Tarleton State athlete Alejandra Franco dies after rodeo accident

Alejandra Franco, a 20-year-old Tarleton State University rodeo athlete, died Thursday night of injuries she suffered while competing at the 81st Annual Sul Ross State University Rodeo at the S.A.L.E. Arena in Alpine, Texas.

Franco was in the roping box with her horse when the accident happened, Tarleton State head rodeo coach Mark Eakin told WFAA. She competed in breakaway roping. The university has not released additional details about what led to the accident, and officials have not described the injuries she sustained.

Sul Ross State University, the far West Texas school that hosted the rodeo on its Alpine campus, announced the death Friday in a Facebook post. The university did not say how Franco was injured. The Tarleton State Rodeo Team confirmed her death the same day on Instagram, and Tarleton State President James Hurley posted his own tribute.

What the coach described

A roping box is a fenced-off area of a rodeo arena where a horse and rider wait before chasing a calf or steer.

Eakin's account places Franco and her horse there at the moment she was hurt, and what followed has not been addressed in the statements either university has issued.

SRSU Rodeo is deeply saddened to announce that a Tarleton State University athlete has passed from injuries sustained during the performance at the S.A.L.E. Arena Thursday night

Eakin, in a statement released by Tarleton State, said the program was heartbroken and called Franco, known as Ale, a tremendous person and an outstanding competitor. He described her as a cherished member of the university and a leader on campus.

Ale's legacy at Tarleton State will live on through her memory and all the lives she's impacted. Our team will compete at the highest level in her honor, and we know she will be in our hearts forever.

The S.A.L.E. Arena is a lighted, covered venue on the Sul Ross campus in Alpine. It was completely rebuilt in 2020, with modernized stock handling pens and team horse stalls, according to Sul Ross. Thursday night's performance was part of the 81st edition of the school's annual rodeo, run under the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association.

The rodeo continued

Sul Ross State said the weekend's events would continue as scheduled in Franco's honor and that counselors would be present to support athletes. The school said its hearts were with her family, team and community. The statement was posted by SRSU Rodeo on Facebook.

Sul Ross said the SRSU Rodeo Exes and Alumni would hand out purple ribbons at the arena gate on Friday and Saturday night, and asked people to wear purple, Tarleton State's color.

Eakin confirmed that his team had decided to keep competing at the highest level in Franco's memory. Tarleton State, based in Stephenville, was among the programs entered in the Alpine rodeo, CBS News Texas reported.

An announcer at the rodeo told the crowd, in a line WFAA reported, that if one of them hurts, they all hurt.

The National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association said its thoughts and prayers were with Franco's family, friends, teammates, Tarleton State University and the entire Lone Star Region, and that the rodeo community was mourning alongside all who knew and loved her. The association called it an incredibly difficult time. The Sul Ross rodeo is part of the Lone Star Region, the same region as Tarleton State.

A mentor in Stephenville

Hurley, the Tarleton State president, said in his post that Franco was a cherished member of the university's Tarleton Transition Mentor program and that she represented the school on the rodeo stage. He called her a true Texan and said she touched many lives through her smile and the love she shared. The impact she made on her Texan family, he wrote, would never be forgotten.

The Tarleton State Rodeo Team's Instagram post said Franco had tragically lost her life the previous day, leaving behind a lasting impact on everyone who had the privilege of knowing her. The team asked people to keep her family, friends and teammates in their thoughts and prayers.

NTD reported that the team's post had drawn more than 10,000 likes and nearly 300 comments by Saturday afternoon and that Hurley's post had nearly 10,000 likes. Commenters described Franco as a kindhearted person and as a genuine and true friend, and said the rodeo community was heartbroken.

Her father's Facebook letter

Alejandro Franco, who identified himself as Alejandra's father, wrote a letter on Facebook calling his daughter his light and the happiest and kindest person he knew. He wrote that she was his everything and the joy of every day, that he was proud to be her father, and that he did not know how to go on without her. He promised to honor her by living the way she lived.

From Mexico to Tarleton

Franco was from Mexico and had competed with Escaramuza Charra El Gran Chaparral before she rode for Tarleton State. El Gran Chaparral is a women's equestrian team, according to commstrader. Tarleton State had marked her birthday with a post on its social channels on August 25, weeks before her death.

Tarleton State is based in Stephenville, roughly 70 miles southwest of Fort Worth. Its rodeo program has won 37 national championship titles, according to the university.

Sul Ross State is recognized as the birthplace of collegiate rodeo, the campus where the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association was founded in 1949.

Officials have not released details about what happened during the performance or the injuries Franco sustained, CBS News Texas reported Friday, and the broadcaster said it would publish updates as more information became available. Sul Ross said only that a Tarleton State athlete had died of injuries sustained during Thursday night's performance, and none of the statements from the two universities identified an agency reviewing the accident.

Counseling on both campuses

Tarleton State told students grieving Franco's death to contact Student Counseling Services at 254-968-9044, a line CBS News Texas reported is monitored 24 hours a day at no cost.

Grief counselors were stationed at the S.A.L.E. Arena for competing student-athletes, Hoodline reported. Franco's former escaramuza team in Mexico posted its own message of sorrow on Instagram, commstrader reported.