By Rhea Choudhary | Staff Writer, Savannah Ford | Broadcast Reporter
Baylor turned 181 years old on Sunday, but its traditions and character remain timeless.
LTVN’s Savannah Ford brings us more on this story.
The milestone birthday furthers Baylor’s history as Texas’ oldest continuously operating university, as well as the generations of students whose lives have been influenced by the institution since its founding in 1845.
Chartered by the Republic of Texas, Baylor was founded with a mission that extended beyond academics alone, according to Dr. Elizabeth Rivera, university archivist and associate librarian.
“In 1845, Judge Baylor and several other people worked together to create a place that welcomed students not just for their academic needs, but to see them as a whole person,” Rivera said. “That includes their spiritual growth, their faith and how they grow as leaders in the world.”
Rivera described that the founding vision continues to guide the university today using its enduring motto, Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana, Pro Mundo — for the church, for Texas, for the world. She also said the university archives are significant in helping students understand how they fit into Baylor’s long history.
“University archives help students understand that they’re a part of something bigger than themselves, bigger than a single moment in time,” Rivera said. “When students see themselves reflected in Baylor’s history, it strengthens their identity, their sense of belonging and their connection to the university and to one another.”
The archives, she said, preserve the stories of students, faculty and staff who have passed through Baylor, allowing future generations to see where they came from, along with where they might go.
“When you really want to know the story, you always need to come back to the archive,” Rivera said. “You need to understand the past and where you’ve been to see where you currently are and where you need to grow and go in the future.”
Those stories often appear in everyday objects, Rivera said, including student scrapbooks, photographs and memorabilia that document campus life across decades.
“One of the things that stands out to me most is the scrapbooks from past students,” Rivera said. “It’s important that students see themselves today in the archive as much as they see those who came before them.”
Rivera explained those materials convey a consistent sense of pride and connection among Baylor students, something she noticed immediately upon arriving on campus.
“One of the first things I noticed about Baylor was how many students wear Baylor paraphernalia,” Rivera said. “That’s unusual at most other schools. People feel connected here, and they wear that connection.”
For many students, that sense of belonging is instinctively shared, regardless of whether they know all the details of Baylor’s history. Cape Town, South Africa, senior Christian Greener said Baylor’s traditions are a major part of what makes the university feel like home.
“Being a part of Baylor’s history sounds so cool,” Greener said. “If Baylor stopped having its traditions, in a lot of ways, it would cease to be the Baylor that it is today. That is where so much of Baylor’s character comes from.”
Among Baylor’s traditions, Rivera said some are celebratory, while others are important moments of reflection, such as the annual Immortal Ten remembrance held during a Baylor men’s basketball game.
“That chair on the court reminds you that this person was here,” Rivera said. “It’s no longer just a chair. It becomes a physical presence that tells a story.”
Rivera said traditions such as those are what make Baylor’s identity what it is not through spectacle, but through consistency.
“Sometimes what you do regularly shapes who you are more than the big events,” Rivera said. “What you continue doing demonstrates what you care most deeply about.”
For Greener, the continuity between past and present has defined his Baylor experience over the past four years.
“For me, the familial aspect is what stood out,” Greener said. “It felt like a family before I even showed up. When I had first toured this school, I immediately could see Jesus in everyone at this campus.”
As Baylor celebrates 181 years, Rivera said the university’s story still has much more to be added to it, with the addition of each new generation that passes through its classrooms, traditions and archives.
“Once you are connected to Baylor, you are always a Baylor Bear,” Rivera said.
