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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 1955)
) Thursday, August 25, 1955 THE BATTALION Page 3 15,000 Sore Feet 12th. Man Backs Team Football History Of A&M College Began in 1893 Aggie Championships By HOWIE CHILD Battalion Staff Writer No freshman edition of The Bat talion would he complete without an explanation of the almost sac red “Twelfth Man” tradition. You Swim S eam Has Chance To Win Title If appearances are any in dication at all, this year’s Ag gie swimming team will be ev en better than the 1954-55 team that was runner-up last year in the Southwest Confei’ence. Two outstanding freestylers, Don Horne and John Spiech, and back- stroker Tommy Devenport have graduated, but coming up from the undefeated freshman team are more-than-adequate replacements. Joining the varsity team will be Jose Merino, who holds the South American record in the 100-meter freestyle, and Tetsuo Okamoto, third-place winner of the 1500-me ter freestyle in the Olympics. Also coming up are breaststrok- ers Bob Barlow, Jerry Mount, Chuck Price and Dudley Caswell; backstroker Ray Cook, and free stylers Jimmy Dye, Joe Middleton and George Ragsdale. Returning fi’om last year’s team are Dick Weick, conference champ in buterfly and individual medley; Norman Ufer, confei’ence back- stroke champion; and Dick Hunk ier, conference champ in 50- and 100-yard freestyle. Breaststrokers Wally Penberthy, Henry Goff, and Billy Bedford, backstroker Wynne Snoots, utility men Gayle Klipple and. Rippy Woodard and divers George Parr and Bruce Martin can also be counted on for points. “We have an exceptionally good team coming up,” said Coach Art Adamson. “There isn’t much depth, but what we do have is very good.” will head about it until the day you graduate, and you might even get pretty sick of it, but as we say, the freshman edition would be in complete without it. It all began one day in January, 1922, in the forerunner of today’s Cotton Bowl Classic at Dallas. Tex as A&M was playing the famous Praying Colonels of Centre Col lege. As the game entered the fourth quarter, the Aggie coach, Dana X. Bible, now athletic director at the University of Texas, saw his light but fast backs being carried one by one off the field. With some time left to play, Bible was down to one backfield substitute. Then he remembered a sophomore back who had been working out with the squad all season, a boy named King Gill with plenty of heart but without the weight and experience. Gill had not been taken to Dallas with the team, but he had gone to the game and was in the stands with the Corps of Cadets. Bible sent a yell leader into the stands to find Gill and to tell him to suit up and join the squad on the bench. Gill did not actually play in the game—as a matter of fact, he didn’t even suit out—but since he was called upon from the stands and was ready, he became the original “Twelfth Man on the Team.” From this simple beginning arose another of the college’s many hallowed traditions, and it is be cause of this small incident that all Aggies’ feet hurt after foot ball games. For each student gets on his feet at the opening kick-off and remains standing through the final whistle, except for a brief rest per iod during half-time, when it is thought that the team can get along without reinforcements. This is supposed to symbolize the read iness of the student body to chai’ge down on the field at any moment, should the eleven men on the grid iron need assistance oi’ replace ment. It has been argued that if the students were actually called upon to help the team, they would be in much better condition if they had been allowed to sit down and rest before coming on the field. The logic of this statement is not to be questioned, but as is usually the case whtn logic and tradition clash, tradition has prevailed. Another suggestion, this one made by a Tired Old Veteran of Many a Football Game, was that the students elect one person each Saturday to serve as The Twelfth Man. This fellow could stand up all afternoon and play like he was a symbol, while the rest of the stu dent body sat down and watched the game. This idea was rejected on the gi’ounds that it was not democratic. The general sentiment was that if one Aggie had sore feet, then all Aggies should have sore feet. Again reason gave way to custom, and tradition prevailed. In fact this tradition has pre vailed so strongly that the school even has an official song about it. It is “The Twelfth Man,” wi’itten by Mrs. Ford Munnerlyn. The gist of the song—you tvill learn the words later, so there is no need to repeat them here—is that no mat ter what happens, the Ags can just grin and bear it, because they are the Twelfth Man on the Fight- in’ Aggie Team. This song is sung after every game that the Aggies lose. By the time you leave A&M you probably will be very familiar with it. A few years ago a new tradition, the “Sixth Man,” was almost born. So many members of the basketball team quit the squad that some feared that the coach would actu ally have to call on replacements from the stands of the coliseum. Fortunately this never happened, but it left many wondering if fu ture Aggies will be able to sit down at anything. The largest crowd ever to see an opener in College Station was 27,000. That was when the Ags played Villanova in 1949. Texas Aggie football history be gan in 1893 when the Maroon and White team was organized, but no out-of-town teams were played. In 1894 the Aggies, then the Farmers, played road games, including the first of traditional battles with the University of Texas Longhorns, then the Varsity. The late Dean Emeritus Charles Puryear, who had joined the fac ulty in 1888, was the first man ager and one of those responsible for football’s being established at the college. Puryear died at his campus home in July, 1940, having lived long enough to see his Aggies win a national championship in 1939. The Aggies played no out-of- town games in 1895, but resumed such a schedule in 1896 and have continued to do so ever since. The Aggies’ first undefeated sea son was 1902, a year in which the Cadets won seven, tied two. A&M was also champion of Texas in 1909 and 1910, but in 1910 thei'e was a 0-5 loss to Arkansas, and TCU held the 1909 machine to a scoi'eless tie. The 1912 team was hailed as “Champion of the South” in spite of a 10-13 loss to Kansas State. A&M was a member of the Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association from the time of its founding until Ags Have Won 4 Of 6 Bowl Gaines The Aggies have won four of the six bowl games in which they have participated. Their victims were Centre College in the Dixie Classic, 1922; Tulane in the Sugar Bowl, 1940; Fordham in the Cot ton Bowl, 1941; and Georgia in the President’s Cup, 1950. In 1942 they lost to Alabama, 29-21, in the Cotton Bowl, and LSU defeated the Ags 19-14 in the Orange Bowl in 1944. the Southwest Athletic Conference was formed in 1914. It is a re maining charter member of that organization along with the Uni versity of Texas, the University of Arkansas, Rice Institute and Baylor University. Texas A&M has won the cham pionship of tTie conference 7% times, taking the title in 1917, 1919, 1921, 1925, 1927, 1939 and 1941. It was co-champion with SMU in 1940. In 1939 the Aggies were rated national champions. That same year they won the Sugar Bowl Classic from Tulane, and on Jan uary 1, 1941, they defeated Ford- ham in the Cotton Bowl. The Aggies were undefeated, un tied and unscored upon in 1917 and 1919 and undefeated and untied in 1939. In 1940 the University of Texas broke a 19-game winning streak and cost them their only loss for that year. In 60 years of gridiron competi tion, the Aggies have met 79 teams from 24 states for an all-time rec ord of 310 games won, 178 lost, and 37 ties. A&M has scored 9,282 points to 4,491 for all its opponents. A&M has the edge on all oppo nents which have been played a number of times, except Centenary, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. The Aggies have played against teams from Alabama, Arizona, Ar kansas, California, Florida, Geor gia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Loui siana, Maryland, Michigan, Mis sissippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ne vada, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennes see, Texas, Utah and Washington. A&M has won 52 openers, lost six and tied two. Opening game losses were to: Houston U. (not Cougars) in 1897, Howard Payne in 1922, LSU in 1942, Villanova in 1948, Villanova in 1949 and Texas Tech in 1954. 1925 Football, Cross Country 1927 Football, Cross Country 1929 Track, Cross Country 1930 Track, Cross Country 1931 Baseball 1933 Cross Country ■. (Tied with Texas) 1934 Baseball 1937 Baseball 1939 Football, Pistol 1940 Football (Tied with SMU) 1941 Football 1942 Baseball 1943 Track, Baseball 1944 Swimming (Tied with Texas) 1947 Track 1948 Track, Cross Country, Golf 1949 Track, Cross Country 1951 Basketball (Tied with TCU and Texas), Baseball (Tied with Texas), Track, Epee (Fencing) 1952 Track, Fencing 1953 Track, Cross Country 1954 Cross Country, Fencing 1955 Baseball, Fencing UT Leads A&M In Championships The University of Texas has won more Southwest Conference foot ball championships (8%) than any other school, but A&M is a close second with 7%. SMU has won 6^, TCU 5, Rice 4, Baylor 3, and Arkansas 2 1 /£. Three times there was no cham pion. 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