Odessa College is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

junior college A junior college (sometimes referred to colloquially as a juco, JuCo or JC) is a post-secondary educational institution offering vocational training designed to prepare students for either skilled trades and technical occupations and workers in su ...

Odessa, Texas Odessa is a city in and the county seat of Ector County, Texas, United States. It is located primarily in Ector County, although a small section of the city extends into Midland County. Odessa's population was 114,428 at the 2020 census, mak ...

. The college serves the people of

Ector County Ector County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In the 2020 census, its population was 165,171. Its county seat is Odessa. The county was founded in 1887 and organized in 1891. It is named for Mathew Ector, a Confederate genera ...

and the Permian Basin. It was established in 1946 and enrolle
8,024 students
in Fall 2021 and 7,679 students in Spring 2022 in its university-parallel and occupational/technical courses, and 11,000 students annually in its Basic Education, Continuing Education, and Community Recreation courses.

History

Odessa College was founded in 1946 as Odessa Junior College. The college dropped "Junior" from its name around 1976. As defined by the

Texas Legislature The Texas Legislature is the state legislature of the US state of Texas. It is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The state legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin. It is a powerful ...

, the official service area of Odessa College is the following: *all of Andrews, Brewster, Crane, Culberson, Jeff Davis, Loving,

Presidio A presidio ( en, jail, fortification) was a fortified base established by the Spanish Empire around between 16th century, 16th and 18th century, 18th centuries in areas in condition of their control or influence. The presidios of Captaincy Genera ...

Reeves Reeves may refer to: People * Reeves (surname) * B. Reeves Eason (1886–1956), American director, actor and screenwriter * Reeves Nelson (born 1991), American basketball player Places ;Ireland * Reeves, County Kildare, townland in County K ...

, Upton,

Ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

, and

Winkler Winkler may refer to: * Winkler (surname), people with the surname ''Winkler'' or ''Winckler'' * Winkler scale, also known as the heat summation scale for classifying climates * Winkler (crater), a crater on the Moon * 6473 Winkler, an asteroid * ...

counties, and the

Seminole Independent School District Seminole Independent School District is a public school district based in Seminole, Texas (USA). In 2009, the school district was rated "academically acceptable" by the Texas Education Agency The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is the branch o ...

, located in Gaines County. The Pecos Technical Training Center is an extension of Odessa College, located at 1000 S. Eddy St,

Pecos, Texas Pecos ( ) is the largest city in and the county seat of Reeves County, Texas, Reeves County, Texas, United States. It is in the valley on the west bank of the Pecos River at the eastern edge of the Chihuahuan Desert, in the Trans-Pecos region of W ...

. It first opened its doors in the summer of 1999. Odessa Junior College was featured in the Supreme Court case ''

Perry v. Sindermann ''Perry v. Sindermann'', 408 U.S. 593 (1972), was a United States Supreme Court decision affecting educational case law involving tenure and due process. Facts Sindermann was a teacher at several schools in the state college system of the State ...

'', 408 U.S. 593 (1972). In 1999, an Odessa doctor and his wife donated a building in Pecos to house the new Pecos Technical Training Center of Odessa College. After renovations to the building made possible by an $860,000

Economic Development Administration The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that provides grants and technical assistance to economically distressed communities in order to generate new employment, help retain exist ...

grant, the center now houses administrative and faculty offices, technical and vocational learning labs and a student lounge. The new center enables Odessa College to improve and expand its long-established extension education program in Pecos. In 2011, Odessa College, along with Frank Phillips College in

Borger Borger may refer to: *Borger (name), a surname and given name *Borger, Netherlands *Borger, Texas, U.S. See also * * Boorger * Börger * Borge (disambiguation) * Børge * Burger (disambiguation) Burger or Burgers may refer to: Food and drin ...

Ranger College Ranger College is a public community college in Ranger, Texas. The college's website asserts that it "is one of the oldest public two-year colleges in continuous operation in the state of Texas." In conjunction with its main campus in Ranger, the ...

Ranger A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

, and

Brazosport College Brazosport College (BC) is a public community college in Lake Jackson, Texas. The college was opened in 1968 and offers primarily associate degrees and some bachelor's degrees. The campus features The Clarion, a regional musical performance ven ...

in Lake Jackson were proposed for closure by the State of Texas. The Texas Association of Community Colleges rallied successfully to keep the four institutions open.

Athletics

Odessa College participates in the

Western Junior College Athletic Conference The Western Junior College Athletic Conference (WJCAC) is a junior college athletic conference for many technical and community colleges within the Southwest states of Texas and New Mexico, sponsored by the National Junior College Athletic Associa ...

Conference of the

National Junior College Athletic Association The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), founded in 1938, is the governing association of community college, state college and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 separate regions ...

in multiple sports. To date, the Odessa sports programs have won 46 National Junior College Athletic Association titles, making them the most winning program in the association. 11 sports are currently active: Men's and Women's Basketball, Baseball, Softball, Golf, Rodeo, Men's and Women's Cross Country, Dance, Cheerleaders, and Trainers. In 1970 the women's tennis team won the third national collegiate championship of the

United States Lawn Tennis Association The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, ...

. In the first annual National Junior College Golf Tournament on June 2–5, 1959, Odessa College almost made a complete sweep of the honors with Jerry Lackey winning the individual championship with a score of 290 while Les Howard and Melvin Chisum took home the 1st place trophy in the team competition. In 1968 Gail Sykes won the national intercollegiate individual women's golf championship. During the basketball season, Odessa College broadcasts the men's and women's Western Junior College Athletic Conference road games and the home games with

Midland College Midland College (MC) is a public community college in Midland, Texas. It was established as an independent junior college in 1972 and held its first classes on campus in 1975. Since that time, the campus has expanded to a main campus on in Mi ...

on the radio.

Notable alumni

Abraham Ancer Abraham Ancer (; born 27 February 1991) is a Mexican-American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and is currently playing on the LIV Golf tour. He won the 2018 Emirates Australian Open and the 2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational ...

, professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

er *

Bonner Bolton Bonner Bolton (born June 1, 1987) is an American fashion model and former professional rodeo cowboy who specialized in bull riding. He won the 2007 world championship for the now-defunct Championship Bull Riding (CBR) organization. He also compe ...

Professional Bull Riders The Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (PBR) is an international professional bull riding organization based in Pueblo, Colorado, United States. In the U.S., PBR events have been televised on CBS and CBS Sports Network since 2012. In 2013, the ...

Championship Bull Riding Championship Bull Riding, Inc. (CBR) was a professional bull riding organization that was based in Weatherford, Texas, United States. History Stock contractor Terry Williams and Texas businessman Joel Logan founded Championship Bull Riding (CBR) ...

2007 World Champion,

Dancing with The Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

2017 *

Craig Ehlo Joel Craig Ehlo (; born August 11, 1961) is a retired American basketball player. He played fifteen seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with four teams, amassing career totals of 7,492 points, 2,456 assists and 3,139 rebounds. ...

, professional basketball player * Josh Gray, professional basketball player * Larry Johnson, professional basketball player *

Rich Loiselle Richard Frank Loiselle (born January 12, 1972) is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates over parts of six seasons spanning 1996–2001. Listed at 6' 5", 225 lb ...

, professional baseball player *

Joe Melson Joe Melson (born May 1935) is an American singer and a BMI Award-winning songwriter. Life and career Joe Melson was born in Bonham, Fannin County, Texas, United States. He was reared on a farm until he was sixteen. He attended high school in ...

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

and songwriter *

Ty Murray Ty Monroe Murray (born October 11, 1969), is an American nine-time World Champion professional rodeo cowboy. He was one of the top rodeo contestants in the world from the late 1980s to early 2000s. He is an inductee of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame ...

, seven-time

Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) is the largest rodeo organization in the world. It sanctions events in the United States and Canada, with members from said countries, as well as others. Its championship event is the National F ...

World All-Around Champion; two-time World Bull Riding Champion, co-founder of the

, Dancing with the Stars Season 8,

ProRodeo Hall of Fame The ProRodeo Hall of Fame and Museum of the American Cowboy was opened in August 1979 as a museum designed to "preserve the legacy of the cowboy contests, the heritage and culture of those original competitions, and the champions of the past, pr ...

inductee * Moochie Norris, professional basketball player *

Roy Orbison Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. His music was described by critics as ...

, songwriter and musician * Jim "Razor" Sharp, two-time Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association World Bull Riding Champion, co-founder of the Professional Bull Riders *

Stephnie Weir Stephnie Carmel Weir (born November 28, 1967) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She is best known for being a main cast member and writer on the Fox sketch comedy television series ''Mad TV'' from 2000 to 2005, for which she got two W ...

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

and

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...

Kathy Whitworth Kathrynne Ann Whitworth (September 27, 1939 – December 24, 2022) was an American professional golfer. During her playing career she won 88 LPGA Tour tournaments, more than anyone else on the LPGA or PGA Tours. Whitworth was also a runner-up ...

, professional golfer

References

External links

Official website
{{Coord, 31, 51, 58.0, N, 102, 23, 0.0, W, display=title Odessa, Texas Education in Ector County, Texas Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Community colleges in Texas Buildings and structures in Ector County, Texas Two-year colleges in the United States NJCAA athletics 1946 establishments in Texas