Ketch's 10 Thoughts From the Weekend (Let's just talk about it 2.0...)

[greenvhorn]

Probably not a consolation but I had decided to drop my membership and discontinue my support for the Longhorn program after being being an avid supporter for 70 years. After reading your obviously well researched and detailed explanation of what the players (not just black players) were upset about I completely changed my mind and hope the Administration gets this done soon. I can't support contributions to BLM but donations to support advancement of people and police and societal reform is good with me.

 

[sweet_T]

fair enough

Great now let me know when you are willing to take my season tickets off my hands for the $6,400 I paid.

 

[Ketchum]

I would think a simple history lesson should suffice for them to see how silly and perhaps disengenuous their demand is in relation to bigger & actually genuine racial injustices going on in this country.

Are you really in a place to call them disingenuous?

 

[Orangebrew]

I suppose it comes down to this for me.

Were those dudes expected to just swallow their feelings forever on this or do they deserve to be able to say how they feel?

Saying how you feel and demanding change or else are two different things.

 

[Ketchum]

Great now let me know when you are willing to take my season tickets off my hands for the $6,400 I paid.

ok?

 

[Ketchum]

Saying how you feel and demanding change or else are two different things.

I suppose they are done playing the wallpaper role.

 

[davisgb1]

It's not mutual if all of the parties from both sides don't want to be involved.

Forcing someone to do something is not "mutual"

If they don’t want to be involved, then I don’t want to be involved. Period.

I was an athlete for a bit, and getting to participate in The Eyes from the field looking up was one of the honors of my life. If they feel “forced” to participate in that show of mutual respect, I have no time for them.

 

[Ketchum]

If they don’t want to be involved, then I don’t want to be involved. Period.

I was an athlete for a bit, and getting to participate in The Eyes from the field looking up was one of the honors of my life. If they feel “forced” to participate in that show of mutual respect, I have no time for them.

How much time would you say you have for them, otherwise?

 

[Dualthreat]

What facts do you think they have wrong?

It seems like some people are trying to determine what black people should and shouldn't find racist without much regard for what black people think about the matter.

No. The origins of The Eyes of Texas are not FACTUALLY racist.

If your view is that anybody can imagine / decide anything is racist regardless of the facts, then you can (mis)characterize The Eyes of Texas as racist.

A fact-free reality is in nobody's interest. The standard for racism is more than imagination.

The Eyes of Texas:
There is no prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized. There is no belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.

Here is the factual origin of The Eyes of Texas: https://jimnicar.com/ut-traditions/the-eyes-of-texas/

The Eyes of Texas

Above: The University of Texas campus in the early 1900s.

In the spring of 1902, Lewis Johnson was the student manager for just about every musical performance on the campus. Between classes, he played tuba in the Varsity Band, directed the University Chorus, and arranged for concerts on the Forty Acres. Most were in the 1,500 seat auditorium of the old Main Building, but in late March, Johnson wanted to try something new, and introduced a series of “Promenade Concerts.” Starting at 7p.m., the band strolled along the walk that circled the campus and played a variety of overtures, waltzes, and new marches by a popular composer named Sousa. The crowd followed along, listened, clapped, danced, and occasionally sang. A roving party, the concerts were a great success. “This promises to be the most popular entertainment ever provided for ‘Varsity people,” declared the Texan student newspaper.



Among the songs UT students sang were well-known college favorites, among them Fair Harvard, and Princeton’s Old Nassau. But the University had no song to call its own, for years a sore topic regularly discussed in the student newspapers. Though not a composer himself, Johnson decided to find a way to create one.

He first contacted alumni known to have literary talent, and hoped to recruit a volunteer to write a UT song, but received only polite refusals. Not one to give up easily, Johnson turned to his fellow students, specifically to fellow band member John Lang Sinclair. Sinclair was an editor of the Cactus yearbook, a regular contributor to the University of Texas Literary Magazine, and was widely known as the campus poet. Sinclair resisted at first, but Johnson continued to pester.

One evening in early May 1902, Johnson and Sinclair were returning from a comic opera performance in downtown Austin, when they stopped at Jacoby’s Beer Garden, just south of the campus on Lavaca Street. Johnson brought up the topic of a UT song once again and, perhaps with the help of Mr. Jacoby’s ales, Sinclair finally acquiesced to Johnson’s requests. They went to Sinclair’s room on the second floor of old Brackenridge Hall – popularly called “B. Hall,” the University’s first residence hall for men – stayed up all night, and finished the verses for Jolly Students of the ‘Varsity.

Music (and inspiration) came from the nationally-known tune, Jolly Students of America. Johnson contacted the composer in Detroit for permission to use the music, while Sinclair re-fashioned the words and extended the song to six verses. The chorus was:

For we are jolly students of the ‘Varsity, the ‘Varsity!

We are a merry, merry crew.

We’ll show the chief of all policemen who we are

Rah! Rah! Rah!

Down on the Avenue.

In the 1900s, the term ” ‘varsity ” was a contraction of the word “university.” In the Lone Star State, students who attended ‘Varsity, were understood to be enrolled in the University of Texas, while those studying at the “College” were in the A&M College of Texas (as Texas A&M was then called). In the chorus, the Avenue referred to Congress Avenue downtown.

The Jolly Students was introduced at a concert in late May, and was instantly popular with UT students. But Johnson felt the song still lacked a distinct Texas identity. The following spring he prodded Sinclair to try again.

In March 1903, while Johnson waited in line at the University Post Office in the old Main Building, Sinclair arrived with a grin, quietly handed Johnson a folded scrap of brown paper torn from a wrapped bundle from Bosche’s Laundry in downtown Austin, and left. (Photo at left.) On it, scribbled in pencil with scratched-out lines and corrections, was the first draft of a poem:


They watch above you all the day, the bright blue eyes of Texas.

At midnight they’re with you all the way, the sleepless eyes of Texas.

The eyes of Texas are upon you, all the livelong day.

The eyes of Texas are upon you. They’re with you all the way.

They watch you through the peaceful night. They watch you in the early dawn,

When from the eastern skies the high light, tells that the night is gone.

Sing me a song of Texas, and Texas’ myriad eyes.

Countless as the bright stars, that fill the midnight skies.

Vandyke brown, vermillion, sepia, Prussian blue,

Ivory black and crimson lac, and eyes of every hue.

Before Johnson read the last line, he knew Sinclair had produced something for the University that would last long after their time as students had passed. Set to the tune “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad,” Johnson and Sinclair prepared the song so it could be performed by the Varsity Quartet at its next show in May. As the work progressed, the two decided to make the song a spoof on UT President William Prather, and Sinclair made some significant revisions to the words.

Prather (photo at right) was a UT regent who was surprised by his fellow regents when they chose him to lead the University in 1899. He’d attended Washington College in Virginia (now Washington and Lee University), and often heard its president at the time, Robert E. Lee, tell his students, “Remember, the eyes of the South are upon you,” as he reminded them that they were the leaders of the future.

Prather particularly liked this phrase, though apparently his talent for public speaking wasn’t popular with everyone. When Prather was tapped to be president, regent Russell Cowart wrote to his colleague, Tom Henderson, about the possibility of an inauguration ceremony for Prather: “I can see no reason why there should be any inauguration … I am afraid that the Dear Col. might inflict not only us but a suffering audience with a speech like the one he paralyzed us with when he came and was notified of his selection [to be president].” A ceremony was held anyway, and Prather concluded his talk with a plea to the students, “Always remember, the eyes of Texas are upon you.”

The speech was so well received, Prather decided to get all he could of it and ended most of his talks with the same phrase. The students, of course, picked up on it immediately, and it became an ongoing campus joke to chant, “Remember, the eyes of Texas are upon you!” at sporting events, concerts, and just about every social occasion. Prather took the good-natured kidding as it was intended. He knew that, at the least, the students were listening to him.

A Varsity minstrel show was scheduled for Wednesday evening, May 12, 1903, in the Hancock Opera House on West Sixth Street, and was packed with music, dances, skits, and even a tumbling act. Proceeds from the show would pay for the University Track team to attend the All-South Track and Field Competition in Atlanta.

Leading off the show was an overture by the Varsity Band, followed by songs titled Oh, The Lovely Girls, Old Kentucky Home and The Castle on the Nile performed by the University Chorus or student soloists. The fourth piece listed on the printed program was cryptically labeled a “Selection” by the Varsity Quartet.

With President Prather sitting in the audience, four students: Jim Kivlehen, Ralph Porter, Bill Smith and Jim Cannon, accompanied by John Lang Sinclair on the banjo, took the stage and unleashed Sinclair’s creation:

I once did know a President, a way down South, in Texas.

And, always, everywhere he went, he saw the Eyes of Texas.

The Eyes of Texas are upon you, all the livelong day.

The Eyes of Texas are upon you, you cannot get away.

Do not think you can escape them, at night or early in the morn –

The Eyes of Texas are upon you, ’til Gabriel blows his horn.

Sing me a song of Prexy, of days long since gone by.

Again I seek to greet him, and hear his kind reply.

Smiles of gracious welcome, before my memory rise,

Again I hear him say to me, “Remember Texas’ Eyes.”

Before the first verse was finished, the crowd was in an uproar. By the end of the song, the audience was pounding the floor and demanding so many encores that members of the quartet grew hoarse and had to sing We’re Tired Out. The Varsity Band learned the tune, and the following evening included The Eyes on its Promenade Concert around the campus.

(The earliest recording of The Eyes of Texas was made in 1928 by the Longhorn Band. Listen to it – as well as the first recording of “Texas Fight” – here.)

Prather, though, had the last laugh. Less than a month after the minstrel show, on June 10th, spring commencement ceremonies were held in the auditorium of Old Main. Prather made his farewell speech to the senior class, and turned the joke back on them. “And now, young ladies and gentlemen, in the words of your own poet, remember that the eyes of Texas are upon you.” The seniors gave Prather a standing ovation, and the University of Texas had a song it could call its own.

And the UT track team won the All-South meet in Atlanta, it’s first victory in a regional competition.

 

[Buda Horn]

I find your posts ignorant and hypocritical. Who the hell are you to tell me how to feel about the meaning of the Eyes of Texas? You don’t know how hard I worked to get into or how hard I had to work to graduate from Texas and for me that “song” epitomizes a lot more that you realize, which has nothing to do with racism.

If the song is done as you say simply because the players listed it as one of their demands and then collectively hold their breath (ie not recruit) until their demands are met, then that IMO is childish. What happened to education being the driving force behind the University where we learn from our diversity and differences to grow and come together? Are the players the only ones who are entitled to have an opinion and are simply immune from being having to listen to an alternative side in order to move forward amicably?

Maybe the loss of one single donor will not mean anything to the players, but the loss of several donors as you suggest would have enormous impact on them and the perks they currently enjoy. Despite given the opportunity you have made it clear that you are unwilling to step up and put your money where your mouth is in order to cover the cost of my tickets or fill the void of my donation. If all the t-shirt fans like you do the same then a vacuum of longhorn foundation contributions will be left which will have lasting affects on the program. That might allow you and other cheap ones like you the ability to get better seats NEXT year but that is not what your original internet fodder of an offer said. You said you would gladly take the seats of anyone who stops buying them because of this issue. Since I already paid $6,400 this year, then feel free to step up and the tickets are yours.

You've got it wrong calling me a t-shirt fan. I've also been a season ticket holder for almost 20 years, every year since graduating, and a foundation member for most of those years. I'm a 3rd generation UT grad. My grandparents were foundation members every single year it existing beginning year 1 until they passed away. I also worked hard to get into and to graduate from UT. I have missed a total of one home game since 1998.

How ironic that you are the one questioning my loyalty and devotion to the university, when you are the one who is threatening to pull your support, pull your donation, and to stop going to games over a single 30-second long post-game ritual if you don't get your way. I experience that type of "take my ball and go home if I don't get my way" behavior often... with my 8 year old son and my 5 year old daughter.

The only way I won't be in the stands this fall is if Covid keeps me from being allowed to attend. It will take more than the changing of a post game ritual to keep me from supporting my team and my university. What is it about your lack of dedication and commitment to the team and university that you can't say the same?

 

[carvajah]

Pathetic narrative that is already dividing us. The song has ZERO to do with racism and anyone who says otherwise is ridiculous.

 

[sweet_T]

I understand that you LOVE the song, but do you want to go on singing it when you know the entire team doesn't want to sing it? Don't you care about what the players think? What if they feel really uncomfortable singing it or hearing others sing it?

The players have the right to make a stand but if they are unwilling to sing the Eyes of Texas then IMO they should not receive all the benefits and perks associated with wearing Texas across their chest. No one is forcing them to come to Texas or stay for that matter. If the players cannot understand that the song lyrics are not racist and have deeper unifying meaning than the dividing narrative they have interjected into the media, then they should feel free to take their talent elsewhere. We all have options here. If the players’ demands have already tarnished or will tarnish the tradition of the Eyes if Texas, then I will chose to use my only voice in this matter and will gladly donate my money to the University’s academic institution instead of the athletic program. The players can then live with the ramifications of their actions just like all other adults have to do in the real world.

 

[Dualthreat]

Yeah, that minstrel show thing is still in there.

See my other response from this morning. You can do better than this.

One performance of a non-racist song at one minstrel show doesn't begin to embody or define racism:

Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.

 

[sweet_T]

You've got it wrong calling me a t-shirt fan. I've also been a season ticket holder for almost 20 years, every year since graduating, and a foundation member for most of those years. I'm a 3rd generation UT grad. My grandparents were foundation members every single year it existing beginning year 1 until they passed away. I also worked hard to get into and to graduate from UT. I have missed a total of one home game since 1998.

How ironic that you are the one questioning my loyalty and devotion to the university, when you are the one who is threatening to pull your support, pull your donation, and to stop going to games over a single 30-second long post-game ritual if you don't get your way. I experience that type of "take my ball and go home if I don't get my way" behavior often... with my 8 year old son and my 5 year old daughter.

The only way I won't be in the stands this fall is if Covid keeps me from being allowed to attend. It will take more than the changing of a post game ritual to keep me from supporting my team and my university. What is it about your lack of dedication and commitment to the team and university that you can't say the same?

Miss the point much? Nice straw man and attempt to reframe the argument away from your internet fodder of a offer to gladly take my tickets off my hand.

 

[Dugg]

I noticed a trend of you not answering questions by deflecting and attempting to change the conversation.

That comes off as very condescending.

Funny because i actually pointed out an example of why this could be not very well thought out and thus could be derided as a whim.
And since my original post points out that you yourself deflect and attempt to change the conversation (in the above case, use of the word whim), I’m glad that you can admit that you are condescending.

 

[Dualthreat]

As has been stated, the toothpaste cannot be put back in the bottle.

In the case of The Eyes of Texas, there WAS no toothpaste.

 

[Ketchum]

Funny because i actually pointed out an example of why this could be not very well thought out and thus could be derided as a whim.
And since my original post points out that you yourself deflect and attempt to change the conversation (in the above case, use of the word whim), I’m glad that you can admit that you are condescending.

well, at least one of us can admit something, I suppose.

 

[Ketchum]

 

[longhornlm]

If the players don't want The Eyes of Texas played at the end of games, we can serenade them with golf claps if they win, or boo the crap out of them if they lose. Problem solved.

 

[1906 Rio Grande]

Texas was a slave state. We should advocate changing the name of the state and university to something without racial overtones. Isn’t this a logical extension of their demands?

BTW, I propose the state of Vagina and the University of Vagina for consideration.

 

[davisgb1]

How much time would you say you have for them, otherwise?

Well, I’ve been in the same seats in Section 6 for 35 years, been on OB for about 20, so considerable time I guess.

 

[Guy Smiley]

In the case of The Eyes of Texas, there WAS no toothpaste.

Perception is reality. The song is now associated with racial undertones, even though nearly all of us agree that the song has not had that meaning for at least 100 years, if ever.

 

[Ketchum]

Well, I’ve been in the same seats in Section 6 for 35 years, been on OB for about 20, so considerable time I guess.

I'm not sure that's time for them.

That sounds like time for you masquerading as time for them.

 

[Ketchum]

Perception is reality. The song is now associated with racial undertones, even though we all agree that the song has not had that meaning for at least 100 years, if ever.

Question...

If the song did have some racial undertones 117 years ago, at least in its creation/original performance, didn't it really always have racial undertones in these last 100 years and we just won't acknowledge it because we've been aloof to it?

 

[Baguette]

Are you really in a place to call them disingenuous?

Yeah, probably so. Who am I to make that call, right even it seems it's a hypersensitive over reaction. However, I do think its wrong to cancel the song that lyrically has no racial overtones and jcancel it just because it was performed as a blackfaced minstril once upon a very, very long time ago. So what!? Let's keep historical perspective here for crying out loud.

 

[davisgb1]

I'm not sure that's time for them.

That sounds like time for you masquerading as time for them.

Fair enough, what’s your point?

 

[Dugg]

well, at least one of us can admit something, I suppose.

I’m merely returning fire with fire.

You can’t really look back at a vast majority of you posts and not see that you are nit picking posts rather than engaging in any meaningful conversation. After a point it has to be intentional which merely inflames the situation.

 

[txfight]

This convo is not in my comfort zone but...

We've all seen the Acho "Uncomfortable Conversations" video and heard how he deals with why black people can still say the N word.

Because they took something negative and turned it into a positive. It seems like Texas has done the same with this song doesn't it?

Is it possible to view it through that lense?

 

[Ketchum]

Fair enough, what’s your point?

That maybe you don't really have as much time for them and their issues as you suggested you did.

 

[borna'horn]

Perception is reality. The song is now associated with racial undertones, even though nearly all of us agree that the song has not had that meaning for at least 100 years, if ever.

And this is the bottom line. Do you allow people to define anything as racist they like, or do you draw a line? That's what we are looking for.

If you stand by the song, while acknowledging its history, you are saying it's not racist. If you give in to the demands, or even compromise on them, you are saying the song is racist. The University needs to pick a side.