Texas A&M University vs. Rice
Rice Stadium – Houston, Texas
November 17, 1973
"The Halftime of Infamy"

Field Action: Band lines up on north end of field. Called to attention.

Announcer:

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the 1973 Marching Owl Band, or MOB – [pause] the only thing funnier than a good Aggie Joke. The MOB is directed by Mr. Bert Roth, with twirlers Janet Breston, Suzan, McCorkle, Liz Moy and Karen Blackwell. And, in his last appearance with the MOB today, the person responsible for pulling together the halftime shows this year, Drum Major Bob Hord.

Music: Fanfare

Announcer:

Today the MOB salutes Texas A&M and the Aggie band. So to begin, the band will warm up with a little old-fashioned military marching. [in German accent] You will enjoy!

Field Action: Band goosesteps out to old Germanesque march. Stops. Marches into chicken leg.

Announcer:

Before we go any further into our halftime festivities, the MOB takes time to pay tribute to Mr. Marvin Zindler. [pause] Yes, you heard correctly – the MOB has formed a large chicken thigh, and Marvin Zindler (the most hated man in Lagrange) will twirl to that famous greeting "Hello, Dolly."

Music: "Hello, Dolly"

Field Action: Band marches into boot to cadence.

Announcer:

The MOB has formed a famous Senior Boot, the greatest thing to happen to Aggieland since the manure spreader. [pause] Aggie freshmen will agree that at the base of every Senior Boot is a big heel.

Music: "Get It On"

Field Action: Marches into fire hydrant to cadence.

Announcer:

The MOB now salutes Reveille, the mascot of the Aggies. This is a little dog with a big responsibility. But even Reveille likes to make that pause that refreshes. [pause] So the MOB has formed a fire hydrant and plays "Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?"



Music: "Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?"

Field Action: Band marches into giant 'T'.
Announcer:

The MOB now salutes the Marching Band from Aggieland by forming their famous marching T. [pause] Watch now as the MOB has it their way.

Field Action: Band plays bugle call into to the Aggie War Hymn and transitions into

Music: "Little Wooden Soldier" March.

Announcer:

There you have it, fans, the band that never sounds retreat. Thank you and goodbye.

Field Action: Band runs off while trumpets blow "Retreat".

That damn near started a riot.

A sense of humor. We needed one.

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~themob/history/11_29_73.html

It did start a riot. Made the front page of the Houston Chronicle. Uncle in white patent leather shoes pictured involved in a slug fest.

http://mob.rice.edu/history/scripts/files/1973/19731129-thresher.shtml



Pissed Ags off at the time but this is a GOOD BULL story... some of you complaining that we need a sense of humor don't get it...

[This message has been edited by texag89 (edited 7/30/2013 3:43p).]

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Making fun of the corpse

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Hilarious.

Man, that's awesome and ballsy

damn. Saw it right when I hit submit.

If the Ags had not lost the game, nobody would have cared by the time it was over. I wasn't there but a buddy of mine was, and he said that the worst thing about what Rice did was that it just wasn't very clever or funny, which made it come off as nothing more than juvenile taunting.

Rice Band is nothing more then a "MOB" of retarded societal rejects!!!!

As had been stated on this site by older guys, they really weren't mad about the reveille stuff, it was the goosestepping, a-la NAZIs, compare that made them mad.

Probably the fact that you give them the stage for 10 minutes of halftime in your house, and they come in and bash on you to your face in front of 60,000 people, and over a couple of sensitive subjects.

It's one thing to have a little fun with someone, but you have to understand propriety and couth and reasonable limitations. The boundary between humor and defamation was crossed that day, given the circumstances.

And unlike probably anyone here, I actually marched one saturday with the Mob at a game in highschool when they had a guest program. I even got a loaner grey fedora and cheap $1 sunglasses...the "uniform".

[This message has been edited by MouthBQ98 (edited 7/30/2013 1:34p).]

Wasn't this the incident that led to the victory tree or whatever they called it being chopped down on the Rice campus? Seems like it ended up on the bonfire.

I was there. If it was 1973, I was a sophomore. I was thinking it was my freshman year, 1972.

In those days, a "spoof" like the Rice band was very seldom seen. It literally took zero talent and almost no practice time to put on a halftime show like that. Compare that to the Fightin Texas Aggie Band who work their butts off and take their marching and performance seriously.

What I remember the most was a few of the old Ags, old men, literally blowing up mad about the band's making fun of Aggies. Most of us just stayed in our places, standing, watching the Rice band get escorted out of the stadium after the game.

They are the absolute suck.

And in early 80"s they screwed up the FATB using whistles on the sideline. That led to us always performing a "no whistle" drill every time we played them. Joe T. Haney was so worried about the mscrewing us up that we practiced our ass of those game weeks.

We all hated the MOB then, but now I'll admit some of their crap was pretty dang funny.

Nothing about the paper mache cock?

[This message has been edited by Tom Hagen (edited 7/30/2013 1:59p).]

And then they were cornered under the stadium by about 200 pissed off ags who were about to kick some botty when about 15 cops showed up.
At Kyle Field the next year they used a little better judgement. About half the MOB were either alums or HS students.

I once met a former A&M student who played for the MOB (and I didn't like it when he told me). They have quite a few members who don't go to Rice.

My wife and I were at that game, guests of a Rice graduate work colleague and his wife. To Marvin Zindler's credit, he did come to the Aggie Club meeting at the old Rice Hotel the following Monday and apologized to us.

Charlie Wallace '62

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was also booed by the A&M sections

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OLD ARMY

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A sense of humor. We needed one.

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This. The OP along with the rest of you who are upset over this are the ones who give Aggies a bad name for being too uptight.

We need as much of this type of stuff in college football as we can get.

"LET THE HAT FLOW THROUGH YOU!"

A recipe for constipation?

I was there – I was a fish in high school.

What pissed me off the most (If I remember correctly) was they played “Where has my little dog gone” when one of the reveilles had just died or was terminally sick. But, like I said, it was a long time ago.

The goose stepping, to me, was just par for the MOB.

As I recall, they had to load the MOB into bread trucks to take them away from the stadium.

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Probably the fact that you give them the stage for 10 minutes of halftime in your house, and they come in and bash on you to your face in front of 60,000 people, and over a couple of sensitive subjects.

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Except that this occurred in Rice Stadium.

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was also booed by the A&M sections
OLD ARMY

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If you were a journalist would you write: "and the Aggies horse farted the MOB off the field", or would you write, "They were booed by A&M sections"?

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A sense of humor. We needed one.

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there were the 1973 & 1981 incidents and the impromptu yell practice during the MoB's performance at the 1989 game (also in Houston). I believe the yell leader who led the yell practice achieved the rank of LTC or COL in the Armed Forces

[This message has been edited by W (edited 7/30/2013 3:42p).]

I was at the game as a p*sshead in the corps. This was a Corps Trip and the place was packed with ags for the game. Rice was one of the teams we thought we could beat that year after going 3-8 the previous year. Tommy Kramer ate our lunch in the first half and then if my memory is right, the MOB made fun of the recently deceased Reville and that was the spark that set things off. The ags came back to take the lead late in the game and then Rice ran a kickoff back for a touchdown to win the game right at the end and that was the final straw. It was bedlam and mayhem for hours while they snuck the Owl Band out of the stadium. Yes their tree was cut down. Yes I know who reportedly did it, and no I would never say. Don't think it was burned on the bonfire, but its a nice story.

Hilarious. Love the MOB. Always have.

Even worse was the fact that we were down big at halftime. We played lights out the second half and took the lead with very little time left. Everyone in maroon was feeling like the team was motivated by the MOB antics and used that emotion to cap one of the great comebacks in A&M history. Then we kicked off, all our players sprinted down the field, wanting to be the one to decapitate the poor Rice player who caught the ball, and....wait for it....he ran for a game winning touchdown. Never went from high to low so quick in my life.

1973 Rive vs Texas A&M highlights

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpawlAI3YIM