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II here was a time, a long, long time ago, when there was little to
he proud of at Texas A & M. When Texas's first venture into
I higher education began (a mere 15 years after President Abra-
ham Lincoln signed into law the Morrill Land Grant College Act of
186.!), the first cadets enrolled into a college with only one building, no
kitchen at all, primitive outhouses, and a remarkably undistinguished
and tiny faculty. The school was equidistant from the three most pupil
lous centers in late-19th-century Texas (Galveston-Houston, Dallas, and
San Antonio), a political decision guaranteed to make A &M forever
feel like it was located in the middle of exactly nowhere.
In time, our rime, Texas A &M would distinguish itself among mod-
ern American universities as a leader in research, as one of the top ten
universities in number of National Merit Scholars, and also in the size
of its endowment. It has provided its country with more than 200 indi-
viduals who achieved the rank of general or admiral, and now with
more than 4.1,00(1 students, it is the seventh largest university in the
United States. How it got from there to here is a smry worth knowing.
Texas A &M began in the 1870s, the same decade thai saw the start
of the great Texas cattle drives, when trail driving cowboys guided vast
herds to market by way of the railheads in Kansas. I he) quickly cap-
tured the imagination of the entire country, and the cadets ol the Agri-
cultural and Mechanical College of Texas profited immensely by the
Coincidence. Two great Texas myths began together.
From the beginning there was the Corps of Cadets, who wore uni-
loims and marched everywhere, ikit the Corps in itself was not enough
to build a legendary university. Tor that, A &M needed a hero, and
Lawrence Sullivan "Sul" Ross, more than anyone, fulfilled that role. He
shaped the myth of Aggieland during his tenure as president.
Sul Ross came ol age in Waco at the dawn of the Cavil War, becom-
ing one of the youngest brigadier generals in the Confederacy, and
immediately thereafter he served as a second-generation Texas Ranger,
From 1887 to 18VI Ross was an immensely popular governor of Texas,
the only war-hero governor Tcxans had enioycd since Sam Houston. The
respect with which lie was held was legendary.
Sul Ross accepted the presidency of the college immediately after his
governorship, a decision that in itself signaled the emerging importance of
Texas A & M . Fathers at the time spoke of sending their sons not to college
hut to Sul Ross. His seven-year tenure, which ended with his death in
1898, was as distinguished as he was. Texas had to take A &M seriously
because Sul Ross did, anil under his leadership the university grew and
prospered as never before.
Alter Sul Russ, tradition at A &M continued to be molded by the
t orps ol Cadets, which became a single fraternity, encompassing all stu-
dent life at the college. Its colorful traditions developed early in the 20th
century: the large military-style precision Aggie Hand; the Silver Taps cere-
mony m memory ol students who died while enrolled; the Aggie Muster
on April 21, when Aggies gather together, wherever they may be to
remember then deceased comrades; Final Review, when the senior class
passes authority to the junior class; the Bonfire, the largest in the world,
on the eve of the football game with the University of Texas (t.u. in Aggie
parlance); the Twelfth Man tradition, which goes back to a 1422 football
game when student F. King Gill answered the ball nine call of a desperate-
ly worried Aggie coach. Gill volunteered, then suited up for the second
half. To this day Aggies at football games do not sit, but remain standing
in honor of the Twelfth Man and his readiness to serve the institution.
The cult of Texas A &M was ultimately shaped In two forces; the spirit
ol the Corps and the Southern military code ol honor, personified by
Lawrence Sullivan Ross, an ideal model for success. This articulated sprit
and code of honor drove a mediocre Southern military college to become
one of this country's great universities. Barry Moore
THE MYSTIQUE OF AGGIELAN D
A VIE W OF T R A D I T I O N
I I lirst arrived in College Station in the spring of 1992 a>- a
prospective graduate student from up north. Sean, an old friend
| from my undergraduate days who was living in College Station,
offered to show me around. After the obligatory campus tour and cruis-
Lng the north, south, and east gates in an Alamo rental ear, I presump-
tuously said to Sean, "I've seen enough of this commercial strip stuff.
Let's go downtown." Sean looked at me like a parent trying to find
appropriate words to tell a child that there is no Faster Bunny ami said,
"Well, this is downtown." I exclaimed, "This isn't a town, tins is .>
franchise-scape!"
Now, six years later, I have become acculturated to the extent that I
have learned enough Aggie lore to form an understanding of the com-
plexities and contradictions between the physical presence of College
Station and the intangible cultural construct (mythical image) that is
Aggieland. For thousands of undergraduates ami former students,
Aggieland is the magical setting where the glorious rites of passage
afforded by university life are played out. Aggieland should not be con-
fused with new American suburbia, where the best coffee house in town
is in a strip malt and has a drive-thru window. But there is an mauthen-
ticity in the disparity between the symbolism of Aggie traditions and the
experience afforded by the generic monotony of College Station's sell
proliferating sprawl.
I listorically, the majority of sacred places and paths of Aggieland
have been a manifestation of inculcated doctrine rather than lived expe
rtence. beginning with Fish Camp, undergraduates at Texas A &M have
been brainwashed to believe in the superior significance ol a plethora of
monuments and rituals. While this conditioning has been applied to
things such as the statue of Sul Ross, it could just as easily been direct-
ed to a rock in the parking lot of a nearby McDonald's. "The point is
not to belittle Aggie traditions but to illustrate that the mental attitude
produced by them is not one of spontaneous, first-hand experience.
Through official university rhetoric and corporate marketing practices.
Aggieland has become Aggiewortd, a kind of collegiate theme park crafted to
capture the imaginations ol undergraduates in the same way that Disneyland
dazzles children wilh plastic elephants and robotic pirates. "This phenomenon
is illustrated by recent initiatives of the Old Main Society to create a replica
of the original College Station train station, which would neither function as
a tram station nor occupy the original sire.
Instead of creating the opportunity to authentically experience train trav-
el, something that is now practically impossible in Texas, the College Station
Station would merely symbolize the Aggie rail heritage. I Ins nostalgic dispo-
sition ignores the realities of a community that is overrun by automobiles
and desperately needs transportation alternatives. It also treats local heritage,
such as rail transportation, as a series of static vignettes instead ol under-
standing that history as parr of a dynamic process. Why not create a new rail
network and station that is last, efficient, and grounded in the contemporary,
high-tech, research-driven processes of'Texas A&M ?
both the citizens of College Station and the student hotly of lexas A &M
are becoming more heterogeneous, and the days ol the infamous two-per-
center (slackers who give only 2 percent as opposed to real Aggies, who give
I 10 percent) are long gone. Thus, ilus budding urban center can no longer
rely exclusively on the symbolism of Aggicworld to define its identity as we
enter the third millennium. In order to become vital, the physical character
of College Station as well as the rituals and traditions of Aggieland must be
adapted to the challenges posed by this new era. Citizens of College Station
need to be prompted to question the validity of a franchise-dominated land
scape, and the Texas A &M student both needs to he educated to respect the
university's heritage, while being encouraged to express the spirit of its tune.
Timothy J. Cassuiy