IHE BATTALION
Wednesday, November 24, 1965
College Station, Texas
Page 3
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Pinkie Downs Is Walking Aggie Tradition
By TOM HARGROVE
“Lord, take care of the Aggies
tonight and I’ll take over again
tomorrow.” This has been and
still is the prayer uttered night
ly by Mr. A&M himself — P. L.
“Pinkie” Downs.
At an age when most men are
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ready for wheel chairs and hos
pital beds, this enthusiastic 81-
year-old Aggie continues to work
faithfully at his job as Official
University greeter, never failing
to “say a few words about
A&M” at any opportunity.
Pinkie Downs is legendary in
Aggie lore for his numerous Ag-
gieland antics. He wears noth
ing but maroon-and-white ties.
His garden is well stocked with
maroon-and-white radishes, gladi-
olas and other similarly colored
plants. Carrots, onions — in fact,
anything bearing the orange-and-
white colors of Texas University
are strictly forbidden to contam
inate his sacred plot of maroon
and white. He originated the
well-known admonition, “Gig ’em
Aggies!,” at an A&M-TCU foot
ball game.
Once prior to the traditional
A&M-TU Turkey Day football
game, the annual Aggie bonfire
was not quite finished. Pinkie
had the cutters come to his yard
just off the campus and cut two
of his largest trees for extra
bonfire fuel. “Everyone thought I
was kinda crazy,” says Pinkie,
“but I knew what I was doing.”
Pinkie was destined to be an
Aggie. Born in Temple on Feb.
26, 1884, he was influenced at an
early age by his namesake uncle,
the late Col. P. L. Downs, who
was a member of the first gradu
ating class at A&M in 1879. His
father, F. F. Downs, a graduate
of Southwestern University in
Georgetown, approved of his
son’s decision to come to Aggie-
land. “I’d wanted to come to
A&M from the time I was 12, but
they wouldn’t take me ’til I was
18,” complains Pinkie. He earned
money to help pay college ex
penses by working as a carrier
boy on a horseback paper route.
“I left Temple on Sept. 17,
1902, by rail, heading for A&M,”
recalls Pinkie. “It was only 80
miles, but it took me six hours
to reach College Station. My wife
recently made the same trip by
plane in about 30 minutes.”
As a freshman, Pinkie was
placed in Co. C Infantry. “There
were practically no dropouts in
those days,” he recalls. “We
started the year with 300 stu
dents, including 181 fish. At the
end of the year we still had the
same 300.”
Naturally, fish Downs partici
pated in the first Aggie Muster.
“Back then a bugle blew ‘Fall
In’ 15 minutes before classes and
we marched to class,” said Pinkie.
“On April 21, 1903, the Cadet
Corps got together and decided
to not attend class since it was
San Jacinto Day. So, when the
bugle sounded, the cadets march
ed not to class, but to the home
of the president. Dr. David F.
Houston, and asked to be allowed
to establish an annual Aggie
Muster to pay tribute to those
Texans who died at San Jacinto
in 1836 and all Aggies who had
passed away. Dr. Houston said if
we’d just go back to class he’d
turn school out at noon and we
could have a muster every year
from then on. One of the greatest
Aggie traditions started that
day,” Pinkie recalls.
Pinkie, like many former cad
ets, also spent his share of Sat
urday afternoon marching the
Bull Ring. “We’d carry that rifle
an hour, rest 15 minutes, then
start marching again,” remem
bered Pinkie, with more than a
faint trace of nostalgia. “Those
were the days when A&M was
all male and 100 per cent mili
tary. I believe those experiences
as a cadet were responsible for
making me what I am today,” he
says.
Pinkie was a member of the
Class of ’06. He holds a degree
in marketing and finance, al
though he now claims he majored
in plain ol’ Aggie “Good Bull.”
While a student he was a mem
ber of the Ross Volunteers and
the Sul Ross Literary Society as
well as president of the A&M
Tennis Club.
After graduation. Pinkie re
turned to Temple and entered the
banking business with his father
and uncle. Twenty-eight years
later he accepted a position as a
National Bank Examiner for the
Comptroller of the Currency. He
served as a member of the A&M
Board of Directors from 1923-33.
In 1940 Pinkie moved back to
the college he loved so well to
work with the fiscal department.
Since then he has served as Ath
letic Business Manager, Assist
ant to the Director of Publicity
and Information, University In
formation Assistant and Official
Greeter. He spent five years as a
member of the Board of Direc
tors of the Association of Form
er Students.
Besides his vast amount of
work for Aggies, Pinkie is also
well-known for the good deeds he
privately performs for others
without financial renumeration
or any expectations of it. He has
a particular interest in the 1,-
200 patients at the Veterans Ad
ministration Center act Temple.
The door to the Downs home
(See Pinkie, Page 7)
$8,000,000
THIS IS THE AMOUNT OF LIFE INSURANCE
IN FORCE ON
TEXAS AGGIES
THROUGH THE
THIS PARTIALLY EXPLAINS WHY THE
AGGIELAND AGENCY
HAS BEEN AWARDED
THE LEADING AGENCY AWARD
FOR IMMEDIATE INFORMATION
CONTACT ONE OF THESE
Aggieland College Master Representatives
Melvin Johnson Charles Johnson Charles Thomas
'64 '64
BHI Altman
*•»
846-8228
Jerry Mitchell Larry Grewnhaw
’61 ’64
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