Tell me about the Texas A&M cult

[InkBlot]

@Hippy_Hollow

Along with some friends, we snuck into the bonfire probably around '94.<…>You guessed it, we ended up walking on a patch of sacred grass and were summarily chased by some inebriated ags… no doubt, they wanted to “explain” to us the consequences of walking on the grass.

The only "sacred’ grass, so to speak, is around the Memorial Student Center, which (as the name implies) is both the student center and a war memorial. So, no walking on the grass, and no hats indoors - politely but firmly enforced by any of the corps of cadets and most students.

Around the bonfire site, it’s more likely you just got too close. They’re very strict about distance limits, especially during the bonfire itself. A&M liked to push records with their bonfire, and the fear always was that once lit, it could collapse unexpectedly in any direction. At during bonfire, everyone is inebriated, so everyone worked hard at enforcing the rules.

[Sam_Lowry]

@Hippy_Hollow

True story, I had a friend in college who kidnapped Reveille. He got booted from school for at least a semester and some ag FBI/CIA guy was on the case.

Can you tell us more about this? There must be a good story here.

[Koxinga]

@Sam_Lowry

Can you tell us more about this? There must be a good story here.

I’m guessing they eloped.

[RandMcnally]

I’m thinking of going there, I hear they have a really good history program, but I’d rather not have to deal with the Corps of Cadets. How intrusive are they? I’m not much for school spirit stuff so would they hassle me?

[Sam_Lowry]

@RandMcnally

I’m thinking of going there, I hear they have a really good history program, but I’d rather not have to deal with the Corps of Cadets. How intrusive are they? I’m not much for school spirit stuff so would they hassle me?

You won’t have to deal with them at all. The Corps is one of the more visible groups of Aggies, but they are a small fraction of the student body. They won’t hassle you at all about school spirit. For one thing, not all of them are super school spirited and they are often in the Corps for reasons other than school spirit. The only way they might be intrusive is if you live in a dorm that’s near the quad where they do drills and stuff. I didn’t leave near it, but I heard from other people that they would sometimes be woken up by hearing all the noise the Corps was making. I lived on the North side of campus, nowhere near the Corps, and was never bothered by it.

There are a lot of school spirited people outside of the Corps, but it’s unlikely they’ll hassle you. There are plenty of “two-percenters” on campus- people who only give two percent about school spirit. There were a lot of traditions or events I didn’t participate in and no one bothered me about it.

[Snickers]

@Kyla

Your friends are in the small, small minority. Trust me. Most Michigan fans would rather stick a fork in their eye than root for OSU or MSU. And vice versa. A couple of my classmates went to MSU for undergrad and still refuse to root for Michigan, even though they go here now. (Except in basketball, but only because one of our classmates was on the team and of course we all rooted for him. Even me.)

Hell, I went to Wisconsin and I’d never cheer for the Wolverines. There’s a special kind of suck devoted to them. I’ll cheer for the Buckeyes, I guess (I don’t really care one way or the other) and I’d definitely cheer for State (they’re good people). But not Michigan.

[wonky]

I went to Notre Dame and live in Buckeye territory. I shudder to think there are schools worse than that.

[bump]

@Hippy_Hollow

You guessed it, we ended up walking on a patch of sacred grass and were summarily chased by some inebriated ags… no doubt, they wanted to “explain” to us the consequences of walking on the grass.

The only “sacred grass” there is, is the grass around the Memorial Student Center, or MSC.

The MSC is like InkBlot said, the student center, and the chief memorial to the roughly 1000 Aggies killed in the nation’s wars. As such, we prefer people to stay on the sidewalks rather than trample the grass.

That being said, there are a lot of assholes who in my opinion, disgrace the place by being extraordinarily rude to people who either unknowingly or accidentally walk on the grass. I mean, I’ve seen some jerkwad corps turds yelling at some old man who stumbled onto the grass after getting nudged in the crowd after a football game. Thankfully, the majority of the people told that dick to get lost, but there are people there (corps turds) who will blow it all out of proportion and be really rude about it.

[Hippy_Hollow]

@Sam_Lowry

Can you tell us more about this? There must be a good story here.

Okay, this is going to be no doubt colored by colliding memories, but I’ll give it a shot.

My buddy was one of those larger than life guys. I think he still holds some state or national record for jalapeno eating or summat. Anyway, he and some buddies, whom I think were engineering geeks, formed a group called the “Sons of Texas” or something like that. As all ags know, this kidnapping lark started ages ago when someone stole our mascot and branded him “13-0” - the score the ags beat us by that year. Some enterprising Texas dudes prolonged the poor creature’s discomfort and converted “13-0” to “BEVO” which was a non-alcoholic beer popular at the time.

So this buddy of mine and his pals thought they would dognap Reveille. I believe they staked out the place where Reveille lived, figured out when she was outside, and swept in and absconded with her. They had her for about a week or so. I believe they communicated with someone at a&m and left assurances she was being treated well.

When this hit campus the place went nuts and we were trying to figure who did it. The Silver Spurs and the Texas Cowboys were suspected, as were any number of fraternity guys, ROTC, etc. Nobody seemed to know who was responsible. I only found out because I was in an organization with this guy, and we didn’t see him around because he was in deep shit about it.

I found a link about it. The guy in the story is not my buddy, so I’m not sure if he was another kidnapper, or if the story itself is a ruse, or if my buddy was blowing smoke up our asses. I don’t think he was, though. Maybe he was an assistant to the main guy.

Anyway, here is the real story.

And to all the ags out there, no offense about us walking on the grass. It was dark and nighttime and we had no idea where we were. Given the fact that we were probably wearing Texas gear and it was during bonfire, we were cruising for an ass kicking… got lucky there, that’s for sure.

Just realized that elmwood mentioned that Austin isn’t “really Texas.” Oh it is, most definitely. Don’t let Tarrytown and Hyde Park fool ya. And I say that with mad love for my hometown, but that’s a generalization that seems to have cottoned on here. There are far weirder communities than Austin - take Montrose in Houston, for instance.

[Dallas_Jones]

@ZipperJJ

My optometrist graduated from Ohio State. He’s been my optometrist forever, and I’ve just always known that was his School.

A few years ago he changed his practice’s name to BuckEYE Care, renovated the building and made EVERYTHING scarlet & gray (scarlet walls, gray carpet). There’s OSU memorabilia everywhere you look.

I just now realized that I didn’t find this the least bit disturbing or odd, even though we’re not in Columbus (Cleveland, though 2 hours away, is still OSU territory). I would imagine that someone not acquainted with “cultlike” college football following would find this extremely strange.

What the hell is this other OSU? People the wagon trains left behind back east?
Everyone west of the Mississippi knows that OSU is Oregon State University!