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Aggie Leader Aggie Co-Captains Ready for Battle
Coach Paul “Bear’ Bryant, A&M head coach, smiles with Halfback John Crow and tackle Charlie look like to the Texas Longhorns tomorrow,
anticipation as his “boys” go through contact workouts.. Krueger, Aggie co-captains, demonstrate The senior skippers will lead their team
preparing for the Steers from the 40-acres. what 430 pounds of beef-eating man will mates into the annual classic clash.
BATTALION
Number 56: Volume 57
Published Daily on the Texas A&M College Campus
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1957
Price Five Cents
Spirit-Building Bonfire Gets Torch
In Classic Ceremonies Tonight at 8
By FRED MEURER
Sweat, tear,? and tons of green
trees go up in smoke tonight at 8
when the Fightin’ Texas Aggies
burn their 45th annual bonfire as a
fitting climax to 10 days of hard
)oil.
As the mass of black smoke and
glowing embers roll skyward from
the burning inferno tonight, the
Spirit of Aggieland, fired to an
all-time high, will continue rising
with it.
The 12th Man faced perhaps the
largest setbacks in bonfire histm’y
this year. It overcame them, mak
ing tonight’s blaze so much
more significant.
First of all, rain battered the
cutting area during the past eight
days, turning the woods into a
soggy plain of mud, almost im
possible to work in. Not satisfied
with this, the goddess of ill fortune
pointed a crooked finger at Aggie
land again Saturday at noon when
the bonfire’s center pole broke,
spilling the stack of wood like
gigantic pick-up sticks.
The Aggies showed all their
valor than by rebuilding the stack
within several hours. Tonight, with
their mud-caked fatigues shed in
favor of spotless uniforms, cadets
will look back at their victories
over the weather and the bonfire’s
tumble. A glow of pride will be
tugging at each man’s heart, as
if the “burning desire to beat the
hell outta TU” wasn’t enough to
make it pound within him.
Injuries Few
But this year’s copsti’uction also
saw some good luck. A report
from the college hospital last night
showed only 57 men were treated
for bonfire mishaps. Of these, 41
were cases of poison ivy while
actual injuries were broken down
into 10 sprains and bruises, three
axe cuts, two ca,ses of blisters and
one treatment for foreign objects
in the eye.
Last year’s bonfire caused 106
Aggies to visit the hospital, 73
with poison ivy. Actual injuries
then numbered 27 as compared to
the 16 this year.
Speaking of the comparatively
low number of injuries, head yell
leader Ted Lowe commented: “If
you consider the conditions, it’s a
wonderful record.”
Armon Hewitt, Corps supply of
ficer who headed the safety pi’o-
gram, ( said the injury list was
“definitely an improvement over
last year. Every bit of safety suc
cess was due to the orientation pro
gram conducted the week before
the bonfire.” He added that unit
k...
SB!
• ■ > .
A L.
—-xSctLuaiion toiaii
Empty Today, Full Tomorrow
Empty and drab, the 4,200 seats of Kyle Texas University tomorrow, at 2 p. m. When
Field alone bear witness to the Southwest the whistle blows on the opening kick-off,
Conference Champion Texas Aggies as they however, the seats will be invisible beneath
go through final workouts before meeting a sellout Thanksgiving crowd.
supply sergeants, who served as
safety offices, did “an excellent
job.”
Symbol Burns at 8
The program tonight will be
touched off when the band plays
the “War Hymn” at 8. After this,
the yell leaders will dash to the
stack and toiss their torches into
the oil- and fuel-soaked ,stack. Lowe
estimated a total of 500 gallons of
contaminated J-P-4 jet fuel, do
nated by Bryan Air Force Base,
and waste diesel fuel wall be used
to saturate the wood tomorrow
afternoon.
Following the igniting of the
blaze, an inspired Aggie yell prac
tice will be held on the drill field.
Pinky Downs, the official greeter
of A&M, will give his usual spirit
building spiel between yells.
Lowe will recite the famous
“Last Corps Trip” over a loud
speaker, with music from the band
providing the background. After
41,611 To Witness
Turkey Day Clash
Athletic Department’s ticket of
fice reports 41,611 paid spectators
will view Thursday’s clash between
A&M and the University of Texas.
The game is a complete sell-out
and some 2,400 persons will be seat
ed in special seats around the field.
Thousands of fans unable to get
tickets for the game will be able
to watch the clash on a coast-to-
coast television hook-up.
Weather Today
College Station forecast: increas
ing cloudiness and warmer today;
widely scattered thundershowers
tonight; clearing and cooler to
morrow, with northerly winds over
Kyle Field.
Maximum temperature yester
day was 70 degrees at 2:30 p. m.
This morning at 4:30 the mercury
dipped to a low of 51 degrees.
Relative humidity at 8 a. m. was
89 per cent and the temperature,
56 degrees.
several more yells and the singing
of the “Spirit,” onlookers will go
their ways, leaving the bonfire
burning on the drill field as a
warning to teasips as to what
they’re up against.
The 1957 vei’sion of the bonfire
towers 66 feet into the sky. Lowe
said he didn’t have an accurate
volume measurement on the stack,
but added: “It looks to me as if
it’s bigger than last year, but
that’s an estimated guess.”
“I know it’s bigger as far as ef
fort goes,” he remarked.
The history of the A&M bonfire
is a story in itself. The fipst one
was built on the campus in 1912.
According to Pinky Downs, how
ever, it was just a normal bonfire,
with old crates and brush. (Pro
bably similiar to the one the tea-
sips burned in Austin last night.)
Atom Buster
On Display
Visitors to the campus this af
ternoon, as well as students and
College Station residents, have the
opportunity to see the only non
mil ilary nuclear reactor in the
state in operation.
A&M’s atomic reactor will be on
display to the public until 6:30 to
night in the fifth wing of the me
chanical engineering shop. As a
demonstration of the reactor,
dimes, will be made slightly radio
active for visitors.
The reactor is operated with
such control that the heat it would
generate at its present experiment
al level in a hundred years would
not equal that used by an average
American home in one night. Yet
if its full power was unleashed,
the energy would be incompre
hensible.
The reactor was set up here on
Sept. 1 by the Atomic Energy Com
mission for experimental and re
search training. Its reactions dif
fer from an atomic bomb only in
that they are carefully controlled.
Colorful (dash
Tomorrow At J
By GARY ROLLINS
Battalion Sports Editor
Maroon and Orange will clash tomorrow on the Kyle
Field green in what will be the most colorful game of the
season—the traditional clash of the Texas Aggies and the
University of Texas Longhorns.
On a black Saturday just two short weeks ago, the Ca
dets saw the mighty blue and gray of Rice as they dropped
the first game in their last eighteen by a 7-G score. The
only blemish on their record was a bloody-red smear placed
on the Aggies by the Houston Cougar’s 14-14 tie in 1956.
The Longhorns, in their last outing, smeared TCU’s
indigo in Memorial Stadium by a 14-2 margin. They also
possess the captured colors of Arkansas’ Cardinal Red; the
red-faced Rice Owls’ Blue and Southern Methodist’s Deep
Red and Royal Blue—not to mention a swatch of cloth from
Baylor’s Kelly Green.
Thirteen Aggie seniors will don the Maroon and White
for the last time tomorrow, with the royal purple of the
conference championship robe being offered the victor.
Last year, the Cadets “did it up brown” by soundly
thumping the Steers for the first time in their own Me
morial Stadium. Of course, everyone painted the town red.
However, with the Longhorns rising from the depths
of the cellar—where tfiey were placed in pre-season pre
dictions—the conference is wondering “where the yellow
went” that symbolized TU’s expected playing prowess. These
Steers are anything but “yellow.”
The green years have come and gone for both A&M and
Texas, but now both teams see red as they bid for Cotton
White. Rice has something to say in the bartering for
honors, however, for they will receive the bid to the Cotton
Bowl by defeating Baylor’s Green.
Lady Luck will have her chance to paint pastel pinks,
for she plays the artist’s role in every Turkey Day tilt.
It’s a shame television is black-and-white.
The starting lineups:
A&M
LE Bobby Marks, No. 88
LT Charley Krueger, No. 78
LG Jim Stanley, No. 60
C John Gilbert, No. 54
RG Darrell Brown, No. 67
RT Kenneth Beck, No. 72
RE
QB
LH
RH
FB
Texas Univ
Maurice Doke, No. 81
J. T. Seaholm, No. 79
Don Wilson, No. 62
Louis Del Homme, No. 50
Robert E. Lee, No. 53
Garland Kennon, No. 76
Monte Lee, No. 86
Walter Fondren, No. 24
George Blanch, No. 41
Max Alvis, No. 25
Mike Dowdle, No. 33
Don Smith, No. 81
Roddy Osborne, No. 12
John David Crow, No. 44
Loyd Taylor, No. 45
Richard Gay, No. 30
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-Battalion Staff Photo
Going Up!
A giant crane in the background hoists logs onto the ever
growing bonfire as Aggies rush to add the finishing
touches, trying to make it 66 feet high when it burns to
night at 8. l
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—Battalion Staff Photo
Drill Field Spirit
One of the many outfit signs lining the border of the.,
drill field depicts the spirit of married Corps students.
The signs show the spirit felt deep in the heart of every
Aggie.