The UTRGV Department of Intercollegiate Athletics is creating a Vaquero-branded barbecue sauce, officials said Wednesday during an interview.
The flavor will be a smoked serrano barbecue sauce in honor of the Rio Grande Valley’s culture.
Partnering with the university to create the sauce is Lamar Jones, owner of The Jank Gourmet BBQ Sauce.
Jones, who moved to the Valley from Florida, has owned his business since 2009 and his products are available in H-E-B stores.
He said he is happy with the product being made in partnership with UTRGV.
“I definitely am a fan of what we were able to create,” Jones said. “Across the board, we got some really great feedback and response for what we were able to create.”
Sara Hernandez, associate athletic director for marketing and strategic initiatives, said Jones was involved with UTRGV in more ways than one.
“I think something really cool about Lamar … is that he is very involved with our university, with our school of business,” Hernandez said. “He helps, he works with a class so that they come up with a project every year for him. He’s done a lot with our university. So he’s involved in more ways than one, so that’s really meaningful.”
Seth Jones, chief of staff and associate athletic director for Revenue Generation, said Lamar Jones included a class to help participate in a survey to find out which flavors would generate the most interest.
“Lamar did partner with a college of business class to actually do a full survey on what they would want to see in a barbecue sauce,” he said. “It’s actually how we landed on the flavor. That smoked serrano that we landed on was one of the top options from that class and we were able to make a decision to move forward from there.”
Hernandez praised the effort that Jones took when first choosing the sauce flavor.
“Kudos to Lamar because he actually went out and … the top three or four, he went and made them,” she said. “He wasn’t just like, ‘Oh, what flavor do we like better?’ No, he brought us four different BBQ sauces. … He’s done a tremendous amount of legwork to get to this point.”
Lamar Jones said the label is a collaboration between the two entities that did a good job at differentiating both UTRGV and The Jank brands.
“We together kind of came up with what the final label is going to look like,” he said. “So it’s a collaboration that does a great job of … keeping the brand integrity … for both products. … The label does an exceptional job of bringing the two together in the collaboration and partnership. I think it’s going to be exciting to get it out there and see the reaction from folks.”
The sauce does not have an exact release or availability date, but Athletics hopes to have it in a few months.
There is also not a specific set of locations where it will be available.
“Working through all the channels right now, you know, immediately some things that obviously make sense to us, working with our campus stores and getting it here on campus,” Seth Jones said. “Luckily, Lamar has been around a long time in the barbecue sauce scene. His products are sold, I believe it’s close to 200 H-E-B’s … He’s got some tremendous connections and, obviously, we’ll have to work with him on getting into the market and make sure we’re distributing in the right locations.”
Hernandez said the barbecue sauce is further evidence of how much interest the community has in UTRGV as the products have intentional connections to the Valley.
“We’re just really excited to be able to have that kind of impact in products that our students and our community can feel proud of,” she said.
