Individual Events – About the Team

The Texas Forensic Union Individual Events Team was founded in August of 1988 at the direction of Dr. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Chair of the Department of Speech Communication. Initially, graduate students John Bosma, Dave Fowler, and Peter Pober were assigned coaching duties for the team, with Peter serving as Administrative Director. Additionally, Tracy Anderson and Kent Wayson volunteered their time to coach the program, and served as Co-Directors from 1988-1992. Then graduate student Martin “Randy” Cox took over as administrative director for the 1991-92 academic year, sharing the position with Pober during the 1992-93 academic year. Beginning in the Fall of 1993, the position of Director of Individual Events was created at the Lecturer’s level, and Peter Pober was appointed to that position. The position was held by Pober until his departure to George Mason University in the Spring of 2003. Randy Cox was appointed at that time and continues to serve as the Director.

Sponsored by the University of Texas College of Communication and the College of Liberal Arts, and housed in the Department of Communication Studies, the Individual Events Team became one of only three programs in the history of the American Forensic Association to place in the top twenty in only its first year of existence.

Since that first year, the program has maintained a level of excellence and professionalism marking the Individual Events Team as one of the premier competitive programs in the country.

In the years 1988-2007, the team was ranked first overall on four occasions and second on nine occasions, producing 26 individual National Championships. The team has been recognized every year since 1993, along with the UT Debate program, as the American Forensic Association's Top Program in Speech and Debate (sharing that title with George Mason University in 1998).

The Individual Events Team is composed of approximately 15-25 students representing nearly every college at the University. Students compete in events ranging from interpretation of dramatic and literary texts, to memorized speeches to persuade, inform, and analyze communicative events, to limited preparation speeches dealing with philosophy and current events.

To qualify an event for the national tournament, each student must place in that event at three separate tournaments with a cumulative ranking of no more than eight, and each student may compete in as many as six events. For this reason, the team travels to about eight tournaments each semester.

During other weekends, the entire team participates in fundraisers, such as judging high school speech tournaments. Open auditions are held at the beginning of the Fall semester. For more information, ask for the Director of Individual Events, Randy Cox, at 471-1957 or mrcox@mail.utexas.edu.