The Strange History of the Long Horn, A&M’s Yearbook from 1903-49

By Chris O'Connell in Blog on June 11, 2014 at 3:00 pm | 3 Comments

Texas and Texas A&M fans, students, and alumni of both schools—heck, anyone who considers themselves a fan of college football—knows the storied history of the rivalry between Longhorns and Aggies.

What they may not know is that for almost 50 years, the A&M yearbook was called the Long Horn, later condensed to the Longhorn. 

In 1903, the inaugural year of the Aggie yearbook as it is appears in its current form, Sophie and Mary Hutson, twin sisters and daughters of an A&M professor, made a second attempt at creating an archive of the year at school. (Eight years prior, a newspaper annual version of a yearbook was printed, called The Olio. It was only printed once.)

The Hutsons, when asked about the peculiar name, odd especially because the rivalry between UT and A&M precedes the yearbook, they said, “We all agreed that was the proper name for the Long Horn State.” In 1929, the name was changed to the Longhorn.

The term “Aggie” wasn’t a part of A&M lexicon until the 1920s at the earliest, and until it was voted in as the official nickname for the student body in 1949, the yearbook carried the name of A&M’s fiercest rival. Once the “Aggie” nickname was official, the yearbook title had to go, so the students also voted on a name change for the Longhorn. The name Aggieland beat out other names like “Reveille,” “Twelfth Man,” “Final Review,” “Aggieland 1949,” “Bonfire,” and “The Spirit of Aggieland,” though another vote took place that day. The student body also voted to remove references to “Texas University” in their fight song, “Aggie War Hymn,” but as Longhorns know, Aggies still say so long to “the orange and the white” every Saturday, even though—unfortunately—the football teams won’t play each other for the foreseeable future.

Interior pages of the 1938 Longhorn via e-yearbook.com

 

Tags: aggie war hymn, Aggieland, Texas A&M rivalry