Visor Guy: Kyle Field's legend at the end of an era

   “The crowd needed to get back into it. The crowd needed to do something."

The 12th Man has long been a unique aspect of game day that has set Texas A&M apart in school pride and athletic tradition. It was during Jackie Sherrill’s tenure as head coach that his leadership stitched the connection between the team and the fans even closer together. Coach Sherrill introduced the famous 12^th Man Kickoff Team, 12^th Man towel, and worked to change the number of inches that marked the space allotted per seat on the East stands’ bleachers so that more students could pack into the stadium.

Sherrill truly believed the crowd could affect the game in a tangible way. His engagement with the student body, and empowerment of the fans injected a new life into the 12^th Man. The legend of Kyle Field that was known to Aggies became renowned nationally during the late 1980’s when ESPN began broadcasting games from College Station on a regular basis. 

One landmark moment beamed from Kyle Field to television sets around the nation was the 1985 Texas game. On a third down, Longhorn quarterback Bret Stafford defiantly stood on the field amidst the deafening roar of the 12thMan and refused to snap the ball for more than a minute in hopes that the crowd would quiet down. The crowd erupted as Stafford finally went under center, only to be sacked by an A&M blitz. Aggie fans had taken the idea of being part of the game to heart. As America witnessed one of the loudest stadium crowds in college football, Kyle Field cemented its name into the ranks of college football’s most intimidating atmospheres. 

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“Gameday has become more commercialized on campus. Advertisements help pay the bills, but unfortunately have taken away from some of the environment and some of the flow to what the 12^thMan would typically bring to a game,” says Kevin, as he shares a bit of what drives his enthusiasm and passion at games.

Kevin Holley, known to most Aggies as “Visor Guy” sits on the back porch of the Dixie Chicken. The music of Old Crow Medicine Show and Journey fill the Friday evening air. It’s the eve of game day in College Station.  Aggies have gathered at what has become a rally point to reunite with old friends, reminisce on the four years or more spent here in their youth and to introduce their children to a slice of Aggieland.

Holley and a visitor are reliving his semi-viral moment from the Alabama game a month earlier. “As an example, in the Alabama game, we were down big and seemed that at that point we needed to make a change,” Holley said. “The crowd needed to get back into it. The crowd needed to do something."

"I never want to step on the toes of the yell leaders or the administration, or anything.” Aware his role can potentially be controversial to some, Holley reached out to each class of yell leaders in recent years. In the spirit of family, he makes himself available to help and work together as a team.

This year, Holley says yell leader Roy May actually reached out to him after he sent a note to the yell leaders. He says May’s response was, “Keep doing what you’re doing. We’re handcuffed at times.”

“There’s things that need to evolve to make that experience that we’re all used to and accustomed to catch up with current time,” says Holley. “In that [Alabama] game it was just right time and the right place.”

SECTION 426, ROW 2, SEAT 10

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Now a fixture in Kyle Field, Holley never set out to become one of the stadium’s most well-known fans. His enthusiasm and leadership naturally draw attention, but he never sought notoriety. “I don’t want to single myself out,” he said. “I never wanted to be singled out. That wasn’t my intention. It was more just to bring everyone else up to what the 12^th Man is and to support the Ags through thick and thin.”

Holley isn’t difficult to spot at games - if you know where to look. Turn your eyes to the East end of The Zone, three decks up, and you will likely see him yelling, waving a white towel, and banging on the metal siding that covers the exterior of the North stands’ structure. You may also see a large portion of the student section following him as he leads his favorite yell: “Beat-The-Hell-Outta …”

Holley provides an unwavering presence of support for the Aggie football team from section 426, Row 2, Seat 10. This is where he’s been for all but three home games since 2000. One game he missed for his brother’s wedding. He’s since forgiven his brother for marrying on game day. The two other games he was absent because work had taken him out of state. Not to worry, his brother filled the seat in those two games.

The metal siding next to his seat bears signs of Holley’s use of it as a noise-maker. The tan sheet of metal bows inward where it passes row two of his section. “I’ve actually received a call from the 12^th Man Foundation before asking me to stop because the suite down below had complained about it.” He thinks they reinforced the wall because the complaints stopped. Not to be taken for a hooligan, Holley continues. “I would never want to take away from another person’s game day experience, but there are certain times where it just overwhelms me,” Holley said. “I’ve gotta do it to make more noise.”

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The banging is Holley’s version of a bleacher stomp. “Since I don’t have a bleacher, I’ve got to bang on the next closest thing.” A close inspection reveals extra bolts on the section of siding that runs past Kevin’s seat. “They’ve actually had to reinforce the wall right next to my seat,” he said.

His signature banging of the metal siding has come with some cost. Over the years, he’s repeatedly cut his arm on the bolts securing it to the concrete structure. He even broke his thumb. “It looked like a tiger had mauled my arm because it just had so many slashes on it,” he said.

 Aside from the hammering, Holley simply states he’s: “standing in my spot, yelling when I can. I try to stand most of the game.” His section mates like his enthusiasm. Many have been season ticket holders for a decade. “The people in my section love my excitement.”

THE GENESIS OF VISOR GUY

Holley had worn the same A&M baseball cap all through college. It was also his headwear of choice on game day. By graduation, the cap was old, battered, and in need of replacement. “I felt it was time to go out and get something different and I’ve got a rather large head,” he said. “So finding a hat that looks good and fits right is difficult.”

He tried on seemingly every hat in town, but was unable to find what he was looking for. “There was a visor sitting there on the shelf,” he said. “I tried it on. It fit good, looked OK. And the rest was history.”

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Kevin hasn’t worn a baseball cap to a game since. He wore the visor to his first game as a former student and his first game in Section 426, row 2, seat 10. Although he’s worn a visor to Kyle Field since 2000, the modern incarnation of “Visor Guy” did not occur until 2008 when Colorado visited. The Buffaloes were looking to tie the game late in the fourth quarter. The Aggies had just gone three-and-out. “This was the first time that the Jumbotron absolutely irked me to the max,” Holley says.

The Aggies were looking to secure a win, but the stadium went quiet. “I think it was an Academy commercial, or something, comes on the Jumbotron. No band. No yells. Nothing.” Kevin looked at his brother. “This cannot happen. It cannot be this quiet in here right now,” Holley recalls saying. “So we looked over at the third deck of the student section, and said, ‘let’s lead them in Beat The Hell Outta.’”

The section closest to them in the east stands caught on. By the third yell, the whole third deck and most of the second deck were following their lead. “And by about the fifth one, the yell leaders were doing the pass back on the track because they saw that all the students were involved,” Holley says. On the first play after the game resumed, A&M safety Trent Hunter clinched victory with an interception.

Thinking nothing of it, Holley returned to his car to make the familiar drive home to Tomball.  Along the way, something unexpected happened. He started getting calls from friends asking if he’s checked TexAgs or looked at Facebook? On TexAgs there was a thread about “Visor Man, Visor Guy, students for the alumni guy...”

“Visor Man, Visor Guy, students for the alumni guy...”

No one really knew who Holley was or what he was doing, but his passion during that game had captured people’s attention. He logged on to TexAgs.com as soon he got home. Videos and photos of him leading yells had already been posted on the forums. It was his watershed moment. Visor Guy was born.

That week a current student contacted Holley on Facebook. She had started a Facebook fanpage for “Visor Guy” and wanted him to have access. The first time he viewed the page it already had more than 2,000 “likes.” Now in 2013, it currently has over 16,000.

“The students kind of looked at me to keep The Zone going, to help them when they needed it,” he says. “From there it’s grown to where I’ve kind of taken it upon myself to give back to the students and help them and some of the student organizations.”

THE MAN BEHIND THE VISOR

Since the birth of Visor Guy in 2008, Kevin has regularly volunteered to speak to student organizations about the spirit of the 12^th Man and impart a small bit of his passion for making the Aggie family as tight knit as possible. In 2012, he was even bestowed the honor of namesake for a fish camp, Texas A&M’s popular freshman orientation program. The distinction is given each year to individuals beloved by the Texas A&M student body.

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The philosophy that drives Kevin is simple. “I think there’s such a deep passion here in Aggieland on game day to support the team, and we’re a family on game day whether you’re sitting on your couch at home – banging your hand on the side of the couch, yelling at the TV – or you’re in Kyle. Everybody can have an impact on the game,” he says.

Born in the Bronx, New York, Holley came to Texas when he was two-weeks old. “I’m a Texan. I’m not a yankee,” he says. He grew up in Texas and graduated from Mansfield High School in 1995. Although no members of his were Aggies, he only had one college destination in mind: College Station.

Waitlisted at Texas (“the other school in Austin” as he puts it) and Texas A&M, he spent his freshman and sophomore years at Texas A&M Corpus Christi before transferring to College Station. “I got to main campus as quick as I could,” he says. His sister and brother followed him to A&M. Also making the move from Corpus Christi to College Station was Holley's then girlfriend, and now wife, Melanie. They went on to marry in 2003.

THE VISOR (FAMILY) GUY

His family has various opinions of Holley’s “Visor Guy” persona. “The kids absolutely love it,” he says. “My wife loves it, though she hates it. She kind of laughs at it. She knows that what I’m doing is for the greater good, and that I’ve had a positive impact on a lot of people. And we’ve had a lot of people have a positive impact on us because of this.”

Kevin says that his wife has been known to wear a visor, and that his little girls demand to wear visors on game day. There is a passion and love for Texas A&M that spills out of Holley when he speaks out his alma mater. He describes the magic of football season with childlike excitement. “It’s like Christmas Eve and you just can’t wait to get those presents the next day,” he says. “You can’t sleep, but you know you need to because you’ve got the game the next morning or afternoon. And then you get to the game and it’s all you hoped it would be. Granted, sometimes we run out of time. But it’s like Christmas every single home game.”

One of Holley’s main messages to former students is that, “You’re always a part something to help make noise in that stadium and make it the most intimidating place in college football. “It’s really difficult to explain it, until you live it and walk across this campus,” Holley says. Like many Aggies, he has a hard time putting into words what the “Spirit of Aggieland” means. But he says, “The tradition and the family that this campus has is second to none. And I think that is where we hold a distinct advantage against any other university.”

“You’re taught to support one another as the 12^thMan. We’ve got a unique situation where the vast majority of our students have access to tickets to the football games” says Kevin, citing the significant support from former students. “Whereas other universities restrict and limit that, that spirit continues on even with the loss of bonfire and bad football seasons it bounces right back” he says. “We get knocked down, but we get right back up.”

THE FUTURE OF VISOR GUY: A NEW SEAT IN A NEW KYLE?

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Earlier in the evening, Holley went up to his seat in The Zone. Kyle Field was empty and the field was a rich green after three weeks of rest. Dressed in crisp lines of white and maroon it was ready to welcome the next day’s crowd after the Aggies’ stretch of games on the road. After the last home game of the season, Kyle Field is undergoing a massive two-year renovation. In 2015, would Visor Guy still be ever-present in Section 426? “Boy would I like to know,” he says. “I’m in the same boat as any ticket holder.”

There is no guarantee that an individual will retain the same section and row in the reseating process. The redevelopment of Kyle Field will also add two sections between 426, where Holley’s family currently sits, and the upper decks of the student section. The dramatic perch where he currently pumps life into the stadium will lose its place as a tower of sorts, which has made him easy to spot.

“I’m anxious to see what will come of it,” he says. “But you know, if I move to another section I’ll work to get that section going and see if I can make an impact on some others in the stadium. It’ll be some other’s task to keep it going over in 426. And the students will keep strong in the student section.” Though deep down Holley would be happy anywhere in Kyle there is a measure of reservation at the thought of parting with the only seat he had known for the past 13 years. Regardless, Holley says: “The mission is going to stay the same.”

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Beyond the strategic location he currently holds, Holley says the other season ticket holders around him have become like family. “We’ve made long family friends in that section.” He hopes the university will consider that aspect of the fan experience during the reseating process. Among the top anticipated aspects of the new stadium is the increased noise level. Holley dreams about just how much louder Kyle Field could be on game day.

Yet, paramount on his mind is the ability for games to be accessible to all Aggies. “I don’t want to see it become so overpriced that the average Aggie fan can’t bring their family,” he says. “That’s important. I bring my two girls to a game once a season -- they’re six and four. But already they know the War Hymn. They’re getting into the spirit of the 12^th Man.”

The entire time Holley talks it’s obvious he is still as surprised by the attention as he was after the Colorado game in 2008. “I hope one day to go unnoticed because Kyle is going so rowdy and so nuts,” he says. As the 12^th Man eagerly awaits the next family gathering at Kyle next September, Holley leaves these words for the Aggie faithful: “Support each other. Remember that you’re Aggies first and you’re a family.”

“And yell like crazy.” (Jumbotrons be damned).

Grant Daniels (Class of '15) is a contributing photographer for this story.