Texas A and M University - Aggieland Yearbook (College Station, TX)

Page 24 text:

YELL PRACTICE A clear memory to every Aggie — Fish humping it, Sophomores with cigars, Juniors trying to look bored, Seniors on the back row — the good bull” of the yell leaders, the feeling that you could lick the whole T. U. team single handed — all are a part of this expression of Aggie Spirit. Yell practice, where Fish learn to yell from their guts, where we get the feeling that we know we’ll win, come Saturday. Midnight yell practice the night before The yell leaders in Prexy’s pond and the victory yell practice after the game — the goose pimples we get when singing the Spirit” — Ole Army” — Lizzie”. There are a million things about a yell practice that are forever enshrined in an Aggie heart. It is truly a tradition — a great tradition — here at Aggieland. Picture by OVERTON 18

Page 26 text:

We are the class of ’52 and this is our story: On a sweltering Sunday afternoon in early Sept., 1948 we came to Aggieland 1500 strong from cities and towns all over Texas and the southwest. We were tall, short, fat, thin, some cowhands, some city slickers, many farmboys, but we were all green, we were all scared to death by the whole thing. However, being eager and wild-eyed as is any freshman, we began to learn and make friends quickly. There are many things about our freshman year and the annex which we would rather forget. But there are other things which we wish to live in our memories forever — the chills running up and down our spines at our first yell practice, yelling until we could yell no more, the thrills of Aggie football on Kyle Field, College Night, the Corps Trips, the Bonfire, and at last Thanksgiving and home. Then three weeks of school, the Christmas dinner, and home again. When we returned to school after the holidays we dug in anew with the realization that we had the battle half won. Be¬ fore we knew it Easter was upon us and we had not long to go, and suddenly, Final Review. We said good-bye to the seniors, pinned on our curved brass, pushed our caps down on our noses, and paraded that day as we had never done before — we were now Sophomores! We returned to school the following fall only to find that since we were on the Annex we were considered third semester freshmen rather than Sophomores. It was difficult at times — we remember so vividly the long hours of sign-painting, drilling, and walking the bull ring, the soph- sergebutt meetings, the air-outs, waking up to the familiar tap, tap, tap. But as thousands of Aggies have done, we just grinned, stuck it out together, and were better men for having done so. We raced through that fall semester, and as we started our 4th semester at A. M. we looked about us with the realization that many of our classmates were gone — about half of them. Some were incapacitated by financial reasons, many had not the mental backing, and some were deficient in other ways. We hated to see them leave, but for those of us who stayed, a job remained to be done; so we dug in again. The weeks of the spring semester were filled with studies, hard work, basketball games, track, (Continued on next page)