I was 15 years old in 1981, and it happened right in front of me. When I hear it told they never quite get the details right. As part of their rah rah routine the smu guy cheerleaders would lay down on the field and spell out s m u right after a touchdown. (They got a lot of practice because they had some guy named Dickerson playing for them.) As we were sitting there listening to that 12 note smu fight song being played over and over and over again we saw the guy cheerleaders going out on the field and spelling out "S", then move around and spell out the "M", and then the "U". Even at 15 I knew that the field was a memorial and that no one was supposed to be on the field. "Hey, They Can't Do That!" I saw a cadet going out to tell the cheerleaders that they can't be out there. He had his sword sheathed at the time and was not threatening with it. He ended up talking face to face with one of the guy cheerleaders. I do not know if it was a heated exchange or what was said, but what everyone in the stands saw was another guy cheerleader tip toe up behind the cadet, and get down on all fours right behind him. Then first cheerleader pushed the cadet over and he landed flat on his back. How humiliating! Now being 15 years old I was pretty familiar with this cool move but I felt sorry for that guy. Now comes the dangerous part. He was MAD. He hopped up and pulled his sword out of it's sheath. To my recollection he did not wave it, nor run with it, nor did he point it, but he did pull it out of it's sheath. Some other cadets stepped in and pulled him away and it was over, except for my mom saying "...well they can't do that to him!". She was huge Aggie fan.

I just had to share my little memory of A&M versus SMU.

Gig'em

I was there. Unbelievable and incredibly embarrassing and stupid

Edit...pretty accurate and detailed recollection OP

[This message has been edited by SoCal Ag 85 (edited 9/20/2013 5:45p).]

Should have cut his nuts off. That would be a good story.

While that may be the truth (SMU cheerleader d-baggery) that's not how the public ever did or ever will see it.....

Was there too. Incident happened on the north end of Kyle and I was sitting on the south end 2nd deck. My biggest recollection was having a bunch of SMU students in our section acting like morons. This was in the midst of the 'Valley Girl' BS and these chicks were in full gear.

One more thing... When I started writing this I googled it to check my dates. I came across this sorry Dallas Observer article by Richie Whitt (105.3 The Fan in Dallas)

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/sportatorium/2010/12/smu_cheerleader_texas_am_cadet.php

Here is an excerpt from Richie Whitt's article:
"...So Hood runs onto the field, kicks a male SMU cheerleader and then - I kid you not - pulls his sabre on him and points it menacingly. (Don't know why we should be surprised, seeing that Aggies have always been full of s***.) Before that confrontation escalated, however, another SMU cheerleader ran up and delivered a two-handed shove to Hood's chest that sent him hilariously and unceremoniously tumbling onto his butt and back, heels over head."

[This message has been edited by Action86 (edited 9/20/2013 5:49p).]

I smell a nice Non Reg vs CT hate thread about to start

Richie Whitt is a dbag of the highest order. An unemployed one at that. Please never quote him unless it's to make fun of him.

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God help you if you have to resort to pulling a saber to get the best of a male cheerleader.

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FIFY

Kyle Field is not a memorial.

The corp guy just got ****ed up.

OP has it right except a few details. The field is not nor has it ever been a memorial, and it was a saber not a sword. A Saber does not have a sharp edge, although the tip can cause some major damage. I felt and I still feel sorry for Hood. He should have never pulled the sabre out of the scabbard. He paid dearly for that mistake.

Hate to say it, but a lot of people were cheering the cadet on, myself included. I had no idea a picture of it would go worldwide like it did.

corpse core coor

Dang. I was there and remember it happening on the south end of Kyle Field.

Sword? More like Aggie toothpick.

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Was this the first time the Corps embarrassed us on a national level or has it happened since the beginning of time?

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Nope. It was just that once.

Greg lived in my dorm pretty much all 4 years I was at A&M. He was a decent guy. But, that day, he screwed up royally. As already mentioned, Kyle Field is not a memorial. Further, Officers of the Day were not officials at the game. It was a strictly ceremonial position. We were not to do anything more than stand around in our uniforms.

This is not a Corps thing. This is simply a single individual who acted without thinking, and paid a heavy price for it.

You may be right NOBEVO, we had one heck of a Halloween party the night before and details may have been blurred!!!

What ever happened to the cadet?

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A Saber does not have a sharp edge, although the tip can cause some major damage.

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Maybe that's what they give the Corps, but a Saber is an edge rather than point weapon. It has one sharp edge vs two, but it's designed for slashing, not stabbing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0FN3gv_LMY

[This message has been edited by 8T2 (edited 9/20/2013 6:31p).]

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Nope. It was just that once.

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Uh, you are forgetting the group nut squeeze on national TV.

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paid a heavy price for it.

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What kind of price did he pay?

In that video it's telling that his cover is already on the field when the video starts.

Does anyone have a longer clip? I've never seen it.

If you watch the video, you can clearly see that the whole "hero cadet was pushed over a crouching SMU cheerleader" story seems to be b.s. It looks like he was totally in the wrong and got shoved on his ass. Embarrassing. Not something to be proud of, both the fact that he went out to "defend" the non-memorial field and that he got shoved over with a weapon drawn.

Pull a saber on a defenseless male cheerleader? No way you can make that sound good.

Initially, it was scary....then it was sorta funny and finally embarrassing. Just glad nobody was hurt. Had a good view of the festivities.

The original poster is mostly correct.


Kyle Field is not a memorial; the flags around the stadium are.

The Ag was an OD (Officer of the Day).

The ODs were stationed about every 10 yards around the sidelines. I never served as an OD and I don't know what they were instructed to do or what authority they had.

When we won a home game, they helped to keep the fish, who were waiting to rush the field and chase down our yell leaders after the game, off the field until time expired.

This OD was at the SE sideline, where the SMU cheerleaders were in front of their band and fans.

The incident happened in the SE corner of the end zone.

The OD was attempting to prevent the cheerleaders from going onto the field to spell out SMU. The male cheerleaders did this after scores while the female cheerleaders and their band in the stands led the visitors in shouting out each letter as it was formed.

It happened several times.

I watched it escalate each time SMU scored, from the second deck on the press box side.

Finally, our OD was arguing with one cheerleader guy when another one snuck behind him on all fours so the one in front could push the OD backwards over him.

After the OD fell and got back to his feet, he pulled his ceremonial sword and held it threateningly.

Other people, including other ODs, other cheerleaders, school officials and eventually the police separated them and the game went on.

IMO, that OD was placed and then neglected in a bad and worsening position with a tenuous mission and dubious authority and without proper backup by Aggie school officials as the situation began and developed.

And he carried a "deadly" weapon without clear purpose and without immediate supervision.

Very poor planning and event oversight on our part.

Pure stubborn jackassery on the SMU cheerleaders' part.



I personally dislike the image of our current ODs in full uniform twirling 12th Man towels as they often do today. To me, that looks incongruous and unmilitary.

But leaving that young Aggie believing he had the job of doing his duty and enforcing something single-handedly without adequate instructions or actually authority or close backup or any immediate supervision was a very, very neglectful thing to do.

If he'd made the cheerleaders stop what they were doing, some Ags would've been happy, even proud.

But, if he or a cheerleader had been hurt, it would've been a tragedy.

I hope that our school officials have a tighter handle on potential game day situations and confrontations and plan for them better and intervene sooner now than they did then.





BTHO SMU!!!!!!









Gig 'em, FAST FRED '65.

Before the world wide web, village idiots usually stayed in their own village.

[This message has been edited by FAST FRED (edited 9/20/2013 10:08p).]

I'll never forget it! Then for what seemed like months it was all over the news, tv shows, etc. wow, just think if we had sat, cable news, etc like we do now.

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If you watch the video, you can clearly see that the whole "hero cadet was pushed over a crouching SMU cheerleader" story seems to be b.s.

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Didn't bother to read the post directly above yours, huh? Clearly that video tells the whole story. /sarcasm

I was there, and as I recall, the SMU cheerleader was on the ground, spelling out "SMU" with the other cheerleaders, when Hood approached, saber drawn, and kicked him while he was on the ground. The guy got up (and he was a pretty big guy), started arguing with Hood while Hood was waving the saber in his face, and another cheerleader pushed Hood to the ground. Hood got up, still waving the saber, and that's when the incident with the other cheerleader crawling on his knees behind him occurred. It kept escalating, with Hood getting more and more furious, and the only steps being taken to defuse it were sideline personnel restraining SMU cheerleaders (while Hood was still going nuts) Some of our yell leaders were standing right there and did nothing. Billy Cannon Jr., who was preparing to receive the kickoff, ran up behind Hood and grabbed him in a bear hug and dragged him about 15 yards from the confrontation. That was when it ended. It was embarrassing on many levels (my future wife was with me, watching her first Aggie football game), and it was an absolute failure by A&M officials in handling the situation properly. No matter how you spin it, there's no way A&M came out of that situation with anything to be proud of.

Quality post Fred.

So what happened to the Corps turd in the aftermath?