UT/A&M Hex Rally Hoot-n-Holler
Where:
Various Locations
When: Mon. or Tues. @ 6:00 p.m. before the game
Contact: Nicole Cunningham (nicole@texasexescc.org)
Next
Occurrence:
Mon., November 24, 2008 @ 6:00 p.m.
Paradise
Pool & Billiards
Outback Behind the Outback!
5141 Oakhurst Dr.
Corpus Christi, TX 78411
Each year before the annual Lone
Star Showdown football game between our Texas
Longhorns and rival Texas A&M Aggies, the Texas
Exes and A&M Club host the UT/A&M Hoot-n-Holler, where Longhorns
and Aggies get together and prepare for upcoming football game.
During odd years when the football game is played at Kyle Fiend in College
Station, TX, the A&M Club hosts the event. During even years
when the football game is played at Darrell
K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, TX, the Texas
Exes host the event.
Before you head
up to either Austin or College Station for the game, join us for the UT/A&M
Hoot-n-Holler. The event takes place on the same night as the
Hex
Rally on campus, usually the Monday or Tuesday before the game. Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend!
Come Early, Be Loud, Stay Late. Don't forget to wear your Burnt Orange
& White! For more information, please contact: info@texasexescc.org .
Hex Rally More than a Pep-rally, it's an
Experience!
On a cold night at the landmark of our University the Texas Exes
Student Chapter hosts one of the biggest and brightest rallies in the
nation. Thousands of students and Longhorn faithful fill the south mall on
the Monday before the annual UT vs. A&M football game to show their
spirit and put a Hex on the Aggies.
The rally begins with trumpeters sounding off from the top of the
UT
Tower
for all of Austin to hear. The Longhorn Band and
Texas
Football team enter
to the beat of the band as student’s erupt in wild cheers and the rally
has begun. Student spirit groups then raise the energy of the crowd with
their electrifying dances and cheers leading up to the most anticipated
part of the night. Head Coach Mack
Brown, two players, and strength and
conditioning coach Jeff “Maddog” Madden speak to the students and stir
them into a frenzy as “Maddog” does his infamous “Ooooooooo
TEXAS!” cheer. Then as Longhorns have done since 1941 a Hex is put on
the Aggies. "The
Eyes of Texas" is sung three times as the thousands
of students pass on the flame from candle to candle till the whole south
mall is one light, one Longhorn.
UT/A&M HEX Rally History
On Thanksgiving Day, UT was to travel to College Station to take on the
Aggies. Texas A&M was having a banner season. Undefeated and
ranked second in the nation by the AP, the Aggies had already won the
Southwest Conference Championship. They also had a jinx on the Longhorns.
Since 1923 - for 18 years - the Longhorns had been unable to win a game
at Kyle Field. Desperate to break the College Station "jinx," UT
students consulted Madam Agusta Hipple, a local fortune teller.
She
instructed the students to burn red candles the week before the game as a
way of "hexing" the Aggies and putting a stop to the jinx.
Through the week of Thanksgiving, Austin shops found it difficult to
keep red candles in stock. Candles were burned in store windows along the
Drag, in the fraternity and sorority houses of west campus, in the lounges
of University residence halls, and in the windows of houses of Austin’s
neighborhoods. Madam Hipple knew what she was doing. By uniting the
football team and its fans with such a visible show of support, how could
the Longhorns fail?
They didn’t. Texas went to College Station, defeated the no. 2 ranked
Aggies 23 - 0, ended the 18-year jinx, and restored their pride as the
AP’s final poll listed Texas as number 4.
With the win, the Hex
Rally became an annual tradition. Each year before the post Thanksgiving game, thousands of Longhorn fans, led by enthusiastic spirit groups, light candles and converge on the steps of UT's
Main Building to hex the Aggies once again.
