Eight historical facts about Borregos in 80 years of student sports

Beginning as a football team in 1945, Borregos has become a university sports program that has achieved success not only at the institutional and national levels but also in international competitions such as the Olympic Games.

With 80 years of history, Borregos Athletics is now focused on attracting talented student athletes, producing outstanding graduates, and employing top-level coaches in different disciplines.

Learn more about its history in these eight historical facts.

- How the Borregos were born

Tec de Monterrey formed its first football team for a game against the Autonomous University of Nuevo León (UANL) at Cuauhtémoc y Famosa Park, on November 20, 1945, a date that marked the birth of Borregos as a Tec sports program.

- The origin of the mascot

There are a couple of versions of how the name and mascot of the sport came about at the institution.

It is well known that on their way to their first football game, the players stopped the bus and pooled their money to buy a ram that was grazing with its shepherd on the banks of the Santa Catarina River in Monterrey.

However, its origin is linked to a student vote for a campus mascot, and there are some documents that show the use of a ram previously in student newspapers.

In that sense, it is possible that the students on the bus paid more attention to the ram and wanted to “adopt” it as a mascot (precisely because they may have heard about it previously on campus). 

Therefore, the game on November 20, 1945, marked the beginning of the ram as a sport mascot.

Teus is now the name of Tec de Monterrey’s official ram mascot.
 

- Football: The crown jewel of sports at the Tec

The Tec de Monterrey sports program has excelled in various Olympic and professional disciplines. However, football stands out for its tradition and was the first sports program at the institution.

- Borregos Monterrey, the most successful team

In 1971, the football team from Monterrey added “Salvajes” to their name (becoming the Wild Rams), while the other teams were still simply known as Borregos (Rams). 

In that decade, they won four national championships in the Major League. They won it three more times in the 1980s.

A dynasty began in this sport starting in 1985 with the arrival of coach Frank González at the helm of the Monterrey Borregos Salvajes.

These are the championships that are in the Tec’s American football trophy cabinets:

- Borregos Monterrey: 22 national championships (18 ONEFA and 4 CONADEIP leagues)

*In 2009, they won the Borregos University Championship (an internal tournament between Tec teams organized after leaving ONEFA). 

• Borregos State of Mexico: Three national championships (1996, 2000, and 2003 in the ONEFA leagues)
• Borregos Toluca: Three national championships (1997 in the ONEFA leagues; 2017 and 2018 in CONADEIP).
• Borregos Mexico City: National champion in the ONEFA league in 2000.
• Borregos Laguna: National champion in the ONEFA league in 1992.

- Borregos players in the NFL

Borregos has contributed seven players to teams in the NFL, the American professional league.

Rolando Cantú, former player for Borregos Monterrey, is the only Mexican to have played in a regular season game without having studied at a U.S. university and without being a kicker. He did so in 2005 with the Arizona Cardinals.

Other Borregos who have played in the NFL include Eduardo Castañeda, Manuel Padilla, Antonio Rodríguez, and Ramiro Pruneda. 

In 2020, Isaac Alarcón, defensive lineman, joined the Dallas Cowboys practice squad. He currently plays for the San Francisco 49ers, as does Alfredo Gutiérrez, another former Borregos player.

- Diana Flores, star of world flag football

Diana Flores, quarterback and captain of the women’s flag football team and player for Borregos Santa Fe, has the silver medal from the 2024 World Championships among her achievements, in addition to double gold at the World Games.

Off the field, Diana is an NFL ambassador and starred in a commercial during the 2023 Super Bowl. Flores is president of the players’ committee of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF).

She also became the first flag football player to contribute items to the Pro Football Hall of Fame collection and participated in the torch relay for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Alongside her, Ángela Funes, Andrea Martínez, Victoria Chávez, and Ana Aguayo, players from the Tec community, excelled as part of the team that won back-to-back championships at the 2025 World Games. 

The men’s team also has representatives from the Tec who have excelled internationally. 

Said Ríos and Javier Vivian, students at the Tec’s Mexico City campus, were part of the Mexican flag football team that won gold alongside the United States at the 2025 Panama Continental Championship.

- More sports in which Borregos excel

In team sports, the Hidalgo campus has excelled in basketball in the ABE League with three titles and one runner-up finish. The Borregos Monterrey women’s team is three-time champion of the ABE League’s Big 8, while the Santa Fe campus is the current champion in the men’s division.  

Meanwhile, Karina Esquer, Deyna González, Irais Aguilera, and Anisa Jeffries formed the Monterrey campus women’s basketball team that won the bronze medal at the FISU World University 3x3 Basketball Championship in Xiamen, China.

In addition, Paola Danaé Flores Soto, a member of the Tec de Monterrey Toluca basketball team, won gold in the 3-point shooting competition to become a two-time champion.

What’s more, players such as Israel Gómez and Jonatan Machado were key to qualifying for the 2023 World Basketball Championship, while Ramón Limas, who played for Borregos Toluca, joined Abejas de León in the LNBP.

Monterrey campus has excelled in women’s soccer, currently four-time champions, while the men’s team has won three titles in the last four years, both in the CONADEIP. 

Puebla campus has won the national rugby championship three times. In flag football, the Santa Fe campus stands out with multiple championships.

The Cheer & Dance cheerleading teams from the Mexico City Region have also achieved top rankings in international competitions.

In individual sports, different campuses have achieved first place in swimming, athletics, and table tennis in national competitions. 

The Puebla and San Luis Potosí campuses have excelled internationally in chess.
 

- Borregos: A key part of national teams

Several national teams from Mexico are made up of Borregos athletes.

The disciplines in which the Tec contributes most are track and field, taekwondo, basketball, women’s volleyball, and women’s soccer.

In editions of the World University American Football Championship in which Mexico has been champion, core players and coaches are from the Borregos teams.

 

- Olympic medalists and world-class athletes

Tec athletes have competed in the Olympic Games and international competitions, with some of them winning medals, such as:

- Fernando Platas

A graduate in Business Administration, he won the silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. In 1995, he won the National Sports Award.

- Ismael Hernández Uscanga

A graduate in Economics, he won the bronze medal in the Modern Pentathlon at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

- Luis Rivera

The Tec graduate became the first Mexican in the history of the World Track and Field Championships to win a medal in field events, taking bronze in the long jump.

Luis achieved a distance of 8.27 meters in Moscow in 2013. A year earlier, he represented Mexico at the 2012 London Olympics.

- Horacio de la Vega 

A pentathlete who competed in the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 and in Sydney in 2000. In 1998, he was world champion in his discipline, which earned him the National Sports Award.

- Bibiana Candelas 

She represented Mexico at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and won a silver medal at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara and a bronze medal at the 2007 Rio Games.

- Paola Morán 

Silver medal at the Pan American Games in Lima; gold medal in the individual 400-meter sprint and silver medal in the 4x400 relay at the 2019 World University Games in Naples.

She participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2024 Paris Olympics, reaching the semifinals in Tokyo and breaking the Mexican national record for the 400-meter sprint in 2023.

- Édgar Rivera

The Mexican high jumper holds the Mexican high jump record with 2.31 meters in 2021, and won the gold medal at the Ibero-American Championships in 2022 and 2024.

He is also an Olympic athlete, having competed in Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024. 

- Mike Elizondo

He is one of the few athletes in the world who has participated in both the Summer and Winter Olympics.

Elizondo competed in the 4x100 swimming event at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, while at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville he competed in the bobsled event. 

- Joel Sánchez

A specialist in race walking, he won the bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the 50 km event.

He also competed in the Olympic Games in Seoul (1988) and Barcelona (1992), where he finished 21st in the 20 km event.

- José Maíz 

José Maíz graduated with a degree in civil engineering and participated in the Little League World Series in Williamsport as a teenager.

With the Monterrey team, Maíz became the first non-American to win the title in that world baseball championship.

In 2005, he was inducted into the Williamsport Hall of Excellence (equivalent to the Hall of Fame), becoming the first Latino to achieve this honor. He was also president of the Monterrey Sultanes and was inducted into the Mexican Baseball League Hall of Fame in 2002.

- Marisela Cantú

The Olympic gymnast at Beijing 2008 graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the Monterrey campus.  She represented Mexico in five world championships and in the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in 2010.

She was a medalist at the 2011 and 2017 Pan American Games, as well as at the 2006 and 2009 Central American Games. She was also the champion of the first season of the show Exatlón Estados Unidos.

- Jaime Lomelín

Open water swimmer and chemical engineering graduate Jaime Lomelín achieved the open water “triple crown” awarded by the World Association of Open Water Swimming to those who complete the English Channel, the Catalina Channel (32.5 km) in California, and the Manhattan Island Marathon (48.5 km).

His achievements worldwide in different competitions have earned the Tec graduate a place in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (IMSHOF).

Eight decades of university sports

Emilio Álvarez, Director of Borregos Athletics, said that eight decades later, Borregos is still much more than just a sports program.

“It’s a community that has transformed lives, shaped leaders, and raised the standard of college sports in Mexico.  Celebrating 80 years of Borregos isn’t about looking back, it’s about recognizing how sports have been our common language for building character, discipline, and purpose,” he added.

Beyond sports, those who are part of Borregos Athletics gain skills that will serve them well in life, Álvarez explained.

“College sports are perhaps the most powerful tool for developing lifelong skills: leadership, collaboration, resilience, and a growth mindset.

“Our commitment to the future is to continue using sports as a catalyst for comprehensive development, not only for our student athletes but also for people who positively transform their environment.”

He also shared with CONECTA the essence of Borregos since its inception in 1945 with the football team.

“Leadership that’s born on the field translates into leadership for life. That’s been the essence of Borregos since its inception. 

“Sports teach us that winning with integrity is worth more than any score and that working together, even in adversity, makes us stronger as a community,” he added.

“Celebrating 80 years of Borregos isn’t about looking back; it’s about recognizing how sports have been our common language for building character, discipline, and purpose.” – Emilio Álvarez

“This anniversary belongs to everyone: to the student athletes who have worn our colors, to those who train and compete every day, to the families who support their dreams, and to the coaches and support teams who make it all possible. 

“Being a Borrego doesn’t end with graduation; it’s a way of life. To everyone who has been part of this journey, thank you for keeping our spirit alive,” said the Director of Borregos Athletics.

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