Friday, October 2, 2009

Hullaballoo, GO HOGS! GO HOGS!

My friend Trent over at The South Endzone got me going on the Arkansas-Texas A&M game this weekend.  Trent is a young fart (an old-fart-in-training, as it were); he was 10 the last time Arkansas played in the SWC.  Trent’s thesis:  he likes the game; likes the money (!), likes the prestige---doesn’t give a “hoot” about the “rivalry”.


I'm one of the old farts, so I remember playing (and beating) the Gagmes, and I've spent my time at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas (one of the old SWC's 3 -count 'em- 3 versions of Starkville---College Station, Waco, and Lubbock, specifically---listening to the "Yells" and all the rest.

The best-ever Aggie game, I’ve already described in my War Memorial Stadium post, since that’s where it occurred. 

Quoting: 

…Arkansas was taking on the #2 ranked Texas A&M Aggies; it was the ABC College Football Game of the Week (hard to believe now, but you only got ONE).  The announcing team was headed by the immortal Keith Jackson (the real one, not the current color guy on Arkansas’ Radio broadcasts).  Anticipation was running high in the entire college football fan world on that game.

We Baylor Arkies proudly decked ourselves out in cardinal from head to toe (with Uncle Heavy’s natch) and proceeded to the TV room at Penland Hall (one TV per floor).  We taught those Baylor boys how to Call the Hogs that day.

ABC cut to a live shot from the Goodyear Blimp, while Keith Jackson did the voiceover:

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR MEMORIAL STADIUM LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS!!!!!  WHERE FRANK BROYLES’ ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS ARE TAKING ON THE #2 RANKED AGGIES OF TEXAS A&M!!!!  Hello, everybody, I’m Keith Jackson….”

The game was a bit lackluster until Scott Bull hit a streaking Teddy Barnes for the go-ahead touchdown (Frank Broyles, in his next-to-last season as Head Coach, called him “The Immortal Teddy Barnes”).  Arkansas went on to win the game; it was the last game of the season; A&M was unbeaten until then, with a probable National Championship in the making; Arkansas went on to beat Georgia in the Cotton Bowl (Frank Broyles’ last as Head Coach).  It was a GREAT MOMENT IN RAZORBACK HISTORY.


>>o<<

Actually, the Aggies are nice if eccentric folk. They have their share of drunk assholes, but so do we. They're fun to tweak (go stand on their "sacred grass" and see what kind of reaction you get from the nearest CT--that's "Corps Turd".

Herewith, for Trent, Nathan, and my other younger friends, is a partial listing of Aggie terminology:

neidermeyer2 CT:

Corps Turd.  Texas A&M used to be an all-male military school (until the 60’s, in fact).  Their traditions stem from all-male military school traditions, and  the keepers of the flame are the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets.  Their members are referred to (by us normal humans) as Corps Turds, CT’s.  (Privately, many of them refer to themselves this way).  Most of them are good ol boys and girls, trying to get along in the world, very conservative, frequently from small Texas towns.  There are a few, however, whose boots are just a bit shinier; uniforms just a little more snappy; voices pitched just a bit higher.  The best movie example of a CT (though not from A&M) was the character of Neidermeyer from “Animal House” (above).

The Aggie War Hymn:

There’s a great story about the Aggie War Hymn; supposedly written by an Aggie, in the trenches in World War I, thinking of his Aggie days.  The Aggies take the War Hymn seriously.  They all sing it, loudly, in 4 part harmony.  It is played by the…

Fightin’ Aggie Band:

The Texas A&M Aggie Band is my favourite band in college football.  They are everything a band should be.  They do not do a lot of showtunes.  Their members do not aspire to a career on Broadway, or Vegas, or Hollywood.   They march up and down the field in tight formations playing march music.  Their lines are crisp.  Their music is good.  They do not play “Salutes to 8-Track” or “Big Smith”, a la the Arkansas Band (what a joke…) or *Broadway!* like the Baylor Golden Wave (what a joke…).  They do one thing and they do it very, very well.

Here they are, doing the Aggie War Hymn at Kyle Field.

The 12th Man:

aggie love In the early days of Aggie football, coach Dana X. Bible was running short on players (this was in the leather helmet days, and broken bones were not uncommon in every game).  He grabbed a big student out of the crowd, dressed him in a borrowed uniform, and had him on the sidelines, ready to go into the game if needed.  He wasn’t, but now the entire Aggie student body stands during the entire game, symbolically ready to go into the action should the coach need them.  The 12th man, as it were.  Sometimes, their emotions just overcome them…

Yells, and Humping It:

aggie yell leaders humpit Aggies do not “cheer”.  They “Yell”.  They have this big, elaborate “Yell Practice” the night before games, where they rehearse the “Yells” for the next day.  Kyle Field (about 80,000) is half-full every night before a game for Yell Practice.  It’s a great excuse for a party, great excuse to get drunk and take the girl or guy (see above) of your choice to the Yell practice; you can guess where that leads…

Aggies “hump it”.  Not sure what this is about, but it involves standing with hands on knees.  Here are the Aggie Yell leaders and team “humping it”.  Let us hope they don’t mean poor….

Reveille:

The A&M Mascot is Reveille, usually a female collie dog.  Reveille is a General in the Corps of Cadets and is, in fact, the highest ranking officer; her collar has 5 diamonds signifying her rank.  Should she be in the barracks (where she lives) and selects a cadet’s bed on which to sleep, that cadet sleeps on the floor while she occupies the bed.  If she wanders into a classroom and barks, the class is instantly cancelled.  As a dog lover, I consider all of this to be just normal activity and as it should be.

Sacred Grass:

When I was a freshman at Baylah (Baylor and A&M have a “thing”---they used to be fierce rivals, Baylor’s #1 rival and A&M’s #2 rival, and violence was a frequent part of their games and the days leading up to them; Baylor has a tradition of the freshmen barricading and guarding the campus with axe handles the night before the A&M game; I had mine a long time---you put Baylah stickers all over it and shellac it, then frame it on your wall…), the game was at Kyle Field.  On the A&M campus, there is a statue of Sul Ross (first President) on a lawn of beautiful, perfect grass.  We strolled up to get a closer look at the statue.  We were immediately accosted by a CT (see illustrations above) screaming at us (remarkably similarly to Neidermeyer above) that we were infringing on “Sacred Grass” and that we needed to –effectively- get the HELL off it.  We didn’t know. It looked like grass to us.  (A side note:  I have no personal knowledge of how Sully’s nose got painted green.  Is that prosecutable after 30 years?  That’s another old Baylor/A&M tradition:  Sully’s nose gets painted green; Rufus C. Burleson (on the Baylor Campus) has his nose painted maroon and white.).

I’ll close this small glossary with the words of the Aggie War Hymn:

Hullabaloo, Caneck, Caneck

Hullabaloo, Caneck, Caneck

Good bye to texas university

So long to the orange and the white

Good luck to dear old Texas Aggies

They are the boys who show the real old fight

"the eyes of Texas are upon you"

That is the song they sing so well

Sounds Like Hell

So good bye to texas university

We're gonna beat you all to…

Chigaroogarem , Chigaroogarem

Rough, Tough, Real stuff, Texas A&M

Saw varsity's horns off

Saw varsity's horns off

Saw varsity's horns off

Short! A!

Varsity's horns are sawed off

Varsity's horns are sawed off

Varsity's horns are sawed off

Short! A!

WHOOP!

Oh, one more:  “WHOOP!” 

Don’t know how that one got started, but the Aggies Whoop randomly and together as a group.  It’s similar to us screaming “WOO PIG!” at each other when we see each other.  I think.

>>o<<

But honestly, and speaking as an old fart: I'm right there with Trent. I used to miss the old SWC. Now I look back on it as a fond memory, but one I'm not keen to repeat. I'd much rather beat Auburn than A&M, Bama than texass u (spit), or even Vandy rather than Baylor (my own alma mater). The Hogs have been in the SEC a long time now. The SWC: RIP.

It's great to have a high-visibility game in Dallas, Texas on national television with an old foe, now a cross-conference thing. We've needed something like this and frankly, so has A&M. It's good for both schools in a metro area where texass u (spit) and chokela-u (spit) compete for recruits, and the second-pickings go to Texas Tech, SMU, TCU, and Baylor.

So, Hogs, go to Dallas, collect your paycheck, enjoy the fun of Big D, get us some good recruits, BEAT THE HELL OUT OF THE AGS…and then go home and get ready for the rest of the real season.

3 comments:

  1. I liked it and learned something as I am too much of a newbie to know all the A&M junk. Thanks, from Cerdo

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  2. Great, great read, Nick. Thanks for the lesson! I still don't give a whit about the Aggies, but at least now I can say that I know more about them than Oregon :)

    Seriously, fantastic job as always.

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