“Our intent with the
‘It’s Time’ campaign is to illustrate that Texas A&M has arrived on
the national stage,” explained Jason Cook, vice president of marketing
and communications for the university, “not only in the top athletic
league in the country, but also as one of the nation’s top
universities.”
Three
years into the SEC’s groundbreaking 15-year, $2.25 billion contract with
ESPN — which coincides with a 15-year, $825 million deal with CBS —
Texas A&M leaders say it’s time to shine a brighter spotlight on the
university’s numerous distinctions, including:
Since
2009, Texas A&M athletic programs have claimed eight national
championships, including titles in women’s basketball (2011), men’s golf
(2009) and men’s and women’s track and field (2009, 2010, 2011).
The
Aggie athletic program placed in the top 10 of the NACDA Learfield
Sports Directors’ Cup (which awards points based on order of finish in
various NCAA-sponsored championships) during both the 2009-10 and
2010-11 academic years, making it the top overall program in the Big 12
the last two years.
Texas
A&M won nine conference championships during the 2010-2011 season
and was one of only two universities nationwide to qualify every sports
team, men’s and women’s, for postseason competition.
Texas’
first public university recently vaulted into the nation’s top 20
public universities — tied for 19th — in the 2012 rankings by U.S. News
& World Report.
A&M’s
enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 students, ranking it as the
sixth largest university in the United States. Upon its entry into the
conference, the school will replace Florida as the SEC’s largest member
institution.
Texas A&M
President R. Bowen Loftin, the catalyst for the move to the SEC, said
numerous other Aggie achievements have gone unnoticed in the past, but
no more.
“The
Southeastern Conference provides Texas A&M the national visibility
that our great university and our student-athletes deserve,” Loftin said
to the gathering of supporters in attendance at the Sept. 26 press
conference to announce the school’s decision to join the SEC, while
deeming it a “100-year decision for Texas A&M.”
“Now,
we have a venue. The SEC will be our national stage every day, every
month, every year, giving extra value to our former students. The brand
of Texas A&M is made by you, and it will be seen every day.”
Familiar ties
For
Jason and Leann Cook, Texas A&M’s impeding move from the Big 12 to
the SEC is a “homecoming.” The transition to one of the nation’s premier
collegiate conferences also can be deemed a labor of love for the
husband and wife.
After
A&M nearly left the Big 12 in 2010, Loftin turned to Jason, a
Mississippi State graduate whose current job title also includes chief
communications officer for The Texas A&M University System, and
Leann, a Texas A&M alumna and former assistant commissioner for the
SEC, for valuable insight into the league.
While
delving into topics such as the history, culture, marketing and
branding of the league during those consultation sessions that resumed
in earnest last summer, the Cooks’ personal relationships with key SEC
staff members also led to more effective communication between Texas
A&M leaders and the school’s prospective conference. Jason, who once
was a member of Mississippi State’s athletic media relations staff,
proudly served as the A&M spokesman throughout its dramatic shift
from the Big 12 to the SEC.
“We
were so aware of the things the SEC does right,” said Leann, who spent
nine years at the conference. “And the SEC members really do support
each other as a family.
“A&M is going to be such a great long-term fit.”
The
jump from the Big 12 to the SEC also should be a smooth transition for
at least a couple of members of the Aggie athletic department, who have
already proven they know how to compete — and excel — in the SEC.
Gary
Blair, who guided the Aggies’ women’s basketball program to its first
national title in 2011, is one of only three all-time NCAA Division I
women’s basketball coaches to lead two different teams to the NCAA
Women’s Final Four. Prior to becoming Texas A&M’s women’s basketball
coach with the most wins, Blair also made history at Arkansas by taking
his unranked 1997-1998 team to the Final Four.
Pat
Henry became the first coach to lead a school to three consecutive
men’s and women’s NCAA Championships when the Texas A&M track and
field programs accomplished the feat last season. During his 17-year
tenure at LSU, Henry established the school as the pre-eminent track and
field program in the country by winning 27 NCAA championships, with
numerous team titles coming on both the men’s and women’s sides.
Texas
A&M has played other roles in the history of the SEC, most notably
as one of the coaching stops for legendary Alabama football coach Paul
W. “Bear” Bryant. During his tenure in College Station, Texas, Bryant
famously put the “Junction Boys” through the paces during a grueling,
10-day training camp that’s been chronicled in a book and a movie of the
same name. He also coached his first, and only, Heisman Trophy winner,
Aggie halfback John David Crow, who later would serve as an assistant on
Bryant’s staff at Alabama.
As
a member of the SEC, Texas A&M will extend long-standing football
rivalries with Arkansas and LSU. After the first meeting in College
Station in 1899, the Aggies have matched up against LSU more than any
other opponent they haven’t shared a conference with.
“Throughout
the years, there’s just been so many ties and similarities between
Texas A&M and the SEC,” Jason Cook said. “We’re looking forward to
rekindling those relationships.”
New era, century-old traditions
Over
700 season tickets were sold for the Aggie football program’s 2012
campaign within a two-hour window after the line item, “Authorization
for the President to Take All Actions Relating to Texas A&M
University’s Athletic Conference Alignment,” was posted by the school’s
board of regents last August. Kyle Field eventually was sold out
completely — for the first time in school history — in anticipation of
A&M’s inaugural season as a member of the SEC.
First-year
Texas A&M football coach Kevin Sumlin will guide the Aggies onto
the field, and into a new era of intercollegiate competition, for the
school’s history-making conference matchup at home against Florida on
Sept. 8. Sumlin, a former A&M assistant, whom Aggies Athletic
Director Bill Byrne deemed “the right person to lead our football
program into the Southeastern Conference,” takes the helm in College
Station after last season’s 7-6 campaign under Mike Sherman.
“Having
coached there before, I understand the culture and embrace the
commitment by the 12th Man regarding Aggie football,” Sumlin said during
the December press conference to announce his hiring, following a
successful four-year stint as head coach at Houston. “Aggieland is a
special place, and I look forward to working with the young men in the
football program and recruiting the type of players we need to be
successful in the SEC.”
A&M
will join the SEC while embracing the long-standing traditions that
have helped set it apart from other institutions, but ones which should
mesh nicely in the tradition-rich confines of the 80-year-old
conference.
Visitors
to Kyle Field will experience the game-day pageantry of a university
initially established as a military institution. The Corps of Cadets,
the largest uniformed body of students outside the service academies, is
considered the heartbeat of Texas A&M as well as the Keepers of the
Spirit of Aggieland. During a pregame ritual similar to Auburn’s “Tiger
Walk” or Ole Miss’ “Walk of Champions,” Aggie alumni and fans line the
route to the stadium as the Corps proudly marches to Kyle Field.
Texas
A&M also is home to the 12th Man, which is embodied in the entire
student body who proudly stand, ready for service, throughout the entire
football game. The original 12th man, former student E. King Gill,
suited up after being called down from the stands during a game in 1922,
ready to go in just in case he was needed for an Aggie team depleted by
injuries.
This
season, SEC fans also will become familiar with Reveille, a
full-blooded Collie that serves as the school’s official mascot and is
considered the highest-ranking member of the Corps of Cadets, as well as
the terms “Gig ‘em,” symbolized in the form of a thumbs-up gesture, and
“Howdy,” the official greeting of Texas A&M.
And
then there are the yell leaders, five male students elected by the
student body to lead Aggie fans in “yells” during athletic and other
school events. Utilizing hand signals instead of gymnastics maneuvers,
the yell leaders perpetuate the spirit of the 12th Man.
“I
know my friends would have preferred to see a pretty cheerleader on the
sidelines instead of me,” joked Jeff Bailey, who served as an Aggie
yell leader from 1998-2000. “But for me it was a great honor and
privilege to be able to represent the university.”
“As
an alumni, I’m excited about the new path that Texas A&M is about
to take. We may have a big road ahead of us, but there’s not one Aggie I
know who is not excited about joining the SEC family.”
Tradition
“Howdy”
is the universal Aggie greeting, and fans typically end conversations
with a thumbs-up and “Gig ’em.” The university held a bonfire before the
Texas game until 12 people were killed and 27 injured in 1999 when the
wood stack collapsed. Since 2002, a nonsanctioned bonfire has been held.
A specially selected football walk-on dons the No. 12 and takes part on
special teams as part of the 12th man tradition. Fans sway in the
stands at the end of the “Aggie War Hymn” as they bid “goodbye to Texas
University.”
Visiting College Station
Texas
A&M’s football team will come to Tuscaloosa this November, but the
Tide will return the favor in odds years starting in 2013. The Northgate
district is the heart of College Station’s nightlife, and neighboring
Bryan offers sevreal attractions:
Chicken
Oil Co.: Opened in Bryan in 1977 as a gas station and burger shop. The
gas in gone, but the burgers are going strong. Try the signature “Death
Burger” if you like ’em spicy.
George
Bush Presidential Library: If you’ve had your fill of eat and drink,
check out George H.W. Bush’s 90-acre library and museum on A&M’s
west campus, which contains more than 44 million pages of personal
papers and official documents.
The
Dixen Chicken: “College Station’s most famous watering hole since 1974”
claims to serve the most beer per square foot in the U.S. Home to a
live snake and a weekly domino tournament, the bar is the traditional
spot for students to dunk their newly received class rings in a beer
they then chug.
Photo by Aggiesports.com
COLLEGE STATION – Texas A&M has rounded out its 2012 football
schedule with a familiar foe – at least geographically. Sam Houston
State, situated about 50 miles to the east of Aggieland, will play at
Kyle Field on Nov. 17.
