The UT Longhorns and Our Country Cousins—at It Again

I have said too many times to count that I am ambivalent about my alma mater. Rather than the University of Texas, I could have matriculated elsewhere in 1971. A different school—a smaller school, most especially—might have suited me better. But I stuck it out, graduated and am among the 600,000-plus living Texas alumni. I spent three decades in Austin, know the Forty Acres like the back of my hand, attended dozens of sporting events and wrote four books on UT; for better or worse, my blood runs orange.

From that perspective, I address one aspect of its 130-year rivalry with Texas A&M University. Before starting, I will acknowledge that the Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas opened seven years before UT (1876 vs. 1883). The first football game—a 38-0 victory for the boys in orange—took place at Clark Field in 1894.

Now, the intercollegiate shenanigans:

• On November 18, 1907, some A&M students gathered wood from their spacious campus and lit it up. This was the origin of the Aggie Bonfire, which they said “symbolized a burning desire to beat the hell out of t.u.”

• In 1917, some A&M students kidnapped our mascot, Bevo, and branded him with “13-0”—the score of the Aggies’ 1915 victory. (Why not 21-7, the score by which we won in 1916?)

• In 1918, J.V. “Pinky” Wilson composed the “Aggie War Hymn” which contains the lyrics “goodbye to texas university,” “so long to the orange and the white,” and “saw Varsity’s horns off,” and calls us “t-sips.” There is also a sly reference to “The Eyes of Texas,” UT’s alma mater song.

• Formulating a response thereto, in 1923, Walter Hunnicutt and Burnett “Blondie” Pharr (director of the Longhorn Band) composed “Texas Fight.” The second line is “And it’s goodbye to A&M.”

• In 1938, some UT students marked “BEAT A-M” on the grass of Memorial Stadium, and so the Horns did, 7-6.

• On November 23, 1948, a 25-year-old World War II vet and a passenger, both Texas students, “borrowed” an airplane at the Austin airport and flew to College Station. They dropped several jugs of gasoline attached to railroad incendiary flares on the Aggie Bonfire. Five of the six bombs were duds, while one hit the mark but did not fully ignite the pile of wood. By the time they returned to Austin, dean of men Jack Holland was getting stormy reports from A&M. Diplomatic apologies were issued, and both students were suspended although not expelled.

• Shortly after UT’s 23-20 defeat of No. 1 SMU on November 4, 1950, some A&M students snuck into Memorial Stadium and planted oats on the field. By the time the Longhorns and Aggies met there on November 30, “A&M” was quite visible. The Horns won nevertheless, 17-0.

• The favor was returned the very next year at Kyle Field. Alas, the maroon and white prevailed, 22-21.

• Rehashing 1917, on November 12, 1963, five Aggies located Bevo at the state hog farm 12 miles northwest of Austin that was his home. After presumably saying “howdy,” they loaded him onto a stock trailer and took him back to College Station and from there to a farmhouse in Bryan. The Silver Spurs, whose job it was to care for the big steer, contacted the Texas Rangers. Found healthy and unharmed, he was returned to Austin, but not before a group of A&M students cheered lustily.

• In 1972, when yours truly was a sophomore, Bevo (number IX, to be precise) was kidnapped by four Ags from his home at the Travis County Sheriff’s Posse Arena and taken in a U-Haul trailer to College Station. Barely 24 hours had passed before Cullen Robinson, a member of the Texas Cattleman’s Association, found him and notified authorities.

• Before the 1990 game in Austin (a 28-27 Texas victory), an announcement was made wherein the number of caretakers for A&M’s mascot collie, Reveille, would be limited. “Two years ago, they came over here with 22 people, and we let them in,” said UT events manager Al Lundstedt. “If we can handle a 1,500-pound steer with five people, I would think they could handle Reveille.”

• Reveille, A&M’s mascot since 1931, had been kept safe from the clutches of Texas students until December 26, 1993. She was resting peacefully in the fenced backyard of mascot corporal John Lively in Dallas five days before the Aggies’ Cotton Bowl matchup with Notre Dame. The dog-snatchers, led by Neil Andrew Sheffield, held her for four days before calling the Austin American-Statesman and saying she would be released if A&M publicly acknowledged that UT was the better school. While that did not happen, Reveille was found tied to a sign post near Lake Travis. (The Irish won that game, 24-21.)

• In April 2014, some pranksters planted maroon bluebonnets all around the UT Tower. They had been created by A&M horticulturists in the mid-1980s.

(The two schools, let it be said, can come together. On November 18, 1999, the Aggie Bonfire collapsed, killing 12 and injuring 27. UT responded with admirable maturity and sympathy. There were blood drives and a heartfelt letter from the student body president, Wade Frances. During the football game at Kyle Field eight days later [a 20-16 A&M victory], the Longhorn Band carried Texas A&M flags, played “Amazing Grace” and “Taps,” removed their hats and left the field silently.)

That brings us to the most recent incident. At the Southeastern Conference Media Days held in Atlanta earlier this week, the 16 head football coaches were introduced by commissioner Greg Sankey and spoke from a podium. UT’s Steve Sarkisian was joined by Kirby Smart (Georgia), Lane Kiffin (Mississippi), Brian Kelly (LSU), Kalen DeBoer (Alabama), Billy Napier (Florida), Clark Lea (Vanderbilt), Brent Venables (Oklahoma), Josh Heupel (Tennessee), Jeff Lebby (Mississippi State), Mark Stoops (Kentucky), Hugh Freeze (Auburn), Mike Elko (Texas A&M), Eli Drinkwitz (Missouri), Sam Pittman (Arkansas) and Shane Beamer (South Carolina). About 15 seconds of the fight song of each school was played before the men offered remarks about the upcoming SEC season.

In the case of Sarkisian, however, it was the “Aggie War Hymn”! I have tried and so far been unable to ascertain who was responsible for this sizable mix-up. Perhaps it was an innocent mistake by some intern who did not know the difference between the University of Texas and Texas A&M University. Possible but unlikely. A lot of impassioned SEC fans were none too happy about UT and Oklahoma joining the conference last year, and they witnessed the Horns reaching the semifinals in the 2024 playoffs. Not Georgia, not Bama—Texas. I realize it is uncouth to boast, but we are a behemoth. The UT athletic department generated a staggering $331 million in revenue in 2024, and our endowment of more than $47 billion is larger than those of the other 15 conference members combined.

Sarkisian either failed to notice that “Texas Fight” did not precede his remarks but the song representing the state’s other SEC member—the one that envies us, resents us and wants to be us but is not and will never be—or he just chose to ignore it. He is a West Coast guy who has only been in Austin since 2021, but I cannot believe Sarkisian was unaware of this faulty musical intro. His grasp of UT culture is solid enough; I have seen him exuberantly leading his players in “Texas Fight” in several locker rooms after victories, so he knows the song.

He could have reacted differently that day in Atlanta. Rather than going straight to his discussion of the Longhorns’ promising pigskin proclivities, he might have paused and—in a manner both serious and light hearted—asked whether “Texas Fight” or “The Eyes of Texas” would precede the comments of the Aggies’ Mike Elko.