; and bowling (another women only sport) in Conference USA, which absorbed SFA's former bowling home of the Southland Bowling League after the 2022–23 season.