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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 27, 1984)
Page 6D/The Battalion/Monday, August 27, 1984 A&M-UT football rivalry fierce for 90 years Whether it’s the first scrimmage in 1894 or the most recent contest in Kyle Field in 1988, the Aggies and Longhorns have always placed an unquestionable emphasis on their football games. They haven't always been re ferred to as Aggies and Longhorns, but since the two schools met 90 years ago in the state’s first intercol legiate football game, the rivlary has been fierce, competitive and some times downright dirty. It’s been a football tug-of-war since the University of Texas Squad defeated the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College Farmers 38-0 in Austin’s Hyde Park in 1894. As the series stands, the Varsity players (now Longhorns) have won 62 of the 89 games played with the farmers (now Aggies). The continuance of this rivalry, which usually features heated battles for supremacy in athletics as well as in academics, has always been an im portant tradition at both schools. Some students treat it as an insig nificant matter; other insist on mak ing the rivalry a priority in all com petitions between schools. But why? Dave Elmendorf, the Aggies’ all- American safety in 1970 said the ri valry’s origins are easy to explain. “It’s steeped in tradition,” he said. “Both schools have a lot of tradition, even though 1 thing Texas A&M has more than any school int he world. That’s what keeps it going. “Plus, there’s a natural rivlary be tween the two schools, because they’re the two most prominent schools in Texas as far as prestige of graduates and the fact that they’re state schools.” During the three years Elmendorf played here, between 1968 and 1970, the Aggies lost to UT by scores of 35-14, 49-12 and 52-14. Texas A&M fared just as badly with its other opponents, compiling 3-7, 3-7 and 2-9 records. “Back when I played, rivalry was all we had to played, rivalry was all we had to play on, because we sure didn’t have a good football team,” Elmendorf said. “It (the rivalry) meant a lot to me, but the years I was playing, our chances of beating Texas were slim and none.” Emory Bellard, the Aggies’ head coach between 1971 and 1978, has been on both sides of the field dur ing his coaching career. Bellard, now the head coach at Mississippi State, was an offensive backfielcf assistant at UT for five yars before assuming his position at Texas A&M. Two quite different schools have developed the ribalry out of a strong sense of competition, Bellard said. “I think at the outset, the two uni versities had great contrasts,” Bel lard said. “Texas A&M was a mili tary school and an all-male institution. Texas was not the oppo site, but it was co-educational and non-military. The competition was very keen, and consequently, a state supremacy developed. “There’s great intensity in prepa ration for all games. I don’t think, contrary to a lot of people’s feelings, that the whole season hinges on one game. At some point in the season, it (the UT-A&M rivlary) becomes an intense thing. “When 1 was coaching at Texas, I don’t think I ever went into a season with the idea that the only game we had to win was the Texas A&M game. And I don’t think I ever felt that way when I was coaching at Texas A&M. “Once it gets there, though, there’s usually a strong feeling among alumni, coaches and play ers,” Bellard said. But the rivalry may not continue with such a UT dominance, he said. “1 think it’s gotten more compet itive after about 1972,” he said, “The rivalry may be getting more in tense.” “I think revalries are good. Texas ■ - .'s Photo by JOHN MAKELY An Aggie band member ignores the Longhorn Band’s perfor mance during halftime of the 1983 Aggie-UT clash. A&M and Texas have an awful lot of fun with their rivalry. A lot of the people go the the games togethe- r...and large groups of A&M and Texas people get together prior to a game and after it. “So, it’s not always a situation where they’re cutting one another’s throats—a lot of good comes out of it, too,” he said. But back to the days of yesteryear, the times when college football was only a new and obscure venture. Who would have thought the sport, onlly a few years after its introduc tion in Texas, capable of evoking such a fanatic response from its fol lowers? Before the start of the Texas A&M-Texas rivalry, the Farmers had no football team to speak of. The College’s first classes had been held 18 years before, but no one had considered fielding a football squad to compete against other schools. In 1894, trie University of Texas needed to play a practice game be fore its important game with Tu- lane, so a scrimmage squad was formed a A&MC to play Varsity. In fact, W.O. Stephens, one of the UT players, came to College Station to put together the team and bring it back to Austin. Texas, also new to the sport of football, had rounded up its first team only the year before and had begun its program with a budget of $ 100. Prior to that first Texas A&M-UT game, the Farmers had won a 14-6 game with Galveston High School. When the two teams met in Austin’s Hyde Park, a $1 admission fee was charged. The series began whth A&MC fumbling the opening kickoff, allow ing Varsity to score in two plays. The Farmers had the same bad luck throughout the rest of the game, as UT scored the easy shutout victory. The next hame between the two schools wasn’t until 1898, when the Farmers fielded a team that out weighed Texas’ team by an average of 15 pounds a player. However, Varsity's quicker team took a 48-0 victory as the A&MC quarterback, H.H. Tracey, was knocked out and taken to the hospital. Tracey wasn’t badly injured, but the Farmers’ pride received a stiffer blow in their most lopsided loss ever to UT. The following year, Varsity and Coach Huston Thompson defeated the Farmers 6-0, and UT took two victories during the 1900 season, by scores of 5-0 and 11-0. The second Varsity victory of 1900 was the first- ever Thanksgiving Day game be tween the two schools. Coach W.A. Murray’s Farmers couldn’t beat UT in two games dur ing the 1901 season, either, as varsity won 17-0 and 32-0. Thus, Varsity’s series opening winning streak had reached seven games, and the Farmers had re venge on their minds when the 1902 season began. The situation improved for the Aggies that season, as they played UT to a scoreless tie in their first meeting of the year. Coach J.E. Platt and his team finally pulled off a vic tory Nov. 27 after Varsity had out- scored A&MC 157-0 in winning six of the first seven games between the two schools. The Farmers won 11-0 that Thanksgiving Day. In recent years’ games, the trend has shifted a bit, with the Aggies winning four of the last eight. Texas A&M won the 1975 game 20-10 in Kyle Field, and the following year, the Aggies topped the Longhorns 27-3 in Austin. The next two years featured 57- 28 and 22-7 triumphs for Texass, but the Aggies bounded back to 13- 7, 24-14 victories in 1979 and 1980. The Longhorns, led by tailback John Waller and quarterback Robert Brewer, defeated the Aggies 21-13 in the 1981 game in Kyle Field and 53-16 in the 1982 game. Other events during the school’s history of feuding have sparked students to keep the rivalry alive. During the 1917 season, students Photo by DEANSMTO Members of the Texas A&M and UT football teams battle it out at the 1983 game. at UT planned to bring a longhorn steer, branded with the 21-7 score of Texas’ victory over the Farmers in 1916, to the Thanksgiving Day game. However, several A&MC ca dets discovered the UT students’ in tentions and proceeded to brand the animal with the 13-0 score of A&MC’s victory in 1915. Upon finding the Farmers’ sab otage, the UT students changed the 13-0 score to made it resemble the letters BEVO. The longhorn steer, now BEVO XII, has to this day re mained Texas’ mascot. Reveille, made her debut as the Aggies’ official mascot at the Texas A&M-UT game in 1931, leading the Aggie Band onto the field. Texas A&M won the game 7-6 in Kyle Field. During the Aggies’ national championship season in 1939, they defeated the Longhorns 20-0. Coach Homer Norton, describing his squad as “the perfect team,” defeated for mer Texas A&M coach Dana X. Bi ble in topping UT that season. The next year’s matchup ended differently, however. In 1940, the Aggies brought an 8-0 record into their game with UT, but Bible and his squad ousted the No. 1 nationally ranked Aggies with a 7-0 victory. Norton, Texas A&M’s coach for 14 years, told his players after the game that they would learn from the expe rience. “ Phis is perhaps the bitterest pill you will ever have to swallow, but there is one thing about,” Norton said. “If you will take what hap pened to you today as a lesson when you get overconfident, then this de feat might not be as bad as it seems.” Through the years, the Aggies have had trouble winning in Austin’s Memorial Stadium. That structure, built in 1924, has been the sight of only three Texas A&M victories: in 1956, 1976 and 1980. Another tradition surrounding the football competition between UT and Texas A&M is the Aggies’ annual bonfire. Before the game each year, a bonfire is lit on the Texas A&M campus to symbolize what has been described as “burning desire” to beat UT. The bonfire is lit the night before the game if it’s in Kyle Field, and a day earlier if it’s a road game. Many coaches and players in volved in the rivlary have considered the games important, while others have taken them a little less se riously. Garth Ten Napel, an Aggie linebacker during 1973-75, sain he didn’t put as much emphasis on the rivalry as some of his teammates. “To me it wasn’t any more impor tant than any other game,” Ten Na pel said. “There were teams that I disliked more than I disliked Texas. “My freshman year, I didn’t hate Texas any more than anyone else be cause our freshman tezm beat them. But then by my sophomore year I started to get the idea that Texas was the enemy,” he said. That year, the Longhorns de feated the Aggies 42-13, and the fol lowing season UT continued its win ning ways by bouncing Texas A&M 32-3. Under Bellard in 1975 and 1976, the Aggies won two straight for the first time in the series’ his tory. “A lot of people on the team ac cepted the tradition of Texas being our enemy,” Ten Napel said. “My se nior year (1975) we had a big rivalry with them because we enteredlhai vear’s game with a defense that was giving up than 150 yards a game. (Texas running back) Eari Campbell was averaging morethaii 150 yards a game, ana Coach Bel lard said ‘Hey, something’s got to give.’ “Luckily, Earl did, because I think he got less than 40 yards in that game.” )hn David Crow, Texas A&M’s y Heisman Trophy winner ever, said it doesn't take long for a mem ber of the football leant pickup on the essence of the fierce rivalry t.row, a h.'Uh.uk, played under lie.ti' Bryant during Coacl the H Paul 5-57 seasons. “When (.. m< h Bi \ int was there," Crow said, “I really didn’t know what the (Texas) game meant. In® sort of the grand finale for the year, because we always had the nest seven months to live with it anil whichever team won the game. It didn’t take long to realize thatu meant so much to the alumni and the studentbody, “As I recall, the Texas game gotto be a bigger game for methelongerl was at A&M. I think that with coack Bryant’s teaching, though, we had the attitude that every game was) big game. . , “I’m looking lorward toil becom ing an even bigger rivalry becauseri- valries grow with better competkiot between the two schools. 1 thinkwiti Coach (Jackie) Sherrill’s guidance the W and L columns are going to get much closer together,’’ Crow said. This year’s chapter of the Aggie Longhorn rivalry lakes place Dec.1 at 1 p.m. in UT’s Memorial Stadium It 11 PEOPLE HOURS Our lobby is open late and it's open Saturdays! MPnCT 24-Hour Teller Unitedbank Two locations Culpepper Plaza & Southwood Valley Member FDIC Battalion Classifieds Call 845-2611