12th Man is under fire on 100th anniversary
COLLEGE STATION — One hundred years ago this week — and with the fancy notion that fans even then couldn’t get enough of college football — Texas A&M coach Dana X. Bible and about 18 of his players gathered in Dallas for a bonus game. Postseason games had blossomed in popularity from their inception in 1902, hence A&M jumped at the chance to take on then-mighty Centre College on Jan. 2, 1922, in the Dixie Classic, what amounted to the Cotton Bowl before the Cotton Bowl.
While the bowl notion has never wavered — fulfilling fans’ insatiable appetite while making some extra bucks along the way — my how times have changed on the football front. As the 100-year anniversary of the birth of A&M’s “12th Man” tradition approaches, the Aggies last week bowed out of playing Wake Forest in Friday morning’s Gator Bowl because of a lack of players.
A&M said it only had 38 scholarship players available to face the Demon Deacons, not enough to give Wake Forest a game because of COVID-19 issues, injuries and key opt-outs. But still twice as many players — who played on both sides of the ball then — as Bible took with him to Dallas a century ago.
As of Tuesday and with college football fans in this state at least treated to the University of Houston’s entertaining comeback victory over Auburn in the Birmingham Bowl, the Aggies were not alone in their lack of desire to face a postseason foe because of a drained roster.
The Holiday Bowl, scheduled for Tuesday night in San Diego between UCLA and North Carolina State, was canceled hours before kickoff because of COVID-19 issues within the Bruins’ program. The Hawaii, Military, Fenway and Arizona bowls also have been canceled.
A&M, whose claim to “Home of the 12th Man” has taken a handful of arrows this month from rivals because of coach Jimbo Fisher’s wish to not face the Demon Deacons by relying in part on walk-ons (aka 12th men), has celebrated the 100-year anniversary of the 12th Man all fall. The timing, putting it mildly, has not been ideal for the Aggies.
Against Centre College that January 1922 day in Dallas, A&M lost multiple players to injury against the rugged Praying Colonels. Bible finally turned to the press box and beckoned for A&M student E. King Gill, who was serving as a spotter for sportswriter Jinx Tucker.
Gill, a reserve during the regular season who wasn’t part of the Dixie Classic pared-down travel squad, trotted down from the stands and traded wardrobes with an injured running back.
“They took Heine Weir’s uniform off, and they (gave) it to me,” Gill later recalled during the 1964 Aggie Muster in College Station. “And they put my clothes on him.”
Gill did not play but stood ready to help the Aggies. Former A&M student Robert Hicks is a cousin to the backup quarterback who helped lead the Aggies to victory over Centre College, Billy “Bo” McMillan.
“If the Aggies had lost,” Hicks gently reminded, “there well may have not been a 12th Man.”
Audio of Gill’s Muster speech about how the 12th Man tradition came to be is posted on YouTube in an insightful video via A&M chancellor John Sharp’s “Around Texas” program, with a heavy contribution from longtime A&M historian John A. Adams Jr.
Fisher’s practical choice to not play the Gator Bowl makes plenty of sense in 2021, but it also didn’t sit well with plenty of Aggies who could not figure out why A&M couldn’t simply play the game however possible and let the chips (and points) fall where they may.
“Let’s tell it like it is,” former A&M student Marvin Melson (class of 1957) wrote to the Chronicle last week. “(Aggies) Jack Pardee and John David Crow are spinning in their graves because our $90 million man (Fisher) failed to have proper COVID protocols in place, and is now either afraid or too lazy to coach without … his star players.
“I’m disappointed for those second- and third-team players who worked hard all season and who now thought they had a chance to play — I’m angry because TEXAS AGGIES ALWAYS SHOW UP!”
Not always, Marvin, as Wake Forest can attest. Rutgers (5-7) has happily taken the place of the Aggies (8-4) against the Demon Deacons (10-3) on New Year’s Eve morning in Jacksonville, Fla. A&M freshman center Bryce Foster tried explaining via social media to those responding angrily or poking fun at the Aggies for passing on the Gator Bowl.
“Fans just have no clue what goes into a college football game,” Foster wrote. “The fact y’all think we didn’t wanna play baffles me. It’s different than it was 100 years ago. You guys got me going crazy over here.”