A&M Gavin Stansbury

[doc longhorn]

Texas and A&M have always had a great rivalry, and they are both great institutions. Both universities have their share of assholes, believe me. I was born when my Dad was on the coaching staff at Texas and was growing up in Austin as he became head coach, then retired. I graduated from The University with a BA and a law degree. I love Texas.

My daughter went to A&M. Graduated Class of '99. I spent a lot of time on the A&M campus during her 4 1/2 years there. She became all Aggie, believe me. Including working on the Bonfire all 4 years. You can imagine my terror when I awoke on morning before Thanksgiving in 1999 and heard about the collapse of the bonfire. I called her immediately, and she was not home. Thankfully, she had not been there, but had gone to the scene when she heard about it. It was, of course, a terrible tragedy. My wife and I packed immediately an left to College Station.

On of my daughter's friends at A&M was John Cunningham, the son of Bill Cunningham, the Chancellor at the time of Texas. The Cunninghams, of course had planned to be there for the game that week. We had dinner and went to the memorial service that A&M held for the kids that were killed and injured when the bonfire collapsed. In my 75 years I have never seen anything like that. Tens of thousands of people gathered at the site, and then as the service continued marched over to Kyle Field and filed into the stadium. With all of those people, it was still very quiet and orderly. The proceedings at Kyle Field were their traditional "Midnight Yell" that they have before every game. I have been to others with some Aggie friends when they played out at Tech over the years, but this one was different. They did the yells OK, but after each one the crowd was silent until the next yell. Nothing raucous at all. It was more like a church service. I won't go into all the details. At the end, the football team went to the sideline and greeted each survivor, then they went back across the field and into the stands. All of this time the crowd (over 1/2 of the stadium) was very quite. Then after all the players went under the stands, one came running back out on the field, and the crowd went wild for a minute or two, then he went back under the stands, the crowd went quiet, and slowly filed out of the stadium.....very quietly. One of the most amazing things I have ever seen.

I told Bill that I would hate to be Mack Brown bringing a football team into College Station the next day.

The University had student representatives at the memorial service, and the student body at Texas was very supportive of the Aggies during that time. The Aggies all greatly appreciated it.

I go through all of this to underscore that although we have a great traditional rivalry with A&M, they are still a sister school, with students and players from the same communities that UT students come from. There may be a few on both sides that let the competition get out of hand, but with most it is a rivalry that we engage in with mutual respect.....as we should.

I am sorry that any of these young athletes have gotten themselves in trouble. Since we are all recruiting from the same communities, none of us are immune to mistakes. I think that perhaps Sumlin may have made some mistakes in how he has handled the problems with some of those kids, but Mack did as well. So has Stoops, and so will Charlie Strong. It is part of the territory of being a football coach in a very competitive environment.

So far I am very impressed with Charlie Strong and his approach to discipline. I am ready to get on with some football!

I love your voice of reason and I was an admirer of your dad, as well.

However, as I had a daughter that attended TAMU myself, I can assure you the hatred of UT by the majority of its student population is deeply imbedded.  It actually begins with fish camp and it is a constant drumbeat, on a daily basis - even today.  It is simply the mantra of the the school and you, of all people, should know this.  Will this obsession ever die out?  What do you think?

Those on here that know nothing of the TAMU UT obsession may think I am waxing paranoid.  But those on here that DO know the aggy mindset know I speak the truth.  Duke was 100% correct, there is NO admiration for UT and the relationship is and always has been one sided.

In fact, it is not a stretch to say there is smoldering HATRED for UT and all things UT - by TAMU.  And even though UT doesn't like A&M, we hardly carry hatred for them.

As per Wiki:

In psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud defined hate as an ego state that wishes to destroy the source of its unhappiness.[1] More recently, the Penguin Dictionary of Psychology defines hate as a "deep, enduring, intense emotion expressing animosity, anger, and hostility towards a person, group, or object."[2] Because hatred is believed to be long-lasting, many psychologists consider it to be more of an attitude or disposition than a temporary emotional state.

Is this not aggy in a nutshell?   (with the exception of Joe)

 

[GBT]

I'm sure Manziel will come back to college station every summer to complete his degr...I mean to party like a rock star!!!

Manziel parties in Austin.

 

[Bear19]

Manziel parties wherever Manziel be.

 

[bcherry168]

I appreciate your perspective on the relationship between the schools, but "mutual respect" seems a bit generous.

Texas alumni and administrators have time and again done their bit to foster mutual respect between the two schools. You mention the representation during the memorial service, but you failed to include the halftime performance of the UT band at halftime of that came, from the selection of music to the dipping of all flags except that of tamu as they left the field. The band similarly tried to be respectful and appreciative during the 2011 game. You failed to mention the efforts of UT and Rice in helping tamu obtail AAU accreditation. And, most significantly, you forgot to mention the attacks on the personal integrity and reputations of Powers and Delos's by Loft in, Sharp and Byrne during aggy's exit from the Big 12.

Nothing the aggys did during the realignment saga refiectex mutual respect. That senior administrators of a public university publicly attacked the integrity of senior administrators of another public university is unforgivable. Much of my animus toward tamu derives from those personal attacks. To this day, they have never been defended by anyone at UT and the are echoed by the tamu sheeple on a daily basis.

Mutual respect is a fiction. I cannot think of a single incident over the past 30 years when the offering of respect was other than one sided. When (not if) another incident arises where tamu expects the good will and respect of UT, its administrators, alumni or students, I hope the aggys are offered the lesson that their past actions were not forgotten. The bottom line is that tamu culture accepts, but never offers respect. Offering them respect is a wasted exercise.

Mr. Duke, I did not have tickets to the game and listened to it on the radio as I drove home that day. I was not going to write a book about it all, just hit some highlights to make a point. I just disagree with you about the rest. As I said, not everyone from either school has that mutual respect. As you have just demonstrated.

 

[Randolph Duke]

Mr. Duke, I did not have tickets to the game and listened to it on the radio as I drove home that day. I was not going to write a book about it all, just hit some highlights to make a point. I just disagree with you about the rest. As I said, not everyone from either school has that mutual respect. As you have just demonstrated.

My issue isn't that there is a lack of unanimous respect between all members of both fan bases. My issue is the personal attacks at the highest levels of tamu college station and the tamu system against the integrity of the administrators of UT Austin that are to this day parrotted by the tamu supporters. Deloss and Bill Powers may gave had differences with Sharp, Byrne and Loftin, but the nature of the vitrol from the tamu side when speaking to the national media is simply unforgivable. Again, the respect between the two institutions has been one sided for the entirety of my life, as have the personal and very public attacks against senior university administrators. In my mind, it should be a very long time until UT Austin affords and level of assistance or cooperation to tamu at any level or in any way.

 

[Bear19]

From my own personal experiences over six decades I agree with Duke on this one.

F a$m

 

[pringlelake]

Back to subject.....and congratulations to Darell for being right and sticking to itl. Without doubt...the best source of information on this story. Interested in hearing the rest of it as it unfolds. .

 

[Randolph Duke]

Right now, I am the loudest voice calls g for a long overdue constitutional amendment to end aggy's status as a branch of the University of Texas and for a division of the PUF assets along the 1/3-2/3 formula. Instead of any talk of renewing the football game with them, we should be severing all ties and allowing them to deal with all they have brought upon themselves. When the inevitable cote cones up among AAU members whether to retain or expel tamu, UT should abstain. The university policy should be not to obstruct tamu, but not to offer any cooperation or assistance until proper apologies are made to the UT administrators whose integrity was publicly and repeatedly impugned. At some point, if we can't expect the alumni of tamu to act in honorable fashion, we should at least expect the administrators of tamu, each and every one a public employee accountable to the taxpayers and not to the tamu alumni, to act as honorable individuals.

Until then, to hell with them.

 

[J.B. TexasEx]

I'm with Duke and Bear on this one, too....aggie can F off.  

As individuals, I know many aggies who are good people.  Collectively, their angst and vitriol against The University is irrational at best and bat-shit f'n crazy at worst.  Especially when you consider that our administration willingly helped these goobers with their AAU application, supported them unconditionally after the Bonfire tragedy, and treated them as a respected colleague for the better part of a century when our institutions were far from equal; academically, athletically, etc.  

UT = Class.  A&M...not so much

See y'all down the road, boys.  Maybe we'll see aggie in the Cotton Bowl or the CFB Playoffs, but I won't hold my breath.

Hook 'Em  \m/

 

[MikeV73]

Are you joking?

JFF got the hell out of Collie Station ASAP. He didn't return this past summer and won't be back until A&M unveils his statue at "The House That Johnny Built". JFF will say all the right things during his speech, just like he did during his NFL screening interviews ala Eddie Haskell (Google it, youngsters!).

Yes, I was joking.

 

[MikeV73]

I appreciate your perspective on the relationship between the schools, but "mutual respect" seems a bit generous.

Texas alumni and administrators have time and again done their bit to foster mutual respect between the two schools. You mention the representation during the memorial service, but you failed to include the halftime performance of the UT band at halftime of that came, from the selection of music to the dipping of all flags except that of tamu as they left the field. The band similarly tried to be respectful and appreciative during the 2011 game. You failed to mention the efforts of UT and Rice in helping tamu obtail AAU accreditation. And, most significantly, you forgot to mention the attacks on the personal integrity and reputations of Powers and Delos's by Loft in, Sharp and Byrne during aggy's exit from the Big 12.

Nothing the aggys did during the realignment saga refiectex mutual respect. That senior administrators of a public university publicly attacked the integrity of senior administrators of another public university is unforgivable. Much of my animus toward tamu derives from those personal attacks. To this day, they have never been defended by anyone at UT and the are echoed by the tamu sheeple on a daily basis.

Mutual respect is a fiction. I cannot think of a single incident over the past 30 years when the offering of respect was other than one sided. When (not if) another incident arises where tamu expects the good will and respect of UT, its administrators, alumni or students, I hope the aggys are offered the lesson that their past actions were not forgotten. The bottom line is that tamu culture accepts, but never offers respect. Offering them respect is a wasted exercise.

Have to agree on the point regarding our band's classy tributes to the Aggies during the halftimes of those particular games. TAMU was very classless with their anti- UT numbers, showed a large lack of respect and arrogance. This was not by the 2% of crappy fans as I read in another post, this was performed and sanctioned by a large scale university group who represents the entire school. All of those juvenile performances on national TV at that! Seems to be the little bro attitude, jealousy instead of respect. Have to point to the overall win/loss record in the series and then point to the scoreboard.

 

[doc longhorn]

you're right about that JB, and i can tell you that i'm not at all comfortable with the arrests that we've had. 

i do remember casting stones in the late 00s when mack had something like 7 players suspended or so in a couple month span. 

Ha!  I see what you did there.  Nice little tete' de tete'.

But it's all about numbers, Joe - 18 as opposed to 7.  Math isn't that hard.