Hex Rally: How it all began

I put a hex on you and now you're gone, gone, gone so long! Any Longhorn knows the legend behind the Hex Rally. 

According to the Texas Exes website the legend of the Hex Rally is as follows:

Leading into the 1941 Longhorn football season, the Longhorns had been unable to beat the Aggies at Kyle Field for 18 straight years. Many Longhorns believed this was because the Aggies had jinxed UT.

So before the game in 1941, a group of students went to a fortune teller, Mozzelle "Madame Augusta" Hipple, for guidance. The fortune teller told the students to burn red candles the week before the game as a way of “hexing” the Aggies.

Throughout the week of Thanksgiving, candles were burned in store windows, fraternity and sorority houses and university residence halls all throughout Austin.

That year, the Longhorns beat the Aggies in College Station 23-0 and ended the 18-year jinx.

I always assumed that the actually rally began in 1941.

I discovered in an interview with Jim Nicar (Director of Campus Relations, Committee Liaison: UT Heritage Society) that this assumption wasn’t entirely true.

According to Jim the actual “rally” didn’t take place until the 1980s.

In the ‘80s there wasn’t the UT student community that we know so well now in 2010.

Back then the UT community wasn’t unified, because of this Jim and some other UT students decided to create a community whose sole purpose was to try and dig up UT traditions.

One of these traditions was the hex that the Longhorns had placed on A&M.

When the hex first happened there wasn’t a rally, it was just the Austin community lighting red candles in store windows, fraternity and sorority houses and university residence halls.

Jim and his fellow students decided to create a "Hex Rally" to bring together the UT student community. 

As we all know now, the Hex Rally was a HUGE success.

So there you have it: the true origins of the Hex Rally 

The pictures and information displayed on this blog post were taken from: www.texasexesscc.org and www.texasexes.org

Texas Fight

Now if you have ever been to a UT football game you know that the crowds FAVORITE chant during the fight song is:

Give 'em hell! Give 'em hell! Make 'em eat shit!


Although this chant is fun to say it's also extremely inappropriate for obvious reasons. The actual lyrics to the fight song are as follows:

Texas Fight, Texas Fight,
And it's goodbye to A&M.
Texas Fight, Texas Fight,
And we'll put over one more win.
Texas Fight, Texas Fight,
For it's Texas that we love best.
Hail, Hail, The gang's all here,
And it's good-bye to all the rest!

(YELL)
Yea Orange! Yea White!
Yea Longhorns! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Texas Fight! Texas Fight,
Yea Texas Fight!
Texas Fight! Texas Fight,
Yea Texas Fight!

The Eyes of Texas are upon you,
All the livelong day.
The Eyes of Texas are upon you,
You cannot get away.
Texas Fight, Texas Fight,
For it's Texas that we love best.
Hail, Hail, The gang's all here,
And it good-bye to all the rest!

Explanation of the transition from the original lyrics to what is actually chanted:

"Hail, Hail, The gang's all here" à "Give 'em hell, Give 'em hell, Go Horns Go!" à"Give 'em hell! Give 'em hell! Make 'um eat shit!"

What this means: basically college students are crazy.

When you put a bunch of die hard UT fans and mix in the change of times where cussing in public has become a norm, cussing in a fight song is the result (not always but for the sake of this specific chant it is in my opinion).

Now in my search for a video of the Texas Fight song, apparently everyone who posted anything on YouTube.com about the song thought that "Make 'em eat shit" was an inappropriate addition to the fight song.

But here's a link to a video with the lyrics to the song so ya'll can have an idea as to what all these crazy Longhorn fans are chanting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMY85QENd5E

The lyrics to the Texas Fight song were taken from the Longhorn Band website: http://mbe187.music.utexas.edu/Longhornband/History/Songs.aspx  

The Eyes of Texas

Every UT fan who has attended any Longhorn sports game knows the Eyes of Texas song (well at least most of it). It is branded into our brain right from the get go.

The first UT football game I ever attended was during first year at UT (which was fall of 2008). I remember not knowing the words to the fight song but mumbling along with the crowd and showing my hook'em sign.

Now during the football games only a portion of the true Eyes of Texas song is actually sung:

The Eyes of Texas are upon you,
All the livelong day.
The Eyes of Texas are upon you,
You cannot get away.
Do not think you can escape them
At night or early in the morn -
The Eyes of Texas are upon you
Til Gabriel blows his horn.

Being the curious individual I am, I've always wondered what was the rest of the song. According to the Texas Exes UT History Central the entire song is as follows:

I once did know a President A way down South, in

Texas. And, always, everywhere he went, He saw the

Eyes of Texas.

The Eyes of Texas are upon you, All the livelong day.

The Eyes of Texas are upon you, You cannot get away.

Do not think you can escape them At night or early in

the morn - The Eyes of Texas are upon you Til Gabriel

blows his horn.

Sing me a song of Prexy, Of days long since gone by.

Again I seek to greet him, And hear his kind reply.

Smiles of gracious welcome Before my memory rise,

Again I hear him say to me, "Remember Texas' Eyes."

It's crazy how much traditions get watered down when emerged in a sport setting. Although it's understandable considering that most of your fan base in screaming, enthusiastic college students and die hard Longhorn alumni fans.

Lyrics were taken from the Texas Exes UT History Central: http://www.texasexes.org/uthistory/traditions.aspx?tradition=eyesoftexas

Bevo and how he REALLY got his name

Anyone familiar with the Longhorn mascot has heard the story of how he got his name:

Around 3:00 a.m. on February 12, 1917, a group of Texas Aggie students branded the University's first longhorn mascot "13 – 0," the score of a football game won by Texas A & M in 1915. According to the story, UT students altered the brand to read "Bevo" by changing the "13" to a "B," the "-" to an "E," and inserting a "V" between the dash and the "0. 

For years since, Aggies have constantly taunted UT by claiming that their stunt was the reason "Bevo" got his name.

I hate to break it to you Aggies but you did NOT give Bevo his name. 

During the 1916 Thanksgiving Day game against Texas A&M (UT won 21-7), a longhorn steer was presented for the first time during halftime as the mascot for UT. According to "The Truth About Bevo" by Jim Nicar, to spread the news of the Longhorn victory, "editor Ben Dyer gave a full account of the game and halftime proceedings" in the December 1916 issue of the Texas Exes Alcalde magazine. In regard to the longhorn Dyer claimed, "His name is Bevo. Long may he reign!"

Now for those of ya'll who haven't caught up yet, 1916 comes before 1917. So the Aggies couldn't have possibly given Bevo his name because Ben Dyer already gave the longhorn his name two months before!

One theory as to why Dyer named the longhorn Bevo relates to the term "beeve." According to Jim Nicar, Beeve is the plural of beef, typically this term is slang for a cow (or steer) that's destined to become food. It's easy to see how one can turn the term "beeve" into "bevo."

So there you have it. Bevo the longhorn, mascot of The University of Texas at Austin.  


This information and picture on this blog post were taken from:  
http://www.texasexes.org/uthistory/traditions.aspx

Lighting the Tower

Heeello Longhorns and all you other people interested in knowing why on earth the Tower on the University of Texas at Austin is always changing colors.

At 301 feet high, the 27-floor Tower measures six feet taller than the Texas Capitol and can be seen from almost any location in Austin.

According to TexasSports.com the lighting configurations of the tower are based on:
- Academic and staff achievements as well as athletic victories

- Celebration of campus-wide events
- UT rememberances (used only for solemn occasions)

Entirely White

Standard: Nothing exciting in the Longhorn world

Entirely Orange

• UT's Birthday - September 15
• Commencement 
• Texas Independence Day - March 2
• Texas A&M Football Victory
• Big 12 Athletic Championships - All sports

Orange Top with White Shaft

• Football regular season victories
• Football Bowl Game victories other than national championship

Tower Entirely Orange with a #1 Display

This occurs only when the Longhorns have won a National Championship

Darkened Tower with White Cap and Observation Deck

• UT Remembers (annual memorial service)
• Tower Garden dedication
• Significant solemn occasions (Ex: Texas A&M Bonfire tragedy in 1999)

Tower Entirely Orange with Special Effects

Basically anytime there are fireworks or varying numbers on the Tower that signifies commencement or any other occasion the President of UT wants to celebrate.

 

  

The pictures displayed on this blog post were taken from: 
http://www.utexas.edu/spotlight/tower_lighting.html