FORT WORTH — It's been 75 years since Texas Wesleyan University had a football team. Its final season was 1941, when the team traded in their football uniforms for fatigues, as they went off to war.
But on Wednesday, that decades-long famine came to an end.
"I am proud to announce Texas Wesleyan is bringing back football," said the school's president, Fred Slabach.
The big news came at a campus event Wednesday where administration fielded questions about logistics.
"We hope to have a coach in place in the next couple of weeks," said athletic director Steve Trachier, who added that some of the coaching candidates have NFL experience.
Once a coach is in place, the school will start by recruiting 75 athletes, who will spend the next school year training. They'll begin games against other NAIA football teams in the fall of 2017.
Trachier said the squad will eventually grow to 125 players, with the chance for scholarships.
Many of those players will come from the North Texas high school gridiron.
Chris Roberts, head football coach at Fort Worth's Polytechnic High School (just down the road from Texas Wesleyan), said he could see some of his players taking advantage of proximity.
"An opportunity for these kids to maybe be closer to home, to play college football, is great," he said, adding he can see some of his own players joining the team.
"There are a lot of great high school athletes out there that currently don’t have an opportunity to play in college, and were going to be looking for the best of that talent pool," Slabach said.
He hopes the team will be able to play games on the Rosedale Street campus "as soon as possible." In the meantime, the team will practice and play at other local fields. Specifics are not yet set.
Student athlete Chier Ajou cheered news of the school's football plans. "It would be great!" he said.
Even in February, that fall football feeling is in the air in southeast Fort Worth.