re: Aggy Cheer Captain

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Happy Thanksgiving.

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Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family also!

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It's crazy, as my parents were both Texas grads, I've known about aggy since childhood, but to this day (I'm now a new grandpa) I'm still learning new stuff about y'all's mysterious, complicated traditions and culture. Thanks for helping me to understand y'all a little more.

I do have one more question. I've seen a number of y'all's "two percenters" and others on TexAgs (who may have caught too much shite from their friends) complain that y'all's current yell leaders have now gotten way too cringe, feminine, and prancy, and argue that it's time to retire y'all's male yell leaders, and replace them with your female cheerleaders (or a co-ed cheer team) on game day national football TV.

Is the fact that y'all are now playing Horn again, and catching shite from all of your Horn friends again, accelerating an internal ag push for y'all to field a female or coed football game day cheer team? Will y'all's "red arse ags" (isn't that what y'all call your old school ags?) ever relent?

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Howdy, I'm a second generation Texas Aggie (father was born and raised in Bryan/College Station and was in the Corps, as well--I followed in his footsteps). "Relent" is an odd way of putting it, I'd say. I can definitely assure you that playing the horns again isn't accelerating anything on the cheerleader front. Any changes or additions to the Aggie gameday experience are usually generationally driven, and as EKG said, the A&M traditions are for Aggies, regardless of outsiders' perceptions or shite talk.

The yell leaders will never be supplanted by cheerleaders, because they serve very different functions. Also, while the yell leaders are rooted in old tradition, even they will participate in current trends occasionally (i.e., donning all-black unis for the Blackout game this year). They're cemented.

If you polled most Ags today, a healthy majority my age (37) and younger will lean favorably toward adding a full time cheer squad to the sidelines for football games. It's not like the concept is foreign--we already have the dance team at basketball games. But as mentioned earlier, we use a different pep band (not the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band) for hoops, and their selections are better suited to routines. Football games with the full band lend fewer opportunities for such. If I had to guess, I'd say that the advent and acceptance of the DJ at football games will lend itself to a natural space for a cheer team to do their thing alongside the yell leaders on the sidelines at some point in the future.

Most TA&M stuff comes from LSU (for whatever reason).

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Howdy, I'm a second generation Texas Aggie (father was born and raised in Bryan/College Station and was in the Corps, as well--I followed in his footsteps). "Relent" is an odd way of putting it, I'd say. I can definitely assure you that playing the horns again isn't accelerating anything on the cheerleader front. Any changes or additions to the Aggie gameday experience are usually generationally driven, and as EKG said, the A&M traditions are for Aggies, regardless of outsiders' perceptions or shite talk. The yell leaders will never be supplanted by cheerleaders, because they serve very different functions. Also, while the yell leaders are rooted in old tradition, even they will participate in current trends occasionally (i.e., donning all-black unis for the Blackout game this year). They're cemented. If you polled most Ags today, a healthy majority my age (37) and younger will lean favorably toward adding a full time cheer squad to the sidelines for football games. It's not like the concept is foreign--we already have the dance team at basketball games. But as mentioned earlier, we use a different pep band (not the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band) for hoops, and their selections are better suited to routines. Football games with the full band lend fewer opportunities for such. If I had to guess, I'd say that the advent and acceptance of the DJ at football games will lend itself to a natural space for a cheer team to do their thing alongside the yell leaders on the sidelines at some point in the future.

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Thanks for the detailed update. I have lived away from Texas now for over 30 years. My small town aggy cousins growing up took me to an aggy game at the old Kyle Field when I was in grade school back in the 1970s. We sat down low near the yell leaders, and I saw y’all’s band up close, which was all pretty entertaining.

I actually hope y’all keep most of your traditions… the differences between UT and aggy traditions and student cultures keeps this rivalry fun…

We know why

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Thanks for the detailed update. I have lived away from Texas now for over 30 years. My small town aggy cousins growing up took me to an aggy game at the old Kyle Field when I was in grade school back in the 1970s. We sat down low near the yell leaders, and I saw y’all’s band up close, which was all pretty entertaining.

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That's a badass experience! You're in for a treat when you visit Kyle Field again if it's been since the 70s. Place is a behemoth but still strong connections to past iterations.

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I actually hope y’all keep most of your traditions… the differences between UT and aggy traditions and student cultures keeps this rivalry fun…

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Aggieland is like flypaper for traditions haha I think they'll last many more generations

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If we changed our traditions bc other schools think we should, they wouldn’t be worth having to begin with. They’re ours, and we guard them bc they mean something to us. I don’t get why half the other schools we play do what they do. But I respect the fact it means something to them. That’s sort of the point.

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Agreed!

It’s good to be in the SEC with schools who love their old football traditions and rivalries too…

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Ridiculing yell leaders is nothing new. Aggies started that first when they made the tradition in the first place.

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Soooo many people forget this. The OG purpose for the yell leaders was simply to be corny entertainment for the ladies (and they were an instant hit). The crowd coordination stuff came later, they just never changed their style (and why would you when the coeds are flocking to you like they do to this day )

Those are horrible outfits.