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Would you believe
From proposals to turn the
campus into an insane asylum to
wolf attacks to students falling
out of windows, Texas A&M has
its share of stories. Believe it or
not, many of them are true.
In today's issue of At Ease,
you will find some of these stor
ies. These are documented in
various places on campus. The
University Archives is a valu
able source of amusing stories.
Another excellent source of in
teresting stories is A Centennial
History of Texas A&M, 1876-
1976 written by history profes
sor Henry C. Dethloff.
We're not saying that you
have to believe all of these stor
ies. Indeed, some are rather
hard to fathom, but they 're all
true and you'll find them to be
quite interesting. If nothing
else, maybe this will give you
and your roommate something
to talk about. And maybe you
can use the information to im
press visitors with amusing little
tidbits about Texas A&M's past
and present. Enjoy ...
Next step's
a doozy
Would you believe two stu
dents fell out of their dorm room
windows during the 1982-83
school year? It's an amusing
story because neither student
was hurt.
A&M almost
a loony bin
In the 1880s, several news
papers — especially the Galves
ton Daily News, along with the
Austin Daily News — com
mented favorably on a plan to
close Texas A&M because of the
academic impoverishment of
the College." The plan was to
close Texas A&M in College Sta
tion and transfer it to Austin.
The buildings and grounds
could then be converted into a
"grand central lunatic asylum."
me plan, which was mentioned
again several times in the fol
lowing 50 years, even appeared
in the Legislature as a bill.
Anything
for an Ag
Aggies are true friends to the
end. At a former students
gathering after World War II a
U.S. Army general saw an old
Aggie pal. He went up to the
friend and offered to do any
favors he might need.
The friend replied that there
was something that he had al
ways wanted to do, but he had
never had the chance.
He hesitated to tell what his
goal was until the general in
sisted. He replied that he had
always wanted to kick a general
right square in the tail.
The two star general bent
over and the old school chum
got his wish.
Have a job,
my friend
In 1876, when Texas Agricul
ture and Mechanical College
was established, Jefferson
Davis, the first and only presi
dent of the Confederacy, was
elected to be the president for
the school.
He declined the offer and in
stead recommended his friend,
Thomas Sanford Gathright, as
candidate for the job.
Gathright accepted and
served as president and also as
professor of mental and moral
philosophy.
Varsity,
Farmers rival
Football on the Texas A&M
campus began in 1892.
The first recorded football
game wasn't until Nov. 29,1894,
when Texas A&M defeated Ball
High School, in Galveston, by a
score of 14-6.
In the same month, the "far
mers," as they then were called,
were beaten by the University of
Texas, 38-0.
In 1897, the University of
Texas beat Texas A&M again,
but in 1899 the story was a little
different.
The game was played on Nov.
4 in San Antonio after a morning
of flower shows, poultry dis
plays, horse races and a "baby
show."
The Varsity (University of
Texas) team arrived nearly two
hours late and by kickoff time, at
3:15 p.m., the crowd had grown
to an excess of 5,000.
The Battalion believed the
crowd to be the largest ever to
witness a football game in
Texas.
At halftime the score was 6-0,
in Varsity's favor.
During the second half, a vio
lent dispute broke out on the
field regarding who had posses
sion of the ball.
The umpire insisted that the
ball belonged to Varsity.
The team captain of the Far
mers, Hal Moseley, picked up
the ball and led his team off the
field to the train station and back
to College Station without com
pleting the game.
The referee awarded Varsity
the victory.
Surprisingly, an Austin Daily
Statesman sportswriter, in his
account of the game, said, "The
game as a whole demonstrated
the fact that the A&M College is
to be the great future rival or the
University for football honors."
The following year, in 1900,
Texas A&M and the University
of Texas began playing their
annual Thanksgiving Day ball
game.
During the 1896 season, the
Aggies adopted their first offi
cial college yell:
Rah! Rah! Rah!
Hi! Ho! Ha!
AMC
Boom! Cis! Bah!
College!
CAPET 5MITH, 1O0 W£KE LATE TO
CLA5$ ToPAf, yOO GET TO STAi
IE H IMP AMP PEFE/VP THE K00/A
FKOfA WOLVES---
Crying wolf
The Agriculture and Mecha
nical College of Texas formally
opened its doors on Oct. 4,1876,
in an unsettled and wild en
vironment.
Packs of wolves challenged
the intrusion of civilized man
into their domain.
One student who had come
to enroll in the institution was
attacked by wolves during the
day in full sight of the main
building.
One night another student
finished eating, walked out on
the porch, slipped, fell and was
attacked by a pack of hungry
wolves.
"Oh, I'm killed, I'm killed,"
he cried. The residents of Old
Main rushed out to save him.
The disappointed wolves
were reported sniffing and
snorting at the windows as if
they meant to come through.
For several years the wolves
refused to be intimidated by
higher education.
It hasn't always been Aggieland
The first Texas A&M annual
was the Olio, which was pub
lished in 1895. The name is Ita
lian for hash; the editors wanted
to make the book a scrap book
compounded of odds and ends.
amount of print, because, as the
editors said, "the photographer
took the pictures, then, for some
reason ne never explained,
failed to send over half of them."
The book was supplemented
with poetry, cartoons and "mor-
The book contained a large - al" stories.
The second yearbook pub
lished was called the Long
Horn. Yearbooks were called by
this name until 1949 when the
student body voted to change
the name. It was changed to the
Aggieland.
Hullaballoo on the moon?
No Aggie astronaut yet has
walked on the moon, but it was
an Aggie who put the astronauts
there.
Gerald Griffin, class of 1956,
was the flight director on the
first 11 Apollo missions.
He also was the director of the
Apollo 12 flight that landed Alan
Bean, a graduate of the Univer
sity of Texas, and Charles Con
rad on the moon.
Griffen had the astronauts
roused from their sleep one
morning to the tune of the Aggie
War Hymn as a reminder to
Bean that while a University of
Texas graduate may be about to
walk on the moon, he was there
by the grace of Texas A&M.
Bean was later made an hon
orary Texas Aggie.
But did they
even have
any hair?
During the early years of Texas
A&M, a club for red-headed
men only was formed. The first
and only article of their constitu
tion stated that "all members
shall be red headed, and the red
ness thereof shall determine his
standing in the club."
The members even had a club
yell.
Red, red, red are we
Red headed men of A&M C.