{"id":448436,"date":"2026-09-26T12:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T12:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/448436\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T12:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T12:04:07","slug":"texas-rodeo-community-mourns-alejandra-franco-after-thursday-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/448436\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas rodeo community mourns Alejandra Franco after Thursday incident"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">WACO, Texas (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kwtx.com\/2026\/09\/25\/tarleton-state-rodeo-team-member-alejandra-franco-killed-rodeo-event-alpine-texas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.kwtx.com\/2026\/09\/25\/tarleton-state-rodeo-team-member-alejandra-franco-killed-rodeo-event-alpine-texas\/\">KWTX<\/a>\/Gray News) &#8211; The Texas rodeo community is mourning a member of the Tarleton State University team who died during an event on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Alejandra Franco, a Tarleton State University student-athlete, died from injuries <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SulRossState\/posts\/pfbid0oSRDWTiFgH2bV5T4M8CcKyNBXD8urx5jNGhhPz5rTFNUBnavbzB98hZweHQQ1viul\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SulRossState\/posts\/pfbid0oSRDWTiFgH2bV5T4M8CcKyNBXD8urx5jNGhhPz5rTFNUBnavbzB98hZweHQQ1viul\">she sustained while performing<\/a> at the S.A.L.E. Arena in Alpine, according to Sul Ross State University, which hosted the event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Tarleton State University, located in Stephenville, also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/tarletonrodeo\/p\/DdtpniWuZbx\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/tarletonrodeo\/p\/DdtpniWuZbx\/\">identified Franco<\/a> as the rodeo team member who died during the event.<\/p>\n<p>University president remembers Franco<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Tarleton State University President James Hurley described Franco as a \u201ccherished\u201d student-athlete who \u201ctouched so many lives through her friendly smile, leadership, kindness and the love she shared with those around her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cAlejandra tragically lost her life yesterday, leaving behind a lasting impact on everyone who had the privilege of knowing her,\u201d Tarleton State University said in a statement shared on social media.<\/p>\n<p>Tribute planned for rodeo weekend<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To honor Franco, purple ribbons will be provided at the S.A.L.E. Arena gate for the remainder of the weekend rodeo event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cPlease feel free to take one and wear it throughout rodeo weekend, or WEAR PURPLE to show our love and support,\u201d Sul Ross State University shared in its statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Franco celebrated her birthday a month ago. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/tarletonrodeo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/tarletonrodeo\">Tarleton State University rodeo team<\/a> shared a happy birthday post on its social media accounts on Aug. 25.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">No further information has been released.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 KWTX via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WACO, Texas (KWTX\/Gray News) &#8211; The Texas rodeo community is mourning a member of the Tarleton State University&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[154478,6795,154480,8510,154481,154477,154479,154482,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-448436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-alejandra-franco","tag-rodeo","tag-s-a-l-e-arena-alpine","tag-state","tag-sul-ross-state-university-rodeo","tag-tarleton","tag-tarleton-state-rodeo-death","tag-tarleton-state-university-student-athlete","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}