quote:

---

The armadillo even challenged the University of Texas. A tongue-in-cheek bumper sticker movement to change the name of the mascot from Longhorn to Armadillo got under way, and students at rival Texas A&M couldn't let that opportunity slip by. At a Thanksgiving Day football game, the Aggies stampeded a herd of orange-painted armadillos into the ranks of the Texas marching band.

---

From Jan Reid's book The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock, there is a section about Armadillo World Headquarters.

Does anyone remember this? Thanks to the "coolest Aggie memorabilia" thread for the memory jog.

'71 t.u. game at Kyle. Cold cloudy day. Ags had won 4 in a row to get to 5-5 and the Peach Bowl reps were there to see if we upset the Horns and keep Gene Stallings from being fired. It was 0-34 at the half, sips scored on 4th and goal from the 1 yard line 4 times. I was a p_sshead in the Band looking down thinking about the drill when the t.u. band entered from the south end zone, marching towards us. The 2 butt yell leaders, Hank Paine and C.H. Long ran out onto the middle of Kyle with a couple of armadillos mostly painted orange and let them go. Crowd started laughing while the t.u. band came wandering north. 2 assistant band director geek types came running onto the field trying to catch the dillos who did not cooperate and scurried in various directions. More laughter. As the t.u. band folks finally got to the dillos a couple of them tripped over the pesky little critters and messed up the marching. More laughter and the dillos finally escaped off the field headed where to I have no idea or rememberance. Back in those pre-amoeba marching band days the t.u. band used to try and mimic a FTAB drill piece of several years previous. That year the t.u. band guy was attempted to do oblique company fronts like us but at a larger interval. Once the t.u. band finished and the armadillos were gone we got out and did our drill like usual.

Game ended 14-34 and Gene Stallings was fired before I got back home to SA that night. My old VW did not have a radio so I was unaware until my Dad met me at the door and let me know the news. It was expected. Emory Bellard was hired a couple of days later and Aggie football changed in lots of ways.

Dig 'Em, Dillos. Yeah, I remember.

"Recall.....Step off on Hullabaloo..."

nice story, WBBQ74.

If I remember correctly, the reason that the Armadillos were let out was because there was a grass roots movement in Austin trying to get the tu mascot changed from Longhorns to Armadillos.

Don't Armadillos carry leprosy or something like that?

For you folks that don't know, the story WBBQ74 just related is "Redass"... defined.

I was there and still have a "Dig 'Em Dillo's" bumper sticker we made up and distributed before the game. The bumper sticker besides the slogan had an orange armadillo digging in the dirt.

15 years ago I was talking smack to a colleague of mine who's a sip and he remembered it as well. He was in the tu band when they marched out on the field for half time perfomance and the orange armadillo's were set loose in front of them.

He said it wasn't funny then but he can laugh at it now. Good Bull!

This brings back a lot of memories.

What happened prior to C.H. and I dumping the armadillos in the middle of the tu band at halftime was this:

At midnight yell we told the fish that we would give our class set (73) for every armadillo that they brought to my hole. Around 4 a.m. it seems like half the damn fish in the Corps show up banging on my door. There were at least 15-20 armadillos in tow sacks, beer coolers, you name it. They crapped me out totally.
We let all but two of them go and took them to the game.
What a hoot!!

Beat the Hell outta Everyone!!

Hank Paine
HYL '73