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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 24, 1998)
Battalion inion Page 11A • Tuesday, November 24, 1998 coadRegardless of football teams 5 abilities, Aggies claim superior mascot always sad use you coaches put id & JOHN LEMONS ood versus evil. Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vad- s A&M coac| r Republicans versus But allofiiiBnocrats. Sure, those his businessM a i] e pic conflicts, but tom line was Hy p a i e in comparison 1 losing youi Briday’s battle royale af real good fijween Texas A&M and up being difflH University of Texas. obs. I hatetoB\nd although every- me wants to know who will win the i’s Spike Dykjid game, there is a much more impor- iy Blake on Saw question — which school has the ig reminded ftfter mascot? eresting busJsee, football teams and coaches ’coachingis :hmge tliroughout the years, but mas- o standards,' ;o s are a constant. No matter what the on is diflereijaality of their athletic teams, A&M will > hove grown H/ays be known by that noble creature, so that'sjust[«/eille, while UT will always have its m accept inibBelly beast, Bevo. n down theruBrhus, it is only natural that the y, Blake is £ tchools be judged by their mascots. And g 12 coachfi then it comes to mascots, Reveille is the nk Solichii Ingle most dominant mascot around, test job ten™Actually, those Longhorn rejects ka. should be glad they are being judged on Dlacement a»o because their football team is a Jsborne.SokBveling freak show. Consider their quar- first Nebrasi eroack. Major Applewhite. Applewhite is rs that isgoriBe of their major players with a majorly an withouta strange name. 1 championsbplhis guy looks like he is, at best, ■out 13 years old. Here is a hint for the < gf coaching staff: Let the adolescents finish junior high school before you put |t ni on the field. If your quarterback is ) young to shave, he is too young to d your team. Quit recruiting out of ?-wee football leagues. si..Bryan A n cl as for Ricky Williams, everyone y»ick of looking at that bird’s nest on "Its man Theatre ege Park! ilman-theatresc® 5 www.lockoncor :E OPENS AT 6:30 Today’s Times 0 J2L 3 (R) D (PG13) U (R) 1 head. He looks like a reject from lie Hair Club For Men. Just because he can run fast does not mean he has to lock like Medusa,. It’s called a haircut, li (pgi3) look into it. miR) 1. But enough about those hippies’ foot- 11 team, it is their mascot with which we concerned. When God was passing out ijfascots, UT must have been in the bath- Bom, because they got stuck with, of all it lings, a big, fat cow. Wow, now there is ________ an exciting mascot. Imagine all the great Beers a longhorn could inspire — “Al- Ol'Kf 5 right longhorns, let’s graze!” IW^BTheproblem with having a longhorn tmenfr fora mascot, is it is a food animal. While Reveille is destined to be pam pered all her life, Bevo is destined for the butcher’s block. Nobody has ever looked at Reveille and thought, “My, that Collie would be good between two buns next to an order of fries.” Nobody has ever mistaken Reveille for a walking slab of beef. And nobody has ever wanted to make Reveille into beef jerky. Worse, still, Bevo is a steer. For all of you readers out there who are not into ani mal husbandry, a steer is a castrated bull. Castration sure seems like a good thing to do to your mascot. Imagine the thought process that went into this decision. A couple of UT students were sitting around thinking, “Man, we’ve got, like this cool mascot, but wouldn’t it be even cooler if it had no testicles?” Aggies may be old-fashioned, but they prefer the symbol of their university be in tact. Aggies do not mutilate their mascot. But for all of Reveille’s superior charac teristics, there is one area where Reveille is especially dominant. Reveille is chick mag net. Surely, all students have seen the mas cot corporal. He always has women swarming all around him, saying things like “Oh, that Reveille is so cute.” Anytime the University holds a “take your picture with Reveille” day, hordes of women line up to have their photographs taken. It must stink to be the sap who has to take care of Bevo. Nobody is lining up to be the cow keeper’s friend. Nobody walks up to Bevo’s handler and says “Wow, you take care of Bevo. How neat. I’ve always wanted pet that big smelly cow. ” In the end, it comes down to this — people like dogs, they do not like cows. People want to play with dogs. All they want to do with cows is eat them. BRAD GRAEBER/The Battalion In a lot of ways, Friday’s football game is irrelevant. A&M has already won the most important victory. Clear ly, Texas A&M’s Reveille is the superior team mascot. Remember, the best mascot is man’s best friend not man’s best meal. John Lemons is an electrical engineering graduate student. in dffird | ve L , Walk to Cam! )r Plans Availi Ciubroora ities Control Aggies must remember holiday’s meaning E ' i ANDREW BALEY veryone knows Thursday is lianksgiving. But what does |at really mean? To almost all ;gies, Thanks- re-Leasing [giving means a t <n(i; I? home, low as $Jt tu rke y and 96-5707 preparing for the big football GeorgeBusl bine. These three aspects of ei.net/treehouidjpanksgiving are great, but the [lain point of the holiday should plot and cannot be lost. Ask almost anyone who can member back 30 years, and ey will describe how Veterans ay was once much more revered an it is today. The day to honor merica’s heroic veterans only o weeks ago. One wonders !ow many Aggies would have [een aware of Veterans Day if jost offices and banks had not [been closed. Americans should make sure hanksgiving does not fall victim |d the same unfortunate anonymi- . Thanksgiving is a day that could lose its meaning just as eas ily as Veterans Day has. We always recognize Thanks giving because it is a day off from school. But this particular holi day’s meaning runs much deeper than a break from classes. Settlers and American Indians came together in harmony — putting aside their respective dif ferences — on the first Thanks giving day. Nowadays, if they are lucky, Americans spend Thanksgiving with their family and friends. Per haps for some, the idea of setting aside personal differences still ex ists. But feeling lucky or blessed to be a part of the Thanksgiving holiday is part of the holiday’s spirit. Thanksgiving should influ ence people to examine every thing they should be thankful for. As college students and Ag gies, there are many causes to be thankful. Aggies have the oppor tunity to receive a top-notch edu cation at the most enjoyable school on earth. Students also get more vacation time during their college days than they will likely ever see again. Too easily stu dents get mired down in day-to- day activities and fail to realize how good things really are. College, America and freedom are all too often taken for granted. Americans have hope, prosperity and opportunity in their lives. No matter how depressed students are over a recent test score or how much they hate going to 8 a.m. classes, nothing can change these simple facts. If someone cannot look at his or her situation and find something to smile about, tell that person to read the news articles about the devas tation Hurricane Mitch brought to Nicaragua and Honduras. Aggies should be happy, if not all the time, at least this Thursday when they can give thanks for all of the blessings in their lives. Remember this when the turkey is dry, your aunt continues to an noy you and the football games are on. It will make the holiday that much more enjoyable. Andrew Baley is a junior political science major. ^uy^ct^irrUTiDi^ MAIL CALL Wine product hurts committee efforts In response to Len Callaway’s Nov. 18 column: The issue of the Messina Hof Winery product Bonfire Blush was addressed because it was clearly an attempt to associate an alcoholic beverage with Texas A&M traditions. Students developed the slogan “Keep alcohol from shattering the traditions” in response to the threat of alcohol abuse becoming more prominent than the tradition of Bonfire. The Bonfire Alcohol Awareness Committee has worked for the past 10 years to help make and keep Bonfire a safe and enjoyable event for the whole A&M community. If, as Len Callaway said, the scene depicted on the wine bottle was merely a Texas winter scene, why not call the wine “Texas Win ter” or “Day’s Hunt?” I think only the most naive observers would believe the scene and name was not an attempt to associate their product with our tradition. If not, then why put the phrasing about Bonfire on the bottle at all? I am happy the Bonnarigo family is active in University functions. We welcome all appropriate connec tions and involvement with our tra ditions. i do not think anyone at this University has accused them of encouraging excess drinking or alcohol abuse. I believe we asked that our traditions be honored by all participants and community mem bers in a way that does not under mine the work of the students and administrators to address the issue of alcohol abuse on our campus. I think the connection of any alco holic beverage with Bonfire in any way does that. Dennis J. Reardon Senior coordinator, alcohol and drug education programs The Battalion encourages letters to the ed itor. Letters must be 300 words or less and in clude the author's name, class and phone number. The opinion editor reserves the right to edit letters for length, style, and accuracy. Letters may be submitted in person at 013 Reed Mc Donald with a valid student ID. Letters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1111 Campus Mail: 1111 Fax: (409) 845-2647 Sports fans show poor sportsmanship C ollege sports is big business. With the NBA choking on its own greed and high-profile col lege teams vying for national titles, money and pres tige make college sports just about the most com petitive game in town. However, this competition has a downside. Athletes and fans are getting completely out of hand and steps need to be taken to reign them in. A recent incident at West Vir ginia University is an excellent ex ample of the rambunctious nature of today’s fans. During a football game, a life long WVU fan, Jimmy Malfre- geot, put up a sign lamenting the fact Auburn’s coach, Terry Bow den, was not coaching at WVU. The sign read, “Terry Bowden, Call Home, 1-800-HELP-WVU.” Malfregeot — along with his sign — was removed from the field because the sign was deemed by Athletic Department officials as offensive to the new WVU coach Don Nehlen. Big East Conference policy states banners considered “of fensive to particular institutions. players or coaches,” are subject to removal. Obviously, this removal is a violation of Malfregeot’s First Amendment rights. However, there is not a basic human right that has not in some way been abridged by government and by employees, sports clubs or any of a host of organizations stu dents join. All of these infringements occur with the best interests of a majority of citizens, employees, players, etc. at heart, and the same criteria should apply to this rule. The Big East’s policy against signs is entirely reasonable be cause it is designed to help all of the fans have a good time at the game. The coaches do not see of fensive banners and get upset. The players do not read rude signs it and get mad. The other fans’ views are not blocked by in sulting banners causing them to consider taking their aggression out on the sign-holder. In other words, for those legal- minded readers, the right to free speech is being abridged to pro tect the right to pursue happiness. Although it is a fine tradition to hurl obscenities at opposing players, fans and coaches — in sulting everything from their ge nealogical authenticity to how funny their mothers dress them — the current run of fan-com mitted atrocities is disturbing, to say the least. Baylor fans yell obscenities en masse at every “bad” call the referees make against them. Texas Tech fans throw tortillas. Not to be outdone, Texas fans throw liquor bottles. Aggies do not throw things, they just build the contest up over the course of weeks until the entirely benefi cial tradition turns into an orgy of poor judgement and tradition- induced self-delusion. Other wise, it could never meet the ex pectations built around it. Only in Aggieland, eh? College sports has created a monster. The rivalries that have been built up over the years are edging away from the good-na tured competition they should be and towards confrontational,, destructive competitions of fan- versus-fan instead of team-ver- sus-team. By restricting obvious in stances of poor sportsmanship and taste on the part of the fans, the Big East is taking a positive step towards returning sports manship to the game. A few toes will be stepped on in the process, but it beats the alternative. Chris Huffines is a junior speech communication major. CHRIS HUFFINES
