Houston Baptist College was created by action of the Baptist General Convention of Texas on November 15, 1960, culminating many years of work and study. The aim of our founders was to establish a Christian college of the highest order in the city of Houston that stressed quality of life as well as quality of learning.
 
In 1952, the Union Baptist Association authorized a committee to study the possibility of locating a Baptist college in Houston. With the assistance and encouragement of the Education Commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, the committee conducted a survey in 1955. Acting upon information obtained with the endorsement of the Education Commission, the Association approved the concept of establishing a new college. In 1956, the Executive Board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas agreed to support such a college when the College Committee of Union Baptist Association had succeeded in acquiring both (1) a satisfactory site for a campus of at least one hundred acres, and (2) a minimum corpus of at least three million dollars. Of this sum, one and a half million dollars would constitute a nucleus endowment fund; one and a half million dollars would be designated for a physical plant. The Union Baptist Association accepted these conditions and endorsed the requirements set up by the state Baptist convention.