I was a fish in the Aggie Band that game. On a side note, that was the weekend I first met my wife of 32 years.

Lots of legend and misinformation here, I'll attack it in the order mentioned. To set the stage, we as the opposing team, got to do our halftime drill first. So the BQs were mostly back in the stands for the fiasco.

And as many here mention, the MOB was just random people off the street; students, profs and a lot of high school kids. The "Fedora" uniform came later, there was nothing resembling a uniform.

The BQs had almost zero to do with the altercations nor anything after the game. We were, however, getting ready to play The National Anthem ala Baylor 1926 in case a riot broke out. None did. The biggest disturbance I saw was one old Ag in his 30s or 40s jump the wall and head for the field, only to be restrained by Yell Leaders, ODs, etc.

After the game, we were too busy loading our horns on the moving van to get involved with anything, but a hometown buddy said he was one of the guys who stood around where the MOB was holed up until they snuck them out in concession trucks.

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Before we go any further into our halftime festivities, the MOB takes time to pay tribute to Mr. Marvin Zindler.

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One has to remember that it was only a few months before this that Zindler had forced the closure of the infamous Chicken Ranch brothel. A move that did not endear him to some Aggies. Some claim he closed it because the proprietor refused to employ male homosexual prostitutes for people of his inclination.

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From _The Rice Thresher_ Nov 29, 1973...distinctively unmilitary in a variety of silly hats and helmets

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Yes, they were goosestepping, and the "silly hats" were German WWII helmets. But my memory is that the helmets and goosestepping did not occur until the end of the "show".

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It did start a riot

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No, it did not. What damage was done, what injuries caused? None.

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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.

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TRUE! Up until the end of the "show", it was stupid, childish junk, nothing really offensive. But when they formed a "T" like the Aggie Band at the end of the show, slapped on Nazi helmets and started goosestepping, that's when it went from eye-rolling to anger.

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Probably the fact that you give them the stage for 10 minutes of halftime in your house

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We were at Rice, but the point remains that you are a captive audience. Quite rude to insult your guests.

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Wasn't this the incident that led to the victory tree or whatever they called it being chopped down on the Rice campus?

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Someone from Squadron 7 might be able to answer that for you. They may even have a section of said tree.

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And in early 80"s they screwed up the FATB using whistles on the sideline.

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I have heard the story both ways, that the BQs did it to themselves, and that the MOB caused problems. Regardless, a BQ should know his own damn place in the music and on the field and not depend on whistles. I say this as a member of the Band who performed the famous "Block O" at SMU in 1974. A disaster caused by our own misplaced whistle.

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Nothing about the paper mache cock?

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Wasn't one in 1973 as I recall.

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At Kyle Field the next year they used a little better judgement.

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As I recall, they were not invited to Kyle Field for several years.

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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...

if my memory is right, the MOB made fun of the recently deceased Reville and that was the spark that set things off...

We were told it was the MOB's fire-hydrant drill while playing "Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone" soon after the death of Reveille that lead to the MOB getting run off the field...

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THE BIGGEST FALLACY REGARDING THIS EVENT. Rev was fine. The previous one had died seven years earlier. The one at the time lived for another year and a half. The "Rev" part of the show was the MOB formed a fire hydrant, their twirlers danced around with empty leashes, and they played Where, o where has my little dog gone. Nothing offensive, slightly amusing, and silly. No one cared.

I first saw Rev mentioned as the cause of the outrage in a Rice web page. My suspicion is that the MOB wanted to avoid admitting that they did an "Aggies are Nazis" halftime show, and wanted to blame the outrage on irrational Aggies. But maybe that's just me. I hate seeing Aggies perpetuate the myth.

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I have a friend who was in the MOB for that game. He credits the FTAB for saving many lives by playing the War Hymn and making the Ags in the crowd stop to saw em off while the MOB retreated to the locker rooms.

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My memory is vague on this. I do recall preparing to play The Star Spangled Banner in case a riot truly broke out. But I think he may be correct. It certainly sounds like something we would have done, fire up the War Hymn and show those little punks what a real Band sounds like.

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tongue and cheek

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It's tongue in cheek, and yes, we were laughing at their pitiful little show through 90% of it. Laughing at the small amount of humor, laughing at how stupid it was, mostly.

Nobody cared about their "show" until they formed a "T", put on Nazi helmets, played "Recall", and started goosestepping.

There were guys in the stands in their 40s who fought the Nazis. There were people in the stands who lost friends and relatives to the Nazis.

This was 28 years after the close of hostilities. Think how people would react today if people compared Aggies to Viet Cong or NVA. And that war is 10 years further in the past today than WWII was in 1973.

Maybe folks over-reacted. But maybe the idiots at Rice should have thought a little bit before comparing a Texas College with nearly 1,000 WWII deaths to the people responsible for many of those deaths.



[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 7/30/2013 11:00p).]