I expect–nay demand–good sportsmanship from college and professional athletes and their fans.

• It is NOT acceptable that a Miami player punched a North Carolina player in the groin this year.
• It is NOT acceptable that Aggies vandalized the UT campus over the weekend.
• It is NOT acceptable that Tech vandalized Aggie buses earlier this year.
• The other incidents over the years by Tech and Baylor fans to the Aggie campus and community are also completely unacceptable. (Anyone know how much repainting cost on that Aggie barn the Bears painted green a few years ago?) Miami/FIU fighting on the field was embarrassing. (FIU? really?) I’m sure there have been times when Aggies did their fair share of “stuff” to Tech and Baylor, too; I just didn’t live in those towns to hear about it.

I don’t usually hear what punishment is doled out when the vandals are identified/caught. I am grateful to hear that Coach @GoldenAl suspended the Miami player who punched the Tarheel and forced him to perform community service for the day instead of being with the team at the game. If the news story I read is any indication, the guy didn’t learn much, and probably never should have been admitted to Miami in the first place. gah! I’ve always said I’d be a tough coach. I think this player got off easy since it seems he didn’t learn anything from his day of missing a ~big game and serving others.

I don’t know what has to happen to make this nonsense stop, but it is time.

As players (who are students, first, by the way!), those team members represent the school more visibly than just about anyone else. Their behavior on and off field has to be above reproach. If the players don’t want to be “better” than their fellow students, then they need to turn in their jerseys.

Students/alumni/fans also represent their school, and when they participate in these “pranks”, they cost their school money. Do you think A&M paid the bill to have their buses cleaned in Lubbock? ha! We know UT will bill A&M for the $1500 in damages done over the weekend. More importantly than money these illegal acts make the offending school look bad in the media. That translates easily into donations for scholarships and programming, advertising at school-sponsored events, and even the recruiting of future students who now think less of the school. Every little bit, especially in this economy, adds up.

So, unless universities want to turn over their advertising ribbon boards to Krylon, Sherwin-Williams, Graffiti-off, and Lysol, they need to consider putting enough efforts into finding/punishing these students. And, yes, they can punish alumni, if they want: ban them from mailing lists and ticket sales. It’s not much, but it’s something. I don’t know what they could do about rogue fans, but it’s possible that some of them are potential students (don’t let them in!) or have kids who grew up as fans of the school. Hit them where it hurts if you want to put a stop to it. Yes, it’s harsh, (and unfair to the kid if they weren’t involved) but something has to be done to make this stop.

Settle any grievances on the field (and within the rules), like a real rivalry does, not on the campus, the buses, or private property.

.

I love Twitter. I’m a little bit evangelical about it.

As a result, I hear arguments. Most of them don’t hold water…like when someone claims to hate it but they haven’t ever tried it (which doesn’t apply in all cases, but certainly does in this one). I’ve also heard people say, “I don’t know what to say on Twitter,” when they are the same ones who light up a new facebook status every 10 minutes.

Even if you don’t want to do the talking, you can do the listening .

Today gave me a shining example of why organizations (and businesses) need to use Twitter.

The Capital City A&M Club has weekly Monday lunches. During the fall, they replay the copy of the weekend’s football game without any of the filler between plays. Other times of the year, they have speakers and networking. I never really pay attention to the thing, but a friend made me realize that this week, Dr. Ben Welch would be speaking about leadership.

…except that he wasn’t. He had to cancel (dental emergency) and Scott Jarvis was speaking about Texas A&M Qatar, instead. They even did name/year intros. Since I’m not a “Class of” anything, I was left saying something like, “Lori Luza. I didn’t go to A&M.” (That isn’t even technically true, but lying is better than telling them all about my horrible experience.) “I used to work for Dr. Welch, so I came here to see him. I’m married to an Aggie class of ’89.” yuk at my embarrassing drivel instead of just my name.

It was a great topic, but it wasn’t worth my drive down and the disruption of my mid day. Dr. Welch’s topic would have been worth that and more. Scott did a lovely job and shared great information…but it wasn’t anything I needed. And, since A&M isn’t my alma mater, it was only mildly interesting to me. And, as it turns out, Dr. Welch sought Scott as a replacement on Saturday night. They had ~36 hours to let everyone know of the change.

• They could have emailed the change to their list. It’s a huge list so they probably have a rule about not bothering people more than once a week. Fine.
• I had emailed the guy in charge of this group with my menu questions. He could have written me back or alerted me to the change
• If they had tweeted the change, I probably would have seen it and would have stayed home.

So, see? Twitter is the easiest fix to problems like this. Stuff happens. It’s how you handle stuff that matters.

For the last several years, our alma mater’s have played one another in some major team (and minor/individual) sports. We are both very good-natured and very respectuful of one another’s teams. We even hosted a living room full of Aggies for the year A&M went to Miami for football. The party was themed “Gig ‘em, ‘Canes!!!” After all, an ideal scenario is for our two schools to be #s 1 & 2 in every sport (and every academic subject, too) every year. LOL

This weekend was an amazing display of our camaraderie. I already had plans to host some friends for a wine tour with our apartment complex, so I knew I’d miss the first baseball regional between A&M and UM.

First, here are some little similarities between our schools.

• Aggies “Whoop” | Hurricanes “Whoosh Whoosh” (Though, the ‘Canes do not use it in the same manner.)
• While the Hurricanes use the “U” and Aggies often use the “T”, we both went to “M” schools, too.
• Both schools have a very loyal student following to their sports teams.
• Aggies pass back hand signs.  | Hurricanes hold up four fingers at the beginning of the 4th quarter to signify dominance of that quarter and stamina for the whole game. ‘Canes also have hand signs and chants(not all are family-friendly) we use for certain teams.
• M-I, A-M-I, fight, Fight, FIGHT! | Farmers fight, Farmers fight! Fight! Fight! Farmers, farmers fight!!
• We both have yells/chants during our fight songs.
• Two-name towns with our own zip codes: College Station, TX 77840 and Coral Gables, FL 33146.
• C-A-N-E-S, Canes! | A-G-G-I-E…Gig ‘em, Aggies!
• White is an official color for both schools.
• Hand symbols: Aggies give a thumbs up to show “Gig ‘em”.  | ‘Canes “throw the U” with both hands.
• “It’s great…to be…a Miami Hurricane” | “Squads left! squads right! Farmers, farmers, we’re all right! ….”

While the similarities are small, they are meaningful to us.

So, when Saturday’s game started, Emil texted me his version of a yell for our teams. Stealing from a ‘Cane cheer, he wrote, “We’ve got some Aggies over here; Whoop whoop!” **swoon**; he really is the love of my life.

Miami bested A&M on Saturday, but A&M won on Sunday. So, we’ll see how Monday evening goes to see who gets to go to the Super Regionals. If only we can keep the lightening away from the Miami campus for one whole game!

Gig ‘em, ‘Canes. Whoosh Whoop.

I only had one rule for the Aggie alumni and fans: root/yell FOR your team, not AGAINST mine. I had to explain to one friend that “Beat the Hell Outta…” would not be tolerated and that I considered it bad sportsmanship. She disagreed and I told her she didn’t have to come over. But, in the end, she came to our party and yelled for the Aggies.

Aggies to take on Bulldogs in the (Advocare 100) Independence Bowl, December 28, 2009, Shreveport, Louisiana, #gigem

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the collapse of Bonfire that killed 11 students and 1 former student. While we did not know any of the victims, personally, we both worked in Student Affairs. Furthermore, several of our friends were directly affected by the death of someone very close to them. It was terrible.

Our clock radio went off that morning with perfect timing. The first words we heard went something like this:

“Once again, the Bonfire stack collapsed at approximately 2:30 this morning. Rescue crews have been working all night. Please avoid the area.”

Lori laid there, awake, and too shocked to speak for a moment.
Emil’s first words, “honey, did you hear the radio?”
Lori’s first words, “Poor Rusty.” (Rusty was Bonfire’s Advisor…what hell must he have been going through!)

Tonight/tomorrow, at 2:42am, there are remembrance ceremonies all over Texas (and elsewhere probably). It’s particularly special that the Leonid Meteor Shower will be brightest in the sky at the same moment as the anniversary of the collapse.

When looking for a ceremony in Austin, we discovered that the bonfire site is down.

It’s also a fairly active topic on Twitter:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23bonfire
and
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23aggiebonfire

In Memory

Miranda Denise Adams
Christopher David Breen
Michael Stephen Ebanks
Jeremy Richard Frampton
Jamie Lynn Hand
Christopher Lee Heard
Timothy Doran Kerlee Jr.
Lucas John Kimmel
Bryan Allen McClain
Chad Anthony Powell
Jerry Don Self
Nathan Scott West

The Eagle also did some great stories about each of the families of these Aggies,

Spirit of Aggieland

Some may boast of prowess bold
Of the school they think so grand
But there is a Spirit can ne’er be told
It’s the Spirit of Aggieland
We are the Aggies – the Aggies are we
True to each other as Aggies can be
We’ve got to fight boys, we’ve got to fight
We’ve got to fight for Maroon and White
After they’ve boosted all the rest
Then they will come and join the best
For we are the Aggies, the Aggies so
We are from Texas A.M.

Texas Aggies Will Yell for Miami Hurricanes to Win

Got this in email today (from Rivals.com). You Aggie readers should want Miami to beat FSU next Monday.

History that Correlates

Since 1997, there has been a direct correlation between the winner of the Miami/FSU game and the Texas/OU game.

1997
FSU 47 – Miami 0
Texas 27 OU 24

1998
FSU 26 – Miami 14
Texas 34 – OU 3

1999
FSU 31 – Miami 21
Texas 38 – OU 2

2000
Miami 27- FSU 24
OU 63 – Texas 14

2001
Miami 49 – FSU 27
OU 14 – Texas 3

2002
Miami 28 – FSU 27
OU 35 – Texas 24

2003
Miami 22 – FSU 14
OU 65 – Texas 13

2004
Miami 16 – FSU 10
OU 12 – Texas 0

2005
FSU 10 – Miami 7
Texas 45 – OU 12

2006
FSU 13 – Miami 10
Texas 28 – OU 10

2007
Miami 37 – FSU 29
OU 28 – Texas 21

2008
FSU 41 – Miami 39
Texas 45 – OU 35

Game

Monday, September 7, 2009
7pm CDT (8pm Eastern)
Doak Campbell Stadium, Tallahassee, FL
ESPN

“Thanksgiving Football For Aggies And Longhorns

The Big 12 Conference and its television partners announced the 2008 Texas A&M vs. Texas football game will be televised by ESPN and the game will be played on Thanksgiving night. This marks the first time for the game to return to Thanksgiving since the 1993 game, which is also the last time ESPN televised the rivalry game. “When I arrived in Aggieland, one of the first questions I was asked was when would we get the Texas football game back on Thanksgiving?â€? Aggie Director of Athletics Bill Byrne said. “I knew the Big 12 contract called for the game to be played the day after Thanksgiving on ABC, but that didn’t stop the questions or desire to move the game back to Thanksgiving. I am thrilled that ESPN has offered to move the game back to that traditional date of Thanksgiving. I applaud the Big 12 Conference and our television partners in making this happen.â€?”