man, if all UT has to claim is the piggybacking of an elected official that this state didn't even vote for.... hoo-boy.
Ketch's 10 Thoughts From the Weekend (Let's just talk about it 2.0...)
- Thread starter Ketchum
- Start date
They have every right. But the right to stay and express their feelings doesn't mean they automatically get their way.
The election of a President has a direct affect on socially conscious individuals everywhere, both positively and negatively.
Which in the grand scheme of things means nothing. They play a freaking game, and for a long time not very well.
Perhaps it is more than just a song to some of us and this specific issue could be interpreted as a slippery slope demand that will be replaced by another demand and then another?
Not sure there is a good solution at this point. Damage could already have been done and the players, coaches, athletics programs at Texas and fans alike will be impacted by the football players' decision to use this song as part of their negotiation tactics. Doing so will have unintended consequences especially if anyone who attempts to create a dialogue pushing back on the players' racist insinuation is labeled as a petulant child by Ketch and other fellow longhorns in this thread.
I hereby retract my former comment, which was unnecessarily and inaccurately aggressive.
I don't like anybody being put in a position where they are obligated or pseudo obligated to sing any song as part of their "work", which of course football is for the players. I get that it is a bit of Catch 22 because the players participating in the Eyes of Texas after the game is also an acknowledgement of the fans that came to support them (and bought tickets which help fund their scholarships etc.) and the band that played during the game etc.
So if there was some creative way for the players to acknowledge the fans, band etc. after the game and apart from singing a song, any song, I think I could go for that. It also might keep the fans around like the singing of the Eyes of Texas does.
So if there was some creative way for the players to acknowledge the fans, band etc. after the game and apart from singing a song, any song, I think I could go for that. It also might keep the fans around like the singing of the Eyes of Texas does.
Because it is a red herring.
Do you realize that almost every song written prior to the mid 20th century was probably sung at a minstrel show? That doesn't make mistrel shows less racist, but it does mitigate the fact that anything performed at a minstrel show is inherently racist.
The fact is debuted in that manner doesn't make it racist.
Is the National Anthem racist?
Is God Bless American racist?
Is Rock a Bye Baby racist?
Is California, Here I Come racist?
All of those songs were sung for decades by Al Jolson, who primarily performed in blackface.
what are some other songs FIRST performed at minstrel shows?
I ask because I surely don't know.
Why didn't you answer my question?
"If playing for UT is such a negative experience for these athletes, why perpetuate it?" I am being serious. I am not sure college athletics is a positive force in society.
What does "FIRST" have to do with anything? It seems like happenstance that it debuted there, at least according to historical records.
Songs that are sung in blaceface aren't racist.
Wearing blackface is racist.
Do you not see the difference?
What starts here changes the world right? The only way a society at large changes, is if the young are leading these changes. The socially conscious 25-40 year olds, didn’t just now want to push for a more inclusive society. They had many of those same ideals and beliefs in college. The time frame we are speaking of, from 1999 on, are the students being blamed for turning UT into Cal Berkeley. They are the same people who are supporting these athletes ability to express their beliefs/frustrations now.
It’s also naive to think the racial demographics at UT haven’t changed in the past two decades. Any olds want to weigh in on how “different” UT is. We can just go into the OB archive and pull-up all of the threads bitching about the CAP rule, and how they are letting in a bunch of students who won’t support the University later in life.
What about the MASSIVE hiring of our first Black head football coach and basketball coach. You don’t think that was a pretty big change for a school that still holds the distinction of having the last all white football national championship squad?
I like Texas Fight, but it can't hold a candle to The Eyes of Texas, and you do know that the second verse has the tune of the Eyes in it. I guess they can get rid of that too. I am grieving for the loss of the Eyes, which I do believe will ultimately be mostly retired. Please know that I am in favor of the black players proposals, but I know that they won't be the last of them. While I will always root for the University of Texas, it will not be with the same passion as before. Somehow, I feel as if something in me died. Time to move on to other interests I guess.
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NO!
REALITY is reality.
The Nazis claimed to observe scientifically (PERCEPTION) a strict hierarchy of the human race. Hitler's view towards race and people can be found throughout Mein Kampf but more specifically in chapter 11 "Nation and Race". The standard-issue propaganda text issued to members of the Hitler Youth contained a chapter on "the race of the German people" that heavily cited the works of Hans F. K. Günther. The text seems to address the European races in descending orders on the Nazi hierarchy, with the Nordic race (plus the subrace of Phalic) first, the Western (Mediterranean) race second, Dinarics third, Eastern (Alpine) people fourth, and finally East Baltics last.
The subhumans were the Romani, Slavs (Poles, Serbs, Russians), and Jews.
The racial ideas in the above 2 paragraphs are not reality. But those "perceptions" were used to enslave and exterminate millions of people.
They showed a pic of the Texas bench with many African Americans which was new. Apparently it happened pretty quickly.
Dedicated to racial equality my entire life of 79 years but want to make a stand on The Eyes of Texas.
The matters objected to are very remote in time (and in thought also, if everyone is being honest about it). Meanings and perceptions change over time. Why can't it be the case that these words and this song have acquired a meaning completely different from their origin? In my mind, the fact that the whole state (the eyes of Texas) is/are watching you and people will remember you is one of the primary selling points on attending UT. Facilitates getting a job, etc.
In the real world, people who make numerous demand do not expect or receive absolutely 100% of their demands and encounter long term resentment when they insist upon the same. Surely there has to be SOME room for discussion and compromise. We need to negotiate to retain the school song.
The matters objected to are very remote in time (and in thought also, if everyone is being honest about it). Meanings and perceptions change over time. Why can't it be the case that these words and this song have acquired a meaning completely different from their origin? In my mind, the fact that the whole state (the eyes of Texas) is/are watching you and people will remember you is one of the primary selling points on attending UT. Facilitates getting a job, etc.
In the real world, people who make numerous demand do not expect or receive absolutely 100% of their demands and encounter long term resentment when they insist upon the same. Surely there has to be SOME room for discussion and compromise. We need to negotiate to retain the school song.
It is interesting to me that the stories of the “racist roots” of the Eyes of Texas seem to conflate shows put on by the Texas Cowboys into the story. But The Eyes of Texas are much older than The Texas Cowboys. So, that angle just seems completely misplaced.
Reality = The Eyes is not racist
Perception = The players think it is
Because of the perception, the reality is that the song is going away. The mere fact that people like me are sad it's going away, will likely lead to us being called racists. That's the perception when you propose a different viewpoint than the mob, even though the reality is that we are not racist.
Are you catching on?
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I've provided you documentation that The Eyes of Texas did not originate from a minstrel show performance. It both predated and post-dated that single performance. You know, if you read what I provided you, that the song was not and has never been racist.
I asked you specifically if you read the information I provided you. You didn't answer the question. You provided a vague dodge implication of guilt by proximity.
Trust me, the Athletics Department at UT is about money first and foremost. It will be interesting to see what the BMD's make of all this. Their voices will absolutely be heard.
As for most of the long list of demands/requests for changes across the university etc. I'd like to see a democratic process across the 50,000 or so student body address the need for change. And that would include coming up with the list of items for consideration. I think we have a relatively diverse student body (just saw that 56% of the student body is people of color) that could probably do a good job on this front.
I don't like the concept of a student athlete having more influence than the average student on campus. As a matter of fact I could make a case for having less since most of them aren't paying to go to school like the average student on campus is (but I'll pass on that argument). So 1 student = 1 vote.
Only exception would be on something where the student athlete feels obligated to do something like sing The Eyes of Texas, which of course the average student never faces that requirement.
I don't like the concept of a student athlete having more influence than the average student on campus. As a matter of fact I could make a case for having less since most of them aren't paying to go to school like the average student on campus is (but I'll pass on that argument). So 1 student = 1 vote.
Only exception would be on something where the student athlete feels obligated to do something like sing The Eyes of Texas, which of course the average student never faces that requirement.
I honestly, truly don't believe that the majority of players knew about this "deep-seeded racism" in The Eyes of Texas all this time.
This is classic groupthink to me. Maybe it's my privilege talking. I don't doubt some knew. But, no I do not for one second think that every black person on campus has been walking around with this secret pain and vitriol directed toward the school song, while the rest of us blistfully ignorant "racists" enjoyed it with pride and honor.
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"Views on slavery were fairly evenly presented in minstrelsy" (1).
"Some songs even suggested the creation of a coalition of working blacks and whites to end the institution (slavery)" (2).
1. Cockrell, Dale (1997), Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and their World, Cambridge University Press / Cambridge Studies in American Theatre and Drama, ISBN 978-0-521-56828-9. Pg. 187, Note 111.
2. Cockrell, Dale (1997), Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and their World, Cambridge University Press / Cambridge Studies in American Theatre and Drama, ISBN 978-0-521-56828-9. Pg. 146.
I missed that documentation. Can you reshare? It would be an interesting turn if true.
In Friday Night Lights Season 1 were several episodes dealing with race. The offensive coordinator caused an uproar when, among others things, he referred to an African-American athlete, Smash, as a "junk yard dog."
Above, it was stated: "I'm a huge fan of Kennedale athlete J.D. Coffey, a total bad-ass of a safety prospect that shows flashes of having pieces of talent in the mold of Earl Thomas and Kenny Vaccaro. He's just a junk-yard dog on the field that brings athleticism, physicality and serious play-making to the table."
Even when we act out of pure motives and loving heart, as we all know you do, it may not appear so. It's true for all of us. Let's do some Texas style "neighboring". FNLs regularly said their is no weakness in forgiveness. Martin Luther King preached on it in one of his more famous sermons "On Being a Good Neighbor." Let's start there and change the world.
Above, it was stated: "I'm a huge fan of Kennedale athlete J.D. Coffey, a total bad-ass of a safety prospect that shows flashes of having pieces of talent in the mold of Earl Thomas and Kenny Vaccaro. He's just a junk-yard dog on the field that brings athleticism, physicality and serious play-making to the table."
Even when we act out of pure motives and loving heart, as we all know you do, it may not appear so. It's true for all of us. Let's do some Texas style "neighboring". FNLs regularly said their is no weakness in forgiveness. Martin Luther King preached on it in one of his more famous sermons "On Being a Good Neighbor." Let's start there and change the world.
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There IS NO deep seated racism in The Eyes of Texas. There never has been. Let's get the facts correct.
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.
https://jimnicar.com/ut-traditions/the-eyes-of-texas/
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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.
Wasn’t he an honored visitor to our campus, meeting with the team and coaches? Seems awfully gregarious for a school that harbors such racist origins and continued embracing of racist traditions.
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