Written by a good Ag a few years back.
RIVALRY
I explain to folks from out of state that the rivalry is existential, rather than merely athletic.
In the 19th century, operatives representing the interests of t.u. tried to close Texas A&M. I explain that we were here first, but that they tried to get the legislature to kill off A&M in order to get more funding for themselves.
The A&M-t.u. relationship is like a dysfunctional family in which the younger sibling tried to poison his older brother for the inheritance money.
By the 1920s, we were forced to sue t.u. for fair distribution of PUF funding. To say that they "cut us in" as though it was some act of charity is to ignore the acrimony of that litigation.
By the 1960s, the cultural divide deepened as their students blocked the streets of Austin protesting a war that our alumni were fighting.
By the 1970s, they were actively thwarting our academic expansion into a modern research university. The reason that it took A&M 50 years to get a law school was the interference of t.u., starting in the 1970s.
We do business with them when we can. For example, there is frequently joint lobbying on issues of common concern.
But there's a long enough history of aggression by the 'sips that I will never in good conscience root for the assholes. It's not like they did things 120 years ago that pissed me off. It's that they won't stop.
Even the Longhorn Network was an attempt by the folks on the 40 acres to screw us (among others) financially.
There's a basic difference in worldview. But, more than that, there's 120 years of aggression.
I'll cheer for colon cancer before I'll cheer for the 'sips.
Screw texas
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