That was my daughter who just graduated from a NY High school in 1997 on the phone with me giving my wife and I are our 1st update on her 1st week at Univ Of Texas in Austin She was 18 yrs old and other then visiting my wife's family in Paris,Texas and on one vacation visited Austin . Oldest daughter of 4 children . This morning read the Austin- American -Statemen newspaper and on page 1 the article and picture on the front headlines was " " Corralling New Longhorns" She knew nobody in Austin and a friend of mine from North Texas and his wife picked her up at the Austin airport and drove her to her dorm on campus. She had checked in on her new dorm and the 1st night UT welcoming committee had free food and provided activites for all incoming freshman The class of 8,000 at the end of there 1st day on campus were all going to the football stadium for the final activity of the day. Guest speaker and junior running back Rickey Williams welcomed the incoming class. Now the biggest football staduim my daughter had ever been to was at West Point .
Sarah on the phone after being in Texas one day said to me " I don't think I'm going to get all hyped flash the longhorn hand and sing / I am a New Yorker not a Texan.
I hate people from Oklahoma,whats an Aggies "
@Box and one
Does she still have people from Oklahoma? Sooners are the absolute worst!
Naw, just kidding. My wife's grandmother was a dust bowl Oklahoma kid. I mean, real Okies. Like, they looked like Okies. Raw bones. Good genes. So I don't really think Sooners are the worst. Some Oklahoma folk though...
It took her a few weeks to realize that Texas HS kids were brought up from generation to generation to these rivalry's I gave her the example of NAVY-Army . How although they respect each other they also detest each other. On the Aggie Tex AM rivalry I wasn't sure. I explained what an Aggie is and there are jokes books about them In NY we made those jokes into Polish jokes. But the article in the paper the other day just reminded me of how innocent she was and how her new school Texas is the brunt of many jokes and rivalries I went to North Texas in the late 60's and early 70's I didn't like Texas because they seemed to get all the money to build new buildings etc North Texas was secondary vs Tex AM and Texas. I always remember Dr Lott my anatomy professor in the lecture room with about 350 marked seats saying " there are more seats in this lecture hall then there are blacks enrolled at the U of Texas that has 70,000 students. North Texas was integrated many years before and Abner Hayes the NT running back was the MVP of the AFL in 1967. Joe Green wasn't even recruited back then from Waco because no Southwest conf accepted blacks yet, Finally Jerry Levia broke the color barrier at SMU a few years later. In fact Oklahoma was accepting black HS athletes from Texas HS's way before the Southwest conf did Finally the SWC realizing the wealth of talent was leaving and winning Heisman awards did they change
Anyway my daughter who has never left Austin teaching here for now 16 years does know what an Aggie is and is Ok with People from Oklahoma.. I do remember her graduation ceremony Think about 2,000 graduated from the education department in a separate ceremony and after they all received their diploma's the guest speaker and President of the Univ had all the graduates stand up at the end and sing " they eyes of Texas " with everyone with everyone flashing the Longhorn Hook'em sign
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