sorry, but that school is just scary. (on the other hand, "We got some dawgs up in here - woof! woof!" and cowbells are perfectly normal. Just depends on which side you were raised.) Another scary thing... pardon me if this applies to any of you... is any school that does hog calls.
Uh oh, I got a feeling this could get ugly. Lil Pun and I are Arkansans and enjoy the hog calls as well as upside down horns .
Hey, I've done quite a few "horns down" myself when appropriate. It's funny how one little hand gesture upsets them so much... and it's not even like flipping them the bird or anything. I keep thinking one or both of y'all is affiliated with the University of Memphis in some way. I literally grew up on that campus and will always root for the Tigers...
Univeristy of Colorado -- Ralphie charging around the stadium with the flatirons in the background. Completely surreal. Other than that, at least right now, CU gameday's suck.
I don't expect everyone to appreciate A&M's traditions. They are unique, that's for sure. I certainly don't expect any other state of Texas universities out there to be pro A&M, just like A&M won't be pro any teams in Texas seeing as how everyone was all in the Southwest Conference back in the day and were all rivals. But what most of you all who are Rockets fans, which is y we are all on this board right, might not know is that Texas A&M has been voted the #1 gameday atmosphere in college football. Sure, it's others opinions and some won't agree, I'm not disputing that. But those who disagree likely have their own biases, hence the disagreeing. If media types, who are the ones who attend the games and announce the games say that we are the best, obviously they have been to many campuses across the nation and have a huge selection to pick from. Clemson visited A&M last year and one of their alumni ended up donating to our athletic foundation b/c of the great time he had and their team got blown out. The concensus is that the majority of Clemson fans had a great time and many of them are wanting to return the hospitality they recieved from A&M. Yes, cheerleaders would be nice, who wouldn't want to look at athletic, cute chicks w/ nice legs, but I understand y A&M has the yell leaders. It used to be an all male military school, so they started the yell leader stuff then and b/c A&M doesn't get away from their traditions very easily, it has stuck. We were the ones who came up with the term the 12th man and now everyone else wants to use it. Hell, we even tried to own the patent on the term 12th man. Back in the day, we had a student named E King Gill, who tried out for the football team. Didn't make it initially and was cut. He was in the stands during a football game where A&M had many injuries. Coach calls him from the stands and has him suit up. He never played, but there was when the 12th man began. Now, every game, the student section stands the entire game, stands for the team, ready to be called in to help any way possible. The A&M fans yell the entire time we are on defense so as to not allow the oposing offense to hear the audible and change ups at the line. We got close to breaking the record for sound coming from an outdoor stadium. It was during the oklahoma game the year stoops won his championship, forgot which year, 00, I believe. There have many games where I yell until I'm hoarse for a week. When we win, it's all worth it though. A&M has midnight yell, the night b/f the games to get everyone excited about the game the next day. The yell leaders tell jokes about the other team and practice our yells that we do during the games. It's rather hard to explain, just have to see it for yourself. At the end of yell, the lights go out and we kiss our date. No, not some farm animal and not our sibling. Kissing during the games, is a tradition when we score. When our team scores, the fans score, consider it a reward for supporting our team. People don't like to see that on tv, but it's the camera mans fault for doing close ups of that stuff. Probably our most famous tradition that is trying to bring itself back is the Aggie Bonfire. Ever since it fell, it hasn't been on campus. They've had a few rogue bonfires, but it isn't bonfire unless you get the vast majority of students out there, and the faculty comes and the sports teams come and the coaches come, hell I've known of some longhorns who have come and missed their own hex rally. When bonfire burned, it signified "our burning desire to beat the hell outta tu". Basically hundreds of thousands of people would come out to bonfire and watch it burn and then basically that entire night was party time. There is still litigation going on w/ the families of those who died and were injured in it. It is not known when Bonfire will return, but steps are being taken to bring it back, but it is still very sensitive for both sides to talk about. Those are probably A&M's most notable traditions as far as football games are concerned. Schools like texas tech have traditions such as trying to pick fights w/opposing teams or shoving goal posts into the visiting stands. Very high schoolish. The sips on the other hand recieve the most donations. They have the best facilities at the moment that money can buy. They have always been the arrogant bunch. Granted, they have had a lot of recent success lately, but ol Mack and alumni are still trying to buy their first championship, big 12 or national. I've been to a game at DKR and it really wasn't anything special. Majority of the fans there are alumni or rich boosters. They don't even get their students involved as much as other scools, and it is a shame considering they do have the largest student body in the nation at over 45,000. But if you ask any other school out there who have the most arrogant and obnoxios fans, I would bet good money, they would say the longhorns more than any other school.
Maybe an Aggie can help me out with this question. Last semester on-campus I picked up the weekly issue of "SI: On Campus" and the issue covered the "best college football weekends". In Texas A&M's section it said "Students make up half the 82,600 seat stadium and wrap from end zone to end zone. Those not into the game are called 'the two-percenters' and are verbally abused like burnt-orange-headed stepchildren." My question is by wrapping end zone to end zone do they around the entire stadium or just from end zone to end zone on one side of the stadium? I also thought it was pretty cool that it mentioned that after victories the yell leaders are carried across campus and tossed into Fish Pond. Sounds pretty cool. Btw, Texas A&M was ranked third on the list behind Tennessee and LSU and right in front of my Florida Gators.
Jesus, give it a rest. You could have just written "I'm an Aggie" and we could have figured out the rest. I'll never understand fans who try to say "OURS IS THE BEST" when it comes to subjective crap like tradition. "Oh yay, our band marches better than yours! CBS SAID SO!!!! Our uniforms are better, everyone knows RED IS BETTER THAN BLUE! Our mascot could EAT yours!!!!!" Anyone who experiences wadded panties over that kind of stuff is a gigantic f*****. You know what? I like the Tower, Bevo, Memorial Stadium, the GSB, the fight song, the uniforms, the Six Pack, West Campus, Abel's, Posse East, calling TEX, all of that stuff. It collectively symbolizes my time on the 40 Acres. Why would I give a **** either way if anyone who wasn't part of the University liked it? If ESPN or Atlantic Monthly publishes a story tomorrow saying "The University of Texas sucks", am I supposed to write up 14 paragraphs on why it doesn't?
Guess I struck a nerve w/ Kagy, oh well. The polls I was referring to were done last year and I want to say ESPN.com and CNNSI.com had A&M #1, but don't quote me. Like the all mighty Kagy mentioned, it is subjective. That's y I'm not saying any of A&M's particular traditions are better than any others, but Franchise 3 did start a post about college traditions. I couldn't fulfill his request and give him a webpage, but I did take a little time to mention some of the ones I know by heart and gave a little detail. If some in particular don't care to read it, then don't...talk about panties in a wad. I admit ignorance to many other schools traditions. I do know that Wisconsin is supposed to have a good gameday atmosphere. I've heard about LSU's, but I wonder how much of it is alcohol induced. Nebraska fans are as rabid as any and their fans are as hospitable as any out there. Every school is going to have their own traditions. Some are gonna show them during football, some basketball schools will show them during basketball season, so I guess to find out all u can, would be to go experience them for yourself, which I don't know if any of us could do that financially. Franchise3, in answer to your question, A&M has 3 large bleachers, a North, a West and an East. South enzone is temporary bleachers that actually I believe a lot of H.S. coaches get to sit in, but I digress. The students and band, along w/ a very small group of alumni and visiting fans take up the East side. Alumni, supporters, friends, family, fans, guests, visiting fans take up the North and West. I don't know if that explained it to u well enough, so here is a link if ya want to check it out: http://sports.tamu.edu/facilities.php?FID=7 I don't know where the term 2% came from, but it was brainwashed to us from the beginning. Basically it means that 2% of the student body does not participate in going to any athletic events. Anyone who doesn't go to anything is a 2%. At games, when we do our yells, we are supposed to take our hats off, some don't. Most try to remind in a normal voice, some can be overly agressive and rude, that's how it is with any large groups right? If students begin to leave early whether winning or losing, some people will call them 2%. Majority of students are pretty tolerant about that stuff and won't rag on other students, but like I said, there will always be bad apples. And yes, after every victory, the fish in the core will chase the yell leaders onto the field and then carry them to fish pond and throw them in there. We then have a victory yell and play our school songs, have yell practice and make jokes about the next team we play. I hope that helps ya out for now. Sorry I couldn't help w/ any others.
Just a quick sampling of how you're not saying A&M's particular traditions are better than any others. Not reading posts would make my job as a moderator a lot harder. But I suppose I could just start deleting them at random.
UT's tradition is asspounding non-"Fedex sponsored" aggie teams on an annual basis. 2 percenter. and i have to say shoving the goal posts in the stands was awesome. and not at all b/c it was a&m. just because of what it was. many fans have torn down goalposts, and many have taken them around with them, but no one ever thought about turning around and shoving them at the opposing fans. that is greatness. tech should've re-upped the tradition for the cal fans.
Make that 2 arkansans and 1 Texan that goes to the UofA. I'll say this. I've been to A&M games and it's alright. Definitely the best atmosphere in the big 12, from what I can tell. The sad thing, however, is that compared to SEC gamedays, A&M would be middle of the road. As for calling the Hogs. Wow. When I was a senior I went on a recruitment visit to see Arkansas play Ole Miss. I knew nothing about Arkansas. The first time I heard them call the Hogs, it was the weirdest, funniest thing I'd ever heard. Then I realized that's what I loved about it. No one does that. No one else is a razorback. A razorback is one of the few mascots that isn't regurgitated conference to conference. I'm definitely not saying Arkansas is better than any other school. For me, however, I couldn't picture myself anywhere else. There's nothing like hearing 72,000 people scream in unison: Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Pig Sooie!!! Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Pig Sooie!!! Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Pig Sooie!!! Razorbacks!!!!! Crazy/Weird/Laughable...whatever you want to call. The point is, it's freakin sweet once you get used to it
Amen to that. Isabel: I used to live with Lil Pun until I took a job and had to move to Memphis. Lil Pun and I are both from Arkansas, but Lil Pun attends the University of Memphis and I graduated from Arkansas State University. However, both of us are huge hog fans. Woo Pig.
Here's my all-time favorite, courtesy of one Tate Pittman: November 14, 2003 Pittman suspended after being charged with indecency By CHRISTOPHER FERRELL Eagle Staff Writer A Texas A&M University football player has been charged with indecent exposure after police say he masturbated in a university parking lot while smiling at a female student who was trying to park her car. Tate Pittman, a freshman defensive lineman from Odessa, was released Thursday from the Brazos County Jail after posting $10,000 bail. He has been suspended from the team, according to a release issued by A&M athletics director Bill Byrne. A female student was trying to park her car Oct. 28 when Pittman, 18, pulled up next to her in a Dodge Ram and began smiling at her, according to court records. When the woman walked closer to the truck, records state, Pittman asked her, “Can you help me with this?” as he motioned to his exposed genitals, court documents state. The woman contacted Texas A&M University Police several days later and identified Pittman from a lineup. It was the second time Pittman has been arrested in less than six weeks. He was charged with driving while intoxicated in September but has not stood trial on that charge. Texas A&M football coach Dennis Franchione said Thursday he would not comment and directed reporters to Byrne’s statement. The statement, issued Thursday afternoon, said only that Pittman had been suspended from the program indefinitely for violating Athletic Department rules and the university’s code of conduct. Pittman has not played in a game this season for the Aggies and was being redshirted.
I was living in College Station when that happened. Quite possibly the easiest material I've ever been given with which to make fun of my Aggie friends
