You Can’t Get This From Watching History Channel

Because Texas A&M;’s football team will meet UCLA on Thursday in the Cotton Bowl for the first time in more than four decades and hasn’t played USC in two decades, a reintroduction seems in order. . . .

Few of you may recall the Aggies from their 1977 Bluebonnet Bowl game against the Trojans. . . .

That was a rematch. They also met in the 1975 Liberty Bowl in a game better remembered as John McKay’s last as a college coach than for USC’s 20-0 victory. . . .

In Houston’s Astrodome two years later, quarterback Rob Hertel threw for four touchdowns and Charles White and Dwight Ford each rushed for more than 100 yards in USC’s 47-28 victory. . . .

It was an impressive showing for the Trojans’ young offensive coordinator, Paul Hackett. . . .

A&M;, which stands for agricultural and mechanical, has changed in the last 20 years. But the Aggies still lead the nation in producing farmers and engineers. . . .

Also in attitude. . . .

“The Aggies seem to choose up sides faster, yell louder and stay mad longer than those from other schools,” Houston sportswriter Mickey Herskowitz wrote. . . .

Rice’s band once required a police escort back to campus after a game because so many Aggie fans outside the stadium wanted to bust some bassoons. . . .

They were offended because the MOB (Marching Owl Band) performed a tribute at halftime to Texas A&M;’s collie mascot, Reveille, by parading down the field in the formation of a fire hydrant to the tune of “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?”

Fighting words if I’ve ever heard them. . . .

Perhaps that attitude, like the small but prominent corps of cadets remaining on campus, is left over from the days when Texas A&M; overflowed with testosterone as an all-male military school. . . .

Or perhaps that’s their way of defending themselves against trite Aggie jokes, which, for the most part, are recycled Polish jokes. . . .

There are things about Aggies you should know besides Aggie jokes. . . .

*

* Fifteen years after they won their only national championship, their football program was revived in 1954. That’s when Bear Bryant arrived in College Station from Kentucky. . . .

For two-a-day preseason practices, he took his first team to an old Hill Country army base near Junction, Texas, and conducted a boot camp. . . .

Gene Stallings, who survived not only to play for the Aggies but eventually coach them, once recalled, “All I know is that we went out there in two buses and we came back in one.”

* The Aggies are 4-5 in Cotton Bowl games, including three consecutive losses. But they won their first, in 1941, against Fordham, which featured “The Seven Blocks of Granite.” One block was Vince Lombardi. . . .

* Texas A&M;’s Twelfth Man tradition began in 1922, when the Aggies lost so many players to injury in a game that the coach recruited a basketball player from the press box. He suited up under the stands to be ready on the sideline if called, which he wasn’t. . . .

Since then, Texas A&M; students have stood, ever vigilant, during games. . . .

* Jackie Sherrill added to the lore when he became coach in 1983, recruiting volunteers from the student body for his kickoff coverage team. . . .

The current coach, R.C. Slocum, isn’t so bold. His coverage teams employ only one such player, who wears No. 12. . . .

* Texas A&M; students don’t just stand there during games. They kiss their dates after each Aggie score. . . .

So students didn’t complain when Slocum fired Bob Toledo as offensive coordinator after the Aggies scored a measly 26 points in Cotton Bowl losses in 1993, ’94 and ’95. . . .

* Texas A&M;’s defense is known as “The Wrecking Crew.” It also could be known as DBU. . . .

It’s the only school to produce five all-pro defensive backs--Pat Thomas and Dave Elmendorf with the Rams, Lester Hayes with the Raiders and Yale Lary and Bob Smith with the Lions. . . .

* Despite 10 victories in 14 years since 1985, the Aggies have a 33-66-5 record against archrival Texas. . . .

Larry King, the writer, felt so sorry for them during one losing streak that he let them beat the Longhorns in the musical, “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.” The Aggies’ reward was a night there. . . .

* USC, Michigan and Notre Dame have nothing on Texas A&M; when it comes to fight songs. . . .

“The Aggie War Hymn” starts with “Hullabaloo, Caneck! Caneck!” I’m not sure what it means, but at least it challenges the Aggies to use words with more than one syllable. . . .

As a Texas grad, I couldn’t resist. . . .