Lean, fierce, and unmistakably ready for a fight—the Texas State University SuperCat logo is all aggression and attitude: piercing eyes locked forward, ears pinned back, and a jaw set like it already knows it's going to win. It's the kind of mark that looks at home on a helmet, a flag, or the side of a building. That's no accident. It was designed that way, with intention, by a man who understood exactly what a winning athletics program needs to project to the world.
The Origin Story of Texas State University’s Iconic SuperCat Logo
Bobcat alum Brad Monk’s conception of the SuperCat logo in 2003 created an enduring symbol for TXST Athletics.
That man was the late Brad Monk—a true Bobcat in every sense, and the artist behind one of TXST’s most enduring brand icons.
Brad's roots at TXST ran deep. When he graduated from San Antonio's John Marshall High School in 1993, he had planned to stay in the city for college. Instead, he chose to serve his country first, enlisting in the U.S. Navy, where he trained and served as a nuclear machinist.
"When he got out of the Navy, he used his GI Bill to start at Texas State—but it was still Southwest Texas then," said his mother, Mary Monk.
It was a move that would change his life and Texas State. It was in San Marcos that Brad met fellow Bobcat Abby Feuerbacher, who would become Abby Monk a few years later.
"We were living in the same apartment complex," Abby said. "I was graduating, and he was just getting started."
Brad had been drawing practically since he could hold a pencil. His parents, Kevin and Mary Monk, remember a kid who was never without a sketchbook and never without ideas for things he wanted to create.
"Always," Mary Monk recalled. "He was always drawing, making something."
That creative restlessness never left him. Abby recalled him mapping out an entire comic book universe set at Southwest Texas State, populated with original characters he'd named—"Academia," "Upgrade," "Bibliotech," "Legacy"—a whole world built from imagination and ink.
When the Athletics Department needed a new logo to carry the program into a new era as SWT became Texas State University, Brad was ready. He took on the challenge as he was completing his bachelor of arts in graphic design in 2003, part of the last class to graduate under the Southwest Texas State name. The result was the SuperCat: angular, kinetic, and deliberately menacing.
Abby said the attitude in the logo was entirely on purpose. "That's what you need for football. Something a little threatening—not our cute little Bobby Cat for the kids, and he designed a lot of those, too."
The timing couldn't have been more significant. The SuperCat didn't just mark a new logo, it also marked a new identity, arriving alongside the school's name change and foreshadowing its rise to NCAA Division I in 2012.
"Brad's vision in 2003 came at a pivotal time for our institution, helping define a bold new identity as we transitioned from Southwest Texas to TXST," Athletics Director Don Coryell said.
Brad's curiosity carried him in many directions. He spent several years working in construction. His time working with builders, particularly those making home décor out of stone, sparked a new passion.
"Being around the masonry work is what got him interested in geology," Kevin Monk said. "That's when he went back for his second degree."
Brad returned to San Marcos in 2009, earning a bachelor of science in geography and environmental studies with a minor in geology in 2011, and launching a new career as an environmental investigator for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Throughout the years, no matter where life and work took him across the state, Brad never lost his connection to the logo he'd created or the community that had adopted it. One moment stood out above all others.
"When we went back for Bobcat Bonanza in 2016, getting out on that new field and the logo was everywhere, and we were walking on it—that was cool," said Abby, whose surname is now Gevara. "That was the first time we'd been out on the field with it."
When Brad Monk passed away in 2019, Bobcat Athletics supported the family by making a fitting personal tribute to his legacy.
"When he passed, we had T-shirts made in memory of him,” Abby said. “We superimposed his signature with the logo he created, for all of his friends and family. We're so grateful the school let us do that."
Brad’s legacy lives on every time the SuperCat takes the field. The mark is—as legendary TXST coach Oscar Strahan once said of the bobcat itself—the embodiment of a competitor who "will fight you with everything he has: with four claws, teeth, speed, and brains."
More than two decades after Brad first put pen to paper to create SuperCat, that spirit is woven into the fabric of TXST Athletics—resonating with students, alumni, fans, and supporters across the state and nation. As the program now steps into its next great chapter in the Pac-12 Conference, the SuperCat will carry that legacy to the biggest national stage in school history.
For the Monk family, every glimpse of that logo is something more than a brand mark. It's Brad.
"We'll be very proud, because he was very proud of it," Mary Monk said. "And I have to say, every time I see it on a T-shirt, I say, 'That's my son. My son designed that.’”