Forty Acres Insider: Oct. 14 - University of Texas Athletics
Important news happening in and around Texas Athletics compiled by Vice President and Athletics Director Chris Del Conte.
texassports.com
Greetings Longhorn Nation,
I do want to start today's Forty Acres Insider by apologizing to y'all for my delay in getting back to your many tweets, phone calls and emails in a timely fashion, as my wife has been battling severe vertigo and migraines for the past six weeks, and on Tuesday, we finally got in to see a neurologist followed by an MRI and scans. She's doing okay and we're awaiting those results, but I've obviously had a significant amount of my attention on her and this situation. I'll keep you posted on my bride … fingers crossed!
Many of your questions have been about our student-athletes and the confusion about why they have not remained on the field for "The Eyes of Texas" after the games. I, like so many of you, view the song with pride and sing loudly and proudly in honor of the efforts of those who represent and support this phenomenal institution. As much as our student-athletes love this University, they have questions about the history of "The Eyes" and concerns about it. As you are aware, this past summer, during the height of civil unrest in our country, some of them brought to our attention their concerns over a number of issues on campus, including the origin of the song. President Hartzell was absolutely clear that "The Eyes" is and will remain our school song, but in an effort to further understand its origins, full history, and how it's evolved over time, he established a committee to study, contextualize, and reclaim the song's origin. We believe it is important to understand the history as we continue to perform it.
With that said, I do want to clarify that I have had many conversations with our head coaches outlining my expectations that our teams show appreciation for our University, fans, and supporters by standing together as a unified group for "The Eyes," while we work through this issue. However, like all families who see the world through different lenses, we have plenty of work to do on this subject and will continue to do so, but rest assured, our student-athletes love and respect this University very much and are competing their hearts out for it.
