Page 10 THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY. OCTOBER 26, 1977
focus
Aggie spirit doesn't end with football
\The spirit of competition extends from the
»
j artificial turf of Kyle Field to the
\ legislative chambers of the Capitol
By LIZ NEWLIN
Battalion Staff
The delicate indentations on the bottom band of the Texas A&M
University senior ring aren’t there just for looks. According to Aggie
folklore, they represent the assholes from the University of Texas.
The “little secular school in Austin” is clearly Texas A&M’s chief
rival, but most other schools in the Southwest Conference seem to
count the Aggies as their major foe also.
“It seems like everyone sets up Aggies as their chief rival,” Presi
dent Jarvis Miller said. “Aggies seem to be confident they’re the
Texas A&M’s unique Fish wildcatting is only one of many ways
the Aggies have found to display their spirit.
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best,” Miller laughed. “We do have an air of conceit. We in turn set
us up as being their chief rival.
“The rivalry is because we re identifiable as Aggies and we re not
ashamed of it. I note other schools are jealous of the spirit we have
and don’t know how to get it,” Richard Buck Weirus, executive
director of the Association of Former Students, said.
Although rivalry and spirit among colleges is most closely iden
tified in the South with football, it is changing and expanding. John
Welch, senior, said, “The spirit at A&M is changing, not dying. It s
no less intense. It’s shifting from football to basketball and baseball.
Miller said rivalry is evident in more academic fields like debate,
judging teams and even in recruiting high school graduates for col
lege.
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Apparently, the most important aspect of rivalry is not on the
football field. It is in the state capitol at Austin and concerns funding.
A constant battle is fought among public institutions of higher learn
ing in Texas, Miller said. Texas A&M and UT are funded through a
permanent university fund supported by oil profits and investments
from lands given by the federal government. That income is split
(one-third for Texas A&VI, two-thirds for UT) according to the
number of students at both schools.
Weirus said, “The only time we don’t like t.u. is on Thanksgiving.
The rest of the time they’re pur very good friends.”
Two other classifications of public colleges and universities in Texas
do not share in this permanent fund. Miller said other state colleges
supported by property taxes and the newest institutions, which have
no guaranteed funds, are “very definitely* in competition for money.
“We saw’ it in the Constitutional Convention (to draft a new state
charter), to change the funding. ’
Texas A&M’s special rivalry with the University of Texas seems
almost as old as the two schools. Robert Harvey, student body presi
dent, said, “The two have come up together. They’ve been relatively
the same magnitude in Texas ... It was very logical that the two
would compete with each other.”
In several state's, the land grant college (like Texas A&M) is in
fierce competition with the major state university (like UT).
Ranking the other conference schools in order of rivalry proves
almost impossible. Of the responses to the Battalion’s poll on Texas
A&M’s greatest two enemies, most listed UT. Candidates for the
number two spot were Jimmy Carter, Texas Tech and the University
of Arkansas. Manv others dislike Rice University.
Eeyore parties
(Continued
“Owl bowing, seen at the
A&M-Rice football game, is carried
on by members of Hanszen College.
Once each football season the old
fiberglas owl is brought in front of
the cheering section to he praised.
T think they use it when they
think we need a miracle, Rosegrant
said.
"“Spooks, “Silver Spurs and
aA'Cpwboys, among other creatures,
carry out spirit at the University til
Texas.
Spooks is a fresh man-sophomore
women’s spirit club that paints store
windows orange along “The Drag,”
or Guadalupe Street, next to the
campus. Silver Spurs take charge of
Bevo, famed longhorn, while the
Cowboys have a cannon called “Old
Smokey.
Greek organizations promote
most of the spirit, says Judy Spald
ing. student body president.
Other activities include a light
show at the Texas Tower, half
orange after a football victory, all
orange after victory against Texas
A&VI, and all orange, with white
lights forming a number one, after
from page I.)
becoming Southwest Conference
Football champs.
Rut "Eeyore s Birthday Party” is
the big event of the year says Spald
ing, who confesses that she’s not
much of a football fan. At Eeyore’s
party (taken from a chapter of
“Winnie the Pooh) each year in
April students dress in costume and
walk to an Austin park for a day of
celebration. She says this is the one
time students shed their old cloaks
of organizations and social distinc
tion.
UT school spirit does falter,
though, says cheerleader Debbi
Morris.
“I think it’s the same as any place,
if you’ve got a good team the spirit is
great."
Pep rallies regularly occur three
times a year: once, before the sea
son begins, and before the Okla
homa and A&M football games.
Rut the size of the school divides
the students, Morris says. “A&M is
a large school hut they seem to be
much closer. At Texas there are not
many ways to bring everyone to
gether.”
Cadets
(above
from ii
• —
Quadding isn’t quite as dry
wildcatting, but it is a display
spirit by the quadders, and
usually taken as such by t»
quaddee.
Photos by
Bernard Gor,
Jim Crawley,
Mike Smith
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