At first, the announcement seemed heartless.
How could Texas A & M go ahead with the Texas game one week after 12 students died in the campus bonfire accident? And how could the school even consider keeping alive a practice that resulted in such a tragedy?
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“I know it sounds kind of strange to other parts of the country,” Rick Rigsby, an associate professor of communications, said this week from College Station. “When people say `bonfire,’ they aren’t talking about a pep rally. It allows people to romanticize their time at Texas A & M. Traditions are the stuff that hold society together. A society without traditions is a society without a heart or a soul.”
Rigsby, an ordained minister and life skills coordinator for the football program, has spent the last week counseling crestfallen students and athletes. He said he senses that the campus needs to look forward to the 106th meeting between Texas and Texas A & M.
“I think what that game does is, it forces you to move on,” Rigsby said. “Students don’t know what to do. They’re lost. It’s almost like they’re frozen in time. (The game) puts you in a frame of mind to take on another challenge. It’s forcing them to move on.”
At a school long wed to traditions and rituals, Friday’s game against archrival Texas is being portrayed as a necessary part of the healing process. School officials have canceled this year’s bonfire but have yet to decide whether it will be reinstated in the future.
It’s not surprising the Aggies are reluctant to part with tradition, for it is perhaps more meaningful in college football than in any other sport. Symbols and rituals, all reeking with nostalgia, are woven into the fabric of the game.
At Ohio State, the dotting of the “i” in “Script Ohio” is not just another marching band formation. At Notre Dame, the Friday night pep rally on home football weekends is an integral part of campus life. At Tennessee, hundreds of fans line up to watch the “Vol walk,” when the team winds its way across campus to Neyland Stadium on game day. At Georgia, fans have laid flowers in front of Sanford Stadium memorials to deceased “UGAs,” the revered bulldog mascot.
To outsiders, these rituals may seem hokey or laughable. But that’s part of what makes them special on each campus.
“What other sport do people stay after the game to listen to the band?” said Bernie Kish, executive director of the College Football Hall of Fame.
Traditions play a central role at Texas A & M, founded in 1876 as a male institution governed by a military structure. Though it has grown into a sprawling university, the school’s historical identity is carried on by the 2,150 men and women in the Corps of the Cadets.
Aggies always stick together, perhaps because they long have been ridiculed by their University of Texas rivals up in Austin, the cosmopolitan state capital. The jokes portray Aggies as dim-witted and uncouth. In reality they are unfailingly loyal and when they leave College Station they take with them a deep reverence for A & M’s time-honored rituals.
Every April 21, students on campus and alumni around the world gather for Aggie Muster to remember students who have died during the previous year; Aggies observed Muster in European trenches during World War I.
Another of A & M’s most treasured traditions is the Twelfth Man, a ritual that took on new significance when last week’s death toll reached that number. Twelfth man traces its roots to the 1922 Dixie Classic, when E. King Gill, an A & M basketball player attending the football game, rushed out of the stands to suit up after a rash of injuries hit the Aggies. Gill never left the bench, but by answering the call he found a place in school lore.
The Aggies are leaning heavily on their past to get them through a painful present. That’s why there seems to be heavy sentiment to take on the Longhorns–and to resurrect the bonfire next autumn.
“It’s always a privilege to play in this game,” Texas A & M coach R.C. Slocum said. “But because of the circumstances this year, we have an obligation to be well-prepared for this game. It’s up to us to set an example for all Aggies who say, `We have to go on.’ “
Horned Frogs and Mustangs: While Texas A & M clings to tradition, two schools in another part of Texas appear ready to abandon it. Saturday’s Southern Methodist-Texas Christian game could be the penultimate meeting in the Iron Skillet game.
The Dallas-area schools have been rivals in the old Southwest Conference and the patched-together Western Athletic Conference. But TCU accepted an invitation to join Conference USA last month, leaving SMU behind.
TCU, located in Fort Worth, said it wanted to maintain the rivalry. But SMU, located in Dallas, doesn’t have any non-conference openings available through 2006.
With such stars as Doak Walker, Kyle Rote, Sammy Baugh and Davey O’Brien, TCU-SMU was among the nation’s hotter rivalries in its heyday. But even local interest in the game has waned in recent years. Two years ago, the game drew only 19,094 in Fort Worth and only 26,360 came out to the Cotton Bowl in a driving rainstorm last year.
“I think it’s a very competitive rivalry on the field, but as far as gathering interest in the overall community, I don’t know,” TCU athletic director Eric Hyman told the Dallas Morning News. “Normally in a rivalry, you see a lot more fan interest across the board.”
Fourth and inches: According to broadcast reports Tuesday, Minnesota coach Glen Mason met with Louisiana State officials in Chicago to discuss the school’s coaching vacancy. Mason became a hero after leading the Golden Gophers to their first bowl berth since 1986, but he expressed disappointment after athletic director Mark Dienhart resigned in the fallout over the academic fraud scandal in the men’s basketball program. Dienhart had helped lure Mason to Minneapolis from the University of Kansas and Mason might not like the idea of working for a new boss. “I’m not looking for another job, but the circumstances have changed,” Mason told reporters in the Twin Cities. “Let’s face it. I’m waiting to see, with great anticipation, what happens.” Like Gary Barnett did so many times at Northwestern, Mason might be playing a game to force the Minnesota administration to sweeten his deal–or perhaps name him athletic director. On Tuesday, Minnesota President Mark Yudof said he expects to finalize a new deal with Mason soon at “a significant salary increase.”
Saturday was not a happy day for the two of the old campus warlords. On the day Ohio State and Notre Dame fell out of bowl contention, former Fighting Irish coach and Buckeye assistant Lou Holtz finished an 0-11 season at South Carolina. After the Gamecocks dropped their 21st consecutive game in a 31-21 home loss to bitter rival Clemson, Holtz said, “I’m sorry for the seniors. I know we can have a good, solid team next year. I know that. Does it hurt? Yes. Am I embarrassed? Absolutely not. As they say, from these ashes something will rise out.”
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One of the more impressive aspects of top-ranked Florida State’s victory at Florida was the Seminoles’ response to a sudden momentum shift in the third quarter. Florida State had led throughout until quarterback Chris Weinke threw an ill-advised pass into the arms of Gator cornerback Bennie Alexander, who scooted 43 yards for a touchdown to put Florida ahead 16-13. The Seminoles answered with a drive that resulted in Sebastian Janikowski’s game-tying 54-yard field goal and then took the lead back on their subsequent possession. It was the 13th time the opposition had taken a lead against Florida State this year and the eighth time Florida State has answered with a score. “You’re leading, leading, leading and then, bang, all of a sudden they’re ahead and the crowd is going wild,” Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said. “But our kids came back. They have done that all year.”