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Ring Dome, to. 1980
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I I here was a time , a long , long time ago, whe n there was littl e to
he prou d of at Texas A & M . Whe n Texas's first venture int o
I higher education began (a mere 15 years after President Abra -
ham Lincol n signed into law the Morril l Lan d Gran t College Ac t of
186.!), the first cadets enrolle d into a college wit h only one building , no
kitchen at all , primitiv e outhouses, and a remarkably undistinguished
and tin y faculty . The school was equidistant fro m the three most pupi l
lous centers in late-19th-century Texas (Galveston-Houston , Dallas , and
San Antonio), a politica l decision guaranteed to make A &M forever
feel like it was located in the middl e of exactl y nowhere .
I n time , ou r rime , Texas A &M woul d distinguish itself amon g mod -
ern American universities as a leader in research, as one of the to p ten
universities in numbe r of Nationa l Meri t Scholars, and also in the size
o f its endowment. It has provided its countr y wit h more tha n 200 indi -
viduals wh o achieved the rank of general or admiral , and no w wit h
more tha n 4.1,00(1 students, it is the seventh largest university in the
Unite d States. Ho w it got fro m there to here is a smry wort h knowing .
Texas A &M began in the 1870s, the same decade thai saw the start
of the great Texas cattle drives, when trai l drivin g cowboys guided vast
herds to market by way of the railheads in Kansas. I he) quickl y cap-
tured the imaginatio n of the entire country , and the cadets ol the Agri -
cultural and Mechanica l College of Texas profite d immensely by the
Coincidence. Tw o great Texas myths began together.
From the beginning there was the Corp s of Cadets, wh o wore uni -
loims and marched everywhere, iki t the Corps in itself was not enough
t o buil d a legendary university . Tor that , A &M needed a hero, and
Lawrence Sulliva n "Sul " Ross, more than anyone, fulfille d that role. He
shaped the myt h of Aggieland durin g 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
immediatel y thereafter he served as a second-generation Texas Ranger,
From 1887 to 18VI Ross was an immensely popula r governo r of Texas,
the onl y war-hero governor Tcxans had enioycd since Sam Houston . The
respect wit h whic h lie was held was legendary.
Sul Ross accepted the presidency of the college immediatel y after his
governorship, a decision that in itself signaled the emerging importanc e of
Texas A & M . Fathers at the time spoke of sending their sons not to college
hut to Sul Ross. His seven-year tenure, whic h ended wit h 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, traditio n at A &M continue d to be molded by the
t orps ol Cadets, which became a single fraternity , encompassing all stu-
dent life at the college. Its colorfu l tradition s developed early in the 20t h
century: the large military-style precision Aggie Hand; the Silver Taps cere-
mony m memory ol students wh o died whil e enrolled ; the Aggie Muste r
o n Apri l 21 , when Aggies gather together, wherever they may be to
remember then deceased comrades; Final Review, whe n the senior class
passes authorit y to the junio r class; the Bonfire , the largest in the world ,
on the eve of the footbal l game wit h the University of Texas (t.u . in Aggie
parlance); the Twelfth Ma n tradition , which goes back to a 1422 footbal l
game whe n student F. Kin g Gil l answered the ball nine call of a desperate-
ly worrie d Aggie coach. Gil l volunteered, then suited up for the second
half. To this day Aggies at footbal l games do not sit, but remain standin g
in honor of the Twelfth Ma n and his readiness to serve the institution .
The cult of Texas A &M was ultimatel y shaped In tw o forces; the spirit
ol the Corps and the Southern militar y code ol honor, personified by
Lawrence Sullivan Ross, an ideal mode l for success. This articulated sprit
and code of honor drov e a mediocre Southern militar y college to become
one of this country's great universities. Barry Moore
THE MYSTIQU E OF AGGIELAN D
A VIE W OF T R A D I T I O N
I I lirst arrive d in College Station in the sprin g of 1992 a>- a
prospective graduat e student fro m up north . Sean, a n ol d frien d
| fro m my undergraduate days wh o was livin g in College Station ,
offered to show me around . After the obligatory campus tou r and cruis-
Lng the north , south , and east gates in an Alam o rental ear, I presump-
tuously said to Sean, "I'v e seen enough of this commercia l stri p stuff.
Let's go downtown." Sean looked at me like a parent tryin g to fin d
appropriate word s to tell a chil d that there is no Faster Bunny ami said,
"Well, this is downtown." I exclaimed , "Thi s isn't a town , tins is .>
franchise-scape!"
Now, six years later, I have become acculturate d to the extent that I
have learned enough Aggie lore to for m an understanding of the com -
plexities and contradiction s between the physical presence of College
Station and the intangible cultura l construct (mythica l image) that is
Aggieland. For thousands of undergraduates ami forme r students,
Aggieland is the magical settin g where the gloriou s rites of passage
afforded by university life are played out . Aggieland should not be con-
fused wit h new American suburbia , where the best coffee house in tow n
is in a stri p malt and has a drive-thr u window . But there is an mauthen-
ticity in the disparity between the symbolis m of Aggie traditions and the
experience afforded by the generic monotony of College Station's sell
proliferatin g sprawl .
I listorically, the majorit y of sacred places and paths of Aggieland
have been a manifestation of inculcated doctrin e rathe r tha n lived expe
rtence. beginning wit h Fish Camp, undergraduates at Texas A &M have
been brainwashed to believe in the superior significance ol a plethor a of
monument s and rituals. Whil e this conditionin g has been applie d to
things such as the statue of Sul Ross, it coul d just as easily been direct-
ed to a rock in the parkin g lot of a nearby McDonald's . "The poin t is
not to belittle Aggie tradition s but to illustrate tha t the mental attitud e
produced by them is not one of spontaneous, first-hand experience.
Through official university rhetoric and corporat e marketin g practices.
Aggieland has become Aggiewortd , a kin d of collegiate theme park crafted to
capture the imaginations ol undergraduates in the same way that Disneyland
dazzles children wil h plastic elephants and roboti c pirates. "This phenomenon
is illustrated by recent initiatives of the Ol d Mai n Society to create a replica
o f the origina l College Statio n trai n station, whic h woul d neither functio n as
a tra m station nor occupy the original sire.
Instead of creating the opportunit y to authentically experience trai n trav -
el, somethin g that is no w practically impossible in Texas, the College Station
Station woul d merely symbolize the Aggie rail heritage. I Ins nostalgic dispo-
sition ignores the realities of a communit y that is overru n by automobile s
and desperately needs transportatio n alternatives. It also treats local heritage,
such as rai l transportation , as a series of static vignettes instead ol under-
standing that history as parr of a dynamic process. Wh y not create a new rai l
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, an d the days ol the infamou s two-per-
center (slackers wh o give onl y 2 percent as opposed to real Aggies, wh o give
I 10 percent) are long gone. Thus, ilus buddin g urba n center can no longer
rely exclusively on the symbolis m of Aggicworl d to define its identity as we
enter the thir d millennium . In order to become vital , the physical character
o f College Station as wel l as the rituals and tradition s of Aggieland must be
adapted to the challenges posed by this new era. Citizens of College Station
need to be prompte d to question the validit y of a franchise-dominate d land
scape, and the Texas A &M student bot h needs to he educated to respect the
university's heritage, whil e being encouraged to express the spirit of its tune.
Timothy J. Cassuiy