Don't worry my fellow Texas Aggies, this does not discredit our trademark of the term, in fact it may enhance it. However, it does show that we Fightin' Farmers were using the term even before E. King Gill decided to inspire our student body to stand for four (4) hours each Autumn Saturday. Heck, we might have even been using the term before he stepped foot on campus, as you will see below.
Hat tip to TexAgs.com poster nai06 for finding this excerpt from a fall 1921 Battalion - the campus newspaper of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (Texas A&M University). This of course is before the famous E. King Gill story during Texas A&M's 22-14 win over Centre College on January 2, 1922 in Dallas, TX at the "Dixie Classic" game. The Twelfth Man (12th Man) tradition goes a little something like this:
The tradition of the Twelfth Man was born on the second of January 1922, when an underdog Aggie team was playing Centre College, then the nation's top ranked team. As the hard fought game wore on, and the Aggies dug deeply into their limited reserves, Coach Dana X. Bible remembered a squad man who was not in uniform. He had been up in the press box helping reporters identify players. His name was E. King Gill, and was a former football player who was only playing basketball. Gill was called from the stands, suited up, and stood ready throughout the rest of the game, which A&M finally won 22-14. When the game ended, E. King Gill was the only man left standing on the sidelines for the Aggies. Gill later said, "I wish I could say that I went in and ran for the winning touchdown, but I did not. I simply stood by in case my team needed me."
This gesture was more than enough for the Aggie Team. Although Gill did not play in the game, he had accepted the call to help his team. He came to be thought of as the Twelfth Man because he stood ready for duty in the event that the eleven men on the gridiron needed assistance. That spirit of readiness for service, desire to support, and enthusiasm helped kindle a flame of devotion among the entire student body; a spirit that has grown vigorously throughout the years. The entire student body at A&M is the Twelfth Man, and they stand during the entire game to show their support. The 12th Man is always in the stands waiting to be called upon if they are needed.
So, despite what the NFL's Seattle Seahawks and Washington Redskins, or the MLS's DC United, might claim with regards to the 12th Man - like being "Home of the 12th Man - they are just copycats, mimickers, and intellectual pirates. (By the way DC United we saw that cute little "Home of the 12th Man" sign you hung in RFK Stadium, but you might want to take it down or pay the royalties for using our mark like the Seahawks now have to do).
Anyways, back to the 12th Man story. We can see from the popular quasi-legend above (I say quasi-legend because it is substantiated fact that the events surrounding the Dixie Classic happened, but it is debatable whether this inspired the term "12th Man" or it's meaning to Old Ol' Army) that Texas A&M officially recognizes the E. King Gill version of the story. So why then, in an article in the Battalion in 1921, does the writer refer to the student body of Texas A&M as the Twelfth Man before the Dixie Classic ever happened?
Read the excerpt in highlighted in maroon below.
It states, "With absolutely no intentions of detracting one ounce from the glory of Bible (Dana Xenophon Bible, 12th head coach of TAMU [coincidence?], 72-19-9 record) and his eleven disciples, we believe that some mention should be made here of the old yelling army - the physological (sic) factor - the twelfth man. Many times the question has been asked, 'How do they do it?' It is because sixteen hundred Farmer boys love and idolize their team with sacred devotion; pat them on their backs after victory or defeat; yell for them, not with throats, but with hearts." Interesting indeed; so we have evidence of The Battalion calling the Texas A&M student section the Twelfth Man BEFORE Gill did his thing. He says that "many times the question has been asked" - many times. If it's many times, then using the term has to have been happening before this game in 1921, which raises further questions about the true origin of the "Twelfth Man" moniker in Aggieland.
The rest of that particular quote is interesting as well. "With everybody tingling with the spirit that prevails only in Aggieland it is no wonder that the title of the best rooting section is always conceded to A. and M." First, I find it interesting that a pseudonym for College Station is used this far back as well: Aggieland (not Collieville or Farmtown, I see you Bears looking at this, crawl back to your cesspool town of Waco or we'll put another billboard up so everyone can see how foolish you are). Also, it looks like our reputation as the best rooting section, with the loudest fans and an intimidating atmosphere, goes all the way back to 1921 as well.
"Yet we cannot overlook the fact that there must be 100 percent cooperation with some figure of leadership or perfect unison in yells would not be possible. It is here that we wish to toss a boquet (sic) of praise to Benny Garrity and his able assistants. As we summarize the season from the rooting section and recall the many spectacular stunts and the absolute yell-harmony, we have nothing but the staunchest of admiration for the yell leading staff." There are two things that living Aggies can learn from these words written over 90 years ago. First, we must continue to act in unison as fans of the Texas Aggies and as alumni of this school; we must rekindle the "harmony" we have together - this does not mean we have to be conformist in all things, just in this most important thing with regards to our school; love. Second, it's not a bad thing or uncool thing to give a nod to institutions within our Aggie culture that simply do their job: the Band, the Yell Leaders, the Student Section, the Alumni, the Mascot Corporals, the ODs, PMC, the fish at the top of the 3rd Deck yelling their asses off. Sometimes we focus so much on the negative, we forget to pat the guys on the back who come in game by game and do their jobs lunchpail-style.
So is this article authentic? Is it real? The nai06 user on TexAgs.com is the one who dug the article up. He (or she) claims to be part of the Traditions Council when he was at Texas A&M. He wrote, "I was in traditions council when I was in school and did a lot of research in the university archives... I was going through the football issue from 1921 (which came out late November [or] early December) when I saw this. There's also another page that reviews the game itself and mentions the cadets standing as one yelling to the strains of wildcat (whole other story there)." I assume he's telling the truth about this since he has no reason to lie about it and the information was freely offered sans agenda.
So let's do some other fact-checking on the surrounding articles to see if any fallacies exist. The article in blue above says we played to a 0-0 tie. That checks out according to Stassen's website. It also states that, at least to that point in our football history, t.u. had never crossed our goal line at Kyle Field - ever.
So looking at the above table, you can see we didn't do too well against t.u. in the early years - although we played all our games in Austin until 1907. We actually didn't ever play in Aggieland until 1915 - a 13-0 Aggie win - which was only agreed to after Charlie Moran left Texas A&M (the teasips believed Moran was using ringers and tried to intentionally injure other players; in my opinion the only thing injured was the teasip ego in losing to A&M 3 years in a row). In 1917, the Aggies won their first National Championship allowing 0 points to be scored the entire season and putting up 270 themselves; they won the t.u. game 7-0. In 1919, the Ags won their second National Championship and beat the sippers 7-0 again at Kyle Field; the Aggies again let no one score this season putting up a 275-0 point differential. "Varsity" still hasn't scored at Kyle Field to this point. I don't know how they scored 6 points in 1923 (teasips won 6-0) but if it was two field goals and not a touchdown with a missed extra point, then the sippers didn't score a TD at Kyle Field until 1927 (the year the stadium was built in College Station). So we see at least that fact is true, to this point in the series, Texas had never crossed the Aggie goal line and we sure weren't going to let the "wonder team" do it that year either:
Eleven men made their niche in the A. and M. hall of fame when they held the much-heralded "wonder team" for downs on the five yard line. If the Longhorns had crossed that line it would have been over the unconscious bodies of the Aggie eleven. That was for tradition. And the fact that our men did not have to line up under their own goal post after a touchdown is the victory we see in a scoreless tie.
On a side note, this same article may be the first (and certainly not last) Aggie claim to moral victory: "It is in this last that we have our victory." That's right Aggie fans, a 0-0 tie and keeping t.u. out of the Kyle Field endzone is our moral victory; circa 1921.
What are your thoughts? Do you toe the company line or do you want to keep digging further? This is by no means an objection to our claim as the "Home of the Twelfth Man" - we are that. But were we maybe the "Home of the Twelfth Man" before E. King Gill suited up and stood ready in January 1922? It seems so.
