Originally posted by

Burke White

The article is fine-delving into the lives of Ags experiencing the thrill and pressure of being in a reality show and grooming a relationship.

What has me concerned as an old Ag is the fact this girl is a cheerleader-something I suspected after seeing the "dance team" on television during basketball games. The pompons gave it away.

Yes, the girls are pretty. But you have to remember that A&M prides itself on being a unique institution. I am old enough to remember that Baylor also had male yell leaders. They dressed in white like ours.

They didn't have hand signals, but did use a megaphone like all spirit groups that were in front of the student body in the early days of college football. All colleges had male cheerleaders or whatever until coeducation came along-a relatively new turn.

They still have them-they're just wearing cheerleader uniforms and probably have more girls than boys. You can barely tell them from the "songleaders".

This is another slide down the slippery slope that will make us like any other college if we let it.

I was a non-reg. But even when I attended some of the old traditions were beginning to die. Tuesday night yell practice went by the boards in '73 or '74. The dance with Texas Women's University died around the same time. The Gig 'Em club at TWU died out.

Then, the tragedy at Bonfire and its suspension (a biggie). I'm not sure the students know the old traditions and have ever seen "We've Never Been Licked"-a movie only Ags can appreciate.(Robert Mitchum said it was the worst movie he ever did on Carson's Tonight Show-"a sory about a cow college in Texas")

I get quizzed repeatedly on our hand signals and what they mean by my Baylor siblings. They don't like the "A" sign-thinking it means something else-nasty, you figure it out. They know about the horse laugh sign and know it's a horse fart-and point out our kids don't know what it means.

After being barraged with this protests, I finally asked them, "What do you want me to do about it?" and told them,"You want to make A&M like everybody else-we don't want to be like everybody else.".

Was I wrong? Hopefully, I won't be around for another forty years or so when we are, maybe, like everybody else.

Originally posted by

Serpephone

hey, isn't this guy on American Idol now?

Originally posted by

d.m.

I had Jason Castro in a class once...whenever I saw that kid, all I could focus on was his nasty head of hair...but on a lighter side, best of luck to him in the future!

Originally posted by

d.m.

I had Jason Castro in a class once...whenever I saw that kid, all I could focus on was his nasty head of hair...but on a lighter side, best of luck to him in the future!