You guys know how I like it when a Confessor volunteers a piece I can use here. Long-time responsible Confessor East Texas P1 asked some time back if he could do a piece on a Hardline segment that struck a nerve with him. Sure, I said, would love to see it. He cranked it out over a weekend and sent it to me and I offer my sincere apologies to him that it took me this long to get to it -- he and I both would have preferred that it have run closer to the segment he's commenting on. Sorry, Tex.
And you have got to love a Confessor who supplies his own redhead, in this case his favorite East Texas beverage consultant and technician (who, he assures me, has given permission for her photo to appear here).
I have edited very lightly for clarity but left it pretty much intact. Please send your submissions to theplainsman1310@gmail.com. After six years, my topic wheel needs some air.
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On Thursday, September
30th 6:40 segment Corby took the stage about “bits going on at Texas
A&M." Evidently a regent
at A&M posted a message on Facebook that the A&M/UT game should be
reinstated. However, his reason was not to restore the rivalry but
because UT had become a “cupcake” program and would offer a rest between the
SEC schedule and A&M's current non-conference schedule. You can find
the audio here about 3:47 into the program.
I agree that all schools have the 1% - 3% of knuckleheads, whether
they are students, alumni or regents, that positively “hate” the other school.
The TAMU regent who posted about the “cupcake” school was definitely
wrong, maybe trying to be funny or tongue-in-cheek, and it did not work.
Corby exposited that most TAMU fans would shake their heads and be like: "Dude,
shut up." Mike, however, offered the observation that no, most
Aggies were more like "hell yeah!" (my words, not his).
This is where it turned weird, to me. Corby (and to a lesser
extent, Mike) went on a long rant about how much each school “HATED” the other
and did not respect one another.
My question to Corby: Where doe you infer this so-called
hatred? There were phrases thrown out that there was “a superiority
complex,” “no respect between the two
and never has been,” and, “the hatred is so strange to me.” And then the
references to schools like Notre Dame v. Southern Cal, Ohio St. v. Michigan and
even Oklahoma v. Texas, who do things right. Give each other the “knowing
nod.”
I am not a multi-generational Aggie though I have been a fan since
1979. My daughter graduated from there, class of ’10. My family is
a mixed family, with some nieces and nephews graduating from both schools.
My brother graduated from UT. I don’t know of any “hatred” between
the schools. I asked my daughter and her answer (and her husband’s, Class
of ’09) was that it was a friendly rivalry, intense at times but nothing more
or less. There are well-entrenched opinions on both sides of the ball but
that is true at all schools, not just these two, whether they be SEC, Big 12,
FBS, FCS or whatever. (Again, we'll put aside the small number of
knuckleheads at any school.)
My first point of the bond between the schools would be to
reference “The Burning Desire,” the documentary about the bonfire collapse.
Unfortunately, copyright protections keep most of this off the internet
so I can’t post a link. However, in this documentary, produced by A&M,
the uplift and support by Texas students in the days after the collapse and
preceding the game was very well recorded. Blood drives, cancelled hex
rally, Mack and Sally Brown’s support, etc. Believe me, there was no
“hate” during that week and the same feeling has continued. Look at the
respect the UT band gave A&M during halftime. Brought everybody to
tears is what it did.
Last 2:32 minutes of the Longhorn band performance. Watch that and
tell me if your allergies didn’t act up just a little.
There was another article about the meeting of mascots.
Interesting read.
http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/the-meeting-of-two-mascots/
I
I think the interesting quote from this article is from Daylon Koster, Reveille VIII’s handler:
“It was a dot dot dot moment. To be continued,” Koster said. “I
wouldn't say friends, I wouldn't say enemies. There was utmost respect between
schools and mascots”. Please note in the story this was in 2013.
Then there is this from
2011, 12 years after the collapse. A UT fan left a piece of paper at the
Aggie memorial to the bonfire collapse. It references the statements made
at the time by UT vice-president of student affairs at that time, Eric Opiela
(also referenced in The Burning Desire). Are we seeing a trend
here, Corby?
Finally, and while this
is not directly applicable to the A&M/Texas situation, I think it goes to
the culture of TAMU from someone who is not indoctrinated / drinking the Kool-Aid
that sometime infects A&M fans and others. A Florida fan comes to
TAMU for the first ever TAMU SEC game:
So if Corby was doing a
bit, then I get it. But I don’t think he was. I was speaking with
my brother after the Texas-Oklahoma State game about all the freshman /
sophomores on the Longhorn team. Corby and Mike opined that Texas will be
back sooner than later. As a TAMU fan I agree. I told my brother
that I did not see any quit on this team from any of the players, and the
malcontents that did not like playing under Charlie Strong are gone. As
superlative Corby spoke “I don’t know when they will be back but they will be
back.” I agree, and I give it two years. Give Charlie Strong two
years and that A&M regent will be eating that “cupcake”. (This piece
was started before the TCU game but I still stand behind my opinion.)
Yes, I want an A&M-Texas
game. As a mixed family (as noted above), Thanksgiving dinners were so
much fun when half the house was for one team, half for the other. I may
be wrong, but this is how I feel it is between the majority of fans of the two
schools. I want that atmosphere back. So Corby, come eat
Thanksgiving with us. We don’t hate.
