"How much ever different people seem to be, they are the same ultimately"
I'll guarantee that you will agree with me on this by the time you finish reading this blog.
Lets start with some history first. Texas A&M was the first public university in texas and is perhaps the one with the most of tradition and history. By the way, why is it called Texas A&M ????. Texas was a state where aggriculture was the main money spinner before they stuck oil. So the unversity had only the Agriculture department first and then added the Mechanical dept down the line. So till sometime in the late 80's it was called the Texas Agriculture & Mechanical University . Later in the 90's as more courses came through they dropped the full version and stuck to just Texas A&M. And all students here are called Aggies(From Aggriculture) which is considered to be a very proud thing here. The university has a lot of traditions which are followed passionately here.
And one of them is 'First yell' held before the first match of the american football season each year. American football has a large fan following here just as Cricket has back home. People are mad about it. And this year on the 29th of august , at 12:00 in the night around 6000 aggies converged at Kyle field , the home ground of the aggie football team to participate in the "First yell" event. During this night the cheer leaders of the team teach the new students who have just joined the university on How to 'Yell' and support the team while its on the field . It was quite an intimidating site, no wonder the aggie supporters and fans are called the 12th man, they are a PART OF THE PLAYING 11(or 12 ) . They teach you how to wave, make actions and yell during the match . And the best thing that I found out was that the Whole student section of crowd which supports the team watch the whole match standing (What??? people shuld be crazy).
I had never been to a cricket match in a stadium back home but the 'First Yell' event was the closest i could get to one. It was an awsome experience. I plan to go to some of the home matches in the season.
Coming back to what I said in the beginning "How much ever different people seem to be, they are the same ultimately"..........
By the way the aggies had their first match against Arkansas state on 30th . The match was close and although the Arkansas team was considered weak they managed to beat the Aggie 18 -14 . This after the aggie were leading 14-3 in the first half. Sound like a familiar story . Yeah after all the hype they manage to loose the match after a good lead in the first half. All the supporters came out of the stadium disappointed and I'm sure that somebody had a word or two for the new coach Mike Sherman. This reminds me of how we follow cricket back home in the same fashion . People are the same Ultimately .They have the same passions in life wherever they may be.
But I'm sure people will support the aggies again in the next match as much as we do the Indian cricket team after each loss................
Just as I was about to sign off on this Blog I got good news, the Aggies had won their second match against New Mexico 28 - 22. People were happy and celebrating and again just as in India after we won a single cricket match.
Its a long season and Hope the aggies break their loosing trend in recent years and return to their glory years under new Head Coach Mike Sherman.
Finally Signing Off ........ (Whoooo it was a long Blog ) by Saying "Gig em Aggies" .
