Yes, I know.
I added quotations for those of you who don't read my whole post or can't use context clues.
Ketch's 10 Thoughts From the Weekend (Let's just talk about it 2.0...)
- Thread starter Ketchum
- Start date
Yes, I know.
I added quotations for those of you who don't read my whole post or can't use context clues.
Ketch, it's well written and well stated. I just disagree that any real action should be taken regarding the eyes of Texas. I also am not to fond of anything going directly to BLM in terms of funding that organization. If it's funding things that support the spirit of social growth as deemed appropriate by the university I am ok with that and willing to see what they choose. If they want to yank some statues and rip some names off buildings i guess that is their poragative. But, bottomline there are countless things that are woven into our society that orginated from or may have been informed by someone with character flaws as judged by modern society. But if those people, now judged 120 years in the future, did something that stuck and grew roots within our culture do we simply wipe all those things away because we don't like every aspect of the people's life that originated them or from whom they may have garnered some small inspiration? I believe if we don't learn our history and understand it we are doomed to repeat it. White washing it and santizing our history does not make us stronger. In the end it keeps us less vigilent in future generations to prevent the same bad things from happening again.
If the powers that be want to give the players the option to not participate or sing the eyes. I guess that is there call. But, if they eliminate it I will be forced to reevaluate the amount of passion and time I spend supporting UT and UT sporting events. Because, to me it's shameful to forget our traditions and long instituted ways of doing things if those things in and of themselves are not hurtful on the face of them. If you have to dig 120 years back in time to find a problem by association. Then welcome to pandora's box on a sh$t ton of things. By that point it will hopefully be time for me to check out of planet Earth....
As someone else pointed out.
Charlie Strong
Shaka Smart
I could probably spend more time pointing out dozens more examples. But ultimately, it will not matter. It is hard to refute emotion with facts.
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It's not going away. I'll be singing it after each game, win or lose, as I have for 6 decades, since I was a child.
Essentially my entire family is alums (and more) of The University of Texas. None are racist.
Ketch - it’s clearly causing division between the team and the fans. Regardless of how much the player support it, there’s no way to construe this besides it being a very divisive stance to take on an issue that up until this point was not a significant enough concern for anyone in the program to even have mentioned it in passing to you.
I stand by the statement that if the players goal is ultimately to promote unity, they have swung and missed badly here
Every body has a right to Free Speech it's a right that our country basis it's existence. If they don't want to participate, fine but taking away my right to Free Speech, is troublesome.
CDC NEEDS TO INTRODUCE THIS IN HIS DISCUSSIONS WITH THE STUDENTS
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And ENTIRELY not racist.
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.
We absolutely have the RIGHT to FREE SPEECH.
We absolutely do NOT have the right to NOT be offended.
My opinion is that cancel culture is a direct road that leads and ends at willful ignorance at best with a ton of destruction along the way.
We absolutely do NOT have the right to NOT be offended.
My opinion is that cancel culture is a direct road that leads and ends at willful ignorance at best with a ton of destruction along the way.
If the Administration agrees to abandon "The Eyes of Texas", it should do so only after every song containing the "N" word or its variations, are wiped clean from the airwaves, Spotify, stand-up comics, iPods, telephones, etc. I mean completely and thoroughly stamped out. No more of the "separate rules for separate people" kind of thing they protest against. Such hypocracy!
No one is suggesting that has happened.
I specifically mentioned in the article that roughly 25-percent of those I spoke with had virtually zero idea about it. All of them said that now that they do, it does change things, if even only to some degree.
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.And ENTIRELY not racist.
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.
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.
All of this occurred at a MINSTREL SHOW!
The players presented it in a demand letter...not a good way to ask for understanding and empathy, especially on the Eyes, which is in its current form, about as innocent a song as possible..
Dude you are full of white privileged. . . .which means you are a closet racist. I kid I kid well not entirely
The song is gone. . . .at least while the athletes are there.
@hooked76 said we should sing it accapella (don't want to offend teh band) after the game. . .if players want to bond with the fans, they are welcome to stay but if they are offended. ... ..then leave.
The idea of 65-80 thousand fans singing on our own, actually a pretty cool thought.
My children are descended from Dr. Prather. The Eyes were written as a joke on his pronouncing "When you leave here, the Eyes of Texas are upon you. My ex and I donated the original signed copy to UT Archives lone ago. My Ex is livid over the article some liberal brat wrote and all the errors he made. We named our daughter Frances because that was Dr Prather's wife name and each female in the family named Frances inherits Dr Prather's heirlooms.... ergo my grand-daughter has Frances as one of her name. So don't waste your time telling me the true history. We must all joint as as one group in opposition to these liberal morons. The "Eyes" must live forever.
Hoo-boy, I can't believe I'm about to do this again, but ...
Let's just talk about it.
Full confession: I imagined a week ago what this weekend would be like once it crossed my mind that we were definitely heading for this exact weekend and what I imagined wasn't actually nearly as bad as the reality that unfolded.
Oh, I knew there would be anger, probably a 10 on a 1-10 scale, but I don't know if I was able to foresee a 14 coming. I knew I would be on duty all weekend, but I didn't foresee that it would mean being on duty at 3 a.m. on Saturday morning and waking up with terrified fear that Orangebloods had been turned upside down in the two hours I'd been able to get some shut-eye. Hell, I knew it would be something else to watch unfold in real time, but I underestimated how frightening "something else" can be.
The Eyes of Texas isn't just the school song, it's a wedding song thousands of times each year (complete with a DKR groom's cake). The Eyes of Texas isn't just a school song, it's the pride of getting a piano player to play it for $200 when you're on the road and inside a rival's bar. The Eyes of Texas isn't just a school song, it's the last sound many people want heard before they are put into the ground.
It feels like after loving the idea of Santa Claus your entire life, you've just learned that the original Santa Claus was involved in reindeer fighting and human trafficking.
It's not that Christmas is never going to come around again. It's not that we can't have a great time and exchange presents. It's not like future generations of kids won't be ok because the big man is no longer coming down the chimney while they sleep.
That's not the point.
It's that the very thing that we've found so romantic about this thing that we love beyond the ability to reason is suddenly being positioned as being toxic by something that happened before anyone alive was even born. All we've ever known is amazing associations with the idea of Santa and now everything that we've ever sworn to love is being questioned to the core.
F that. The anger builds. That's bullshit! The blood pressure rises. This is not right!!!
To say it's been an uncomfortable 48 hours for a lot of reasons is a wild understatement. Completely understood.
I want every last one of you to know that while we might not see eye to eye on everything (or nearly anything as the case sometimes can be), I feel your pain. I know what The Eyes of Texas means to you. I stood in the Rose Bowl with Sean Adams in January of 2006 and watched you drench yourself inside of it with tears. I've stood next to Darrell Royal and watched tears swell up in his eyes at the mere sound of his former players singing the song together as brothers.
No. 2 - Here's the thing, though ...
It really bothers me that I have lived, gone to school and worked around or on the 40 Acres for 34 years and I only learned about the angst surrounding the song in the last week.
It's embarrassing.
To see the looks on the faces of black people when I've told them to their faces that I've lived in this town for 34 years and was oblivious to any connection at all that the song's origins might have to minstrel shows and blackface performers was to the see the looks of people that questioned the integrity of how hard my effort to look could have possibly been.
The things these eyes have seen. The things these ears have heard. Yet, not one damn thing about Robert E. Lee serving as some sort of an inspiration behind the actual phrase "The Eyes of Texas."
My God, it's embarrassing.
For all of the uncomfortable nature of the last 48 hours, perhaps we should have a walk in the shoes of the discomfort that every black Texas student that has known a damn thing about any of the song's history might feel.
I've learned in the last week that this discussion has been going on among black students at Texas since at least the 1980s (based on the personal calls I made to former students this weekend) and that there actually have been efforts to call attention by various student groups for at least 20+ years. In addition, I've learned that if you want to know how insulting a minstrel show is to a black person, just spit in a black person's face because those two things live in the same area code.
We all might want to play the "that stuff happened over 100 years ago" card, but you know what happened a little more than 150 years ago?
Slavery.
So, I think we're all going to have to issue some sort of a pass to anyone with dark skin (or any color of skin) who feels some form of ick when they hear that the song was inspired by a man that not only owned their people, but broke their families apart for sport in the process. We're going to have to give a pass if they find reason to flinch when they hear a song being sung by overwhelmingly white audiences that was first performed in a minstrel show and almost certainly in blackface per university historians.
They've been the ones that have carried this burden around with them for years and have been quiet enough about it to the point that dudes like me can go most of my life without being forced to even be bothered to know.
Let's be clear. Not all former black students knew about this stuff in college. Of the 17 different former black players and students I communicated with this weekend, five claimed that they didn't really know a lot about the song's origins when they were active students. However, all said that knowing the details of the song changed the way they felt about the song moving forward.
One former Texas student that I've known since our days as students together at Texas told me this weekend that she wouldn't stand up for The Eyes of Texas moving forward. This is new for her. This is how she felt after learning the things about the song that we're discussing.
I suppose that's the most power thing about this entire situation.
You can't unsee this. The Eyes of Texas can be performed for the next 2,000 years, but it won't change the fact that we all now know that this song makes some people really uncomfortable and to ignore that discomfort out of protest against personally having to make a concession comes with a new set of implications.
It's rare that I got to scripture for words in this column, but I've been mindful of a passage from James 1:19 all weekend.
"My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry."
My fellow Orangebloods family members, our brothers and sisters of the black UT community are telling us that they've been carrying an uncomfortable burden with them for too many years. Upon sharing with us this burden, it's critical that we listen. It's critical that we are slow to speak. It's critical to not become angry in the blink of an eye.
I'm also reminded of words I once read from Darrell Royal about the subject of race.
“See, back when I was coaching, you didn’t see black families coming to the game. You didn’t see black families wearing orange and white. You didn’t see little kids of the family with little Texas sweaters on. You just didn’t see it. You didn’t see blacks at the game. Well, obviously that’s all changed. It’s integrated and it’s a thing of the past, thank goodness. Those kids have families, and just like everyone else, their families show up to the game, and they show up in support. And they’re ‘hookin’em, Horns.’ That thing is disappearing about the University of Texas. Time has taken care of it.”
Time hasn't quite taken care of all of it, Coach.
The rest of us still have some work to do.
It feels like we'd be letting down the memory of what Royal was all about to drop this important ball all these years later
No. 3 - So, what the heck happens next ...
Here's what is critical to know.
1. It doesn't seem like anyone is freaking out behind the scenes, partly because key people at the top in the football building and in the athletic department were aware of this development.
2. Not everyone in the athletic department was in the loop and I got the sense from some folks involved in other sports that a little bit more of a heads up would have been appreciated.
3. Multiple athletic department officials told me this weekend that the university was already in the process of contributing money to projects that would likely qualify as projects that the people involved in the movement of Black Lives Matters, which at this point includes eight-year old little white kids, would absolutely be in tune with. We're talking about programs involved in inner cities and low-income backgrounds. Both officials believed that educating the players on everything the school already does and everything it still plans to do will go a long way towards satisfying players on that front.
4. As it relates to the names on various buildings, I get the sense that the university will have an open mind about the changes that have been requested, but some are going to be trickier than others. For instance, the Hogg Foundation and The University are super aligned. James Hogg might have signed the first Jim Crow laws into existence, but the foundation with his name does a lot of good for mental health these days. I get the sense that efforts are going to be made on the buildings/statues of Hogg, Robert Lee Moore Hall, Painter Hall and Littlefield Hall, but it will take some time to completely come together.
5. Expect some sort of a statement to come from the desk of Chris Del Conte this week, which will express support for the concerns of the athlete and a strong conviction to show that his support will be backed by action.
No. 4 - About The Eyes ...
Believe it or not, things are much quieter on this front than on the message board, mostly because both sides of the equation on this have no desire to see the world burn.
While the UT athletes absolutely wanted to express their feelings about the situation involving "The Eyes of Texas," they don't appear to crave a full on protest that will turn the burnt orange world upside down.
Here's what I've been told we should probably expect ...
* The "Eyes of Texas" is played before games when the players are still inside the locker room, which means that it can and is still expected to be performed.
* That leaves the situation in the post-game. The first thing that players will immediately be told is that they will not be forced to participate in the song if they don't want to.
* With there being a desire to not have a situation where a dozen or more Texas players are simply not involved with the rest of the team, coaches and fans after the game out of discontent with the song traditionally played, expect discussions to take place about possible tweaks to the current tradition.
For instance....
Instead of playing "The Eyes of Texas” after games with the full team and fans, what if the band plays "Texas Fight"?
As one former player currently in the NFL told me on Sunday afternoon, "I love that. That's the song that gets everyone hyped. Whoever came up with that idea needs a raise."
On paper, could you live with that? Singing the "Eyes of Texas" before the game and singing "Texas Fight" afterwards?
It feels like the kind of potential concession that can work.
I'm not telling you that this is what's going to happen, I'm telling you that there's almost certainly going to be some sort of compromise that is attempted that straddles a fine line like this idea probably does.
No. 5 - The one question I can't really answer ...
The same NFL player that I quoted at the end of the last section also asked me the following question:
"What happens if members of the band decide to protest the playing of the song? Black people are in the band, too"
You know what I sent him back? If you know me at all, you know what I sent.
No. 6 - A few words to Anthony Cook ...
Good luck, young man. Hang in there. Personally, I'm really happy that you're still in the Texas program.
We're going to be rooting for you, not just in football, but in life.
No. 7 - A few actual football thoughts ...
Expect Monday to be one of the bigger days of the year for the Longhorns in the 2021 class.
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. Although he's ranked No. 14 in the state in my current rankings, it's possible that he should absolutely be in the top 10 and inside the top two most valuable tiers of the rankings game. I kind of have him rated as a mid four-star plus at the moment (5.9+).
Meanwhile, Dallas Kimball cornerback Ishmael Ibraheem is an interesting mid-level four star prospect in his own right. He brings great size and physicality to the position as a young player, but he's probably a little rawer than someone like Coffey with a lower basement, even if his ceiling is potentially just as high. Why is he 18 spots behind Coffey? Mostly because he's not quite the dynamic ball hawk when the ball is in the air, but he's still really good. He kind of reminds me of former Longhorns player Davante Davis.
No. 8 – BUY or SELL …
(Sell) Of course, I care. Losing half of the paying members would be a life-changing event and the site as we known it for the last 15 years would look quite different. I also wouldn't frame the question the way you have because I don't view what's happening as an effort to "erase the Eyes" as much as it's an effort to bring their beef to the attention of the public. In general, I suppose the athletes in almost everything. Full stop. I'm sensitive to every single concern they've raised. I support the athletes. Yet, there's no world where losing half of our business results in anything but horrible things for everyone with the site, so I can't see how I wouldn't care. It feels like kind of a trap door question with a pretty obvious answer.
(Buy) I actually think the two are intertwined at this point. The good news is that I think he's been playing his cards very well in the last couple of weeks. The tricky hurdles are clearly still in front of him and I think we need to acknowledge that a mistake could be made at any point that could make it all unravel because it's 2020 and it's the Year of the Unravel, but it's hard to be critical of anything he's done in the last few weeks from my perspective.
(Sell) Nah, I just don't believe that.
(Buy) I'm pretty scared shitless.
(Buy) Zero hesitation from me if he's healthy.
(Sell) It's a little crazy to suggest that there's not unrest in locker rooms all over the country. I mean ... I noticed you didn't mention Clemson.
(Sell) Red Banquet still can't be touched. I had "friends" turning on the Orangebloods staff that night.
(Buy) That's kind of hilarious.
(Sell) I don't know anything else. It's like asking Quint right before he's eaten by the shark in jaws if he wishes he'd done something other than hunting sharks with his life.
(Sell) The TV partners in college football have a funny way of turning the narratives away from these types of stories over time.
(Sell) I'm going to say just shy of Jamaal when he's done.
(Buy) Oh yeah. Big time.
(Sell) Nah. Not feeling this at all.
(Buy) What's an April?
No. 9 - The List: Texas Road Games ...
Here's my personal Top 10 favorite/most memorable Texas road games that I have personally attended (bowl games and Texas/OU do not count).
10. 1988 Baylor
It was so cold and windy that mom went and sat in the car for the entire second half. What I remember more from that game is that Baylor partly won it because of a kickoff that got caught in the wind and blew back the other direction from which it was kicked, which Baylor recovered as an amazingly bizarre onside kick.
9. 1989 Houston
Andre Ware, folks.
8. 1992 Baylor
The Grant Teaff Retirement game.
7. 1997 Baylor
They tore the goal posts down after beating a 4-7 team.
6. 1984 Baylor
My first Texas game to attend in person.
5. 1999 Texas A&M
It's hard to explain, you would have needed to be there.
4. 2005 Oklahoma State
The magic of that 2005 team has never been more evident. OSU basketball players were talking smack in the stands at halftime and went running for cover in the third quarter like a bunch of busters.
3. 2004 Arkansas
I've only done the Arkansas road trip one. That was enough.
2.1995 Texas A&M
The most important pre-2004 game of the Texas program during my lifetime. There was a riot on the field after the game.
1. 2005 Ohio State
The most classless, rude, garbage people I have ever met in my life live in Columbus, Ohio.
No.10 - And finally...
I read about this over the weekend from the Times in the UK about what a couple of soccer clubs are considering in an effort to get fans in the stands.
Would you be down for this?
According to the Times, one possibility is the employment of ‘COVID-19 passports’, with fans taking a short test for coronavirus in the buildup to games and being given a laminate to allow entry if they are proven negative.
Two clubs are said to have held meetings with Hong Kong company PTG Pharmaceuticals, who claim to be able to provide 1.8 million tests per day, using a pinprick of blood to identify antigens.
Known as Quantum Dot, this test takes 20 minutes to produce results, and the plan would be for testing stations to be open at stadiums 72 hours before a game.
This would provide those involved with as close to a guarantee as possible that those attending would not be infected, with temperature checks also required before entry on matchday.
However, while this sounds like an ideal scenario, and could accelerate the return of fans to Premier League games, the cost and time required to conduct tests are held up as issues.
“Implementation would cost about £30 per supporter per game. The bill would be footed by clubs, fans or sponsors—or a combination of the three,” Jonathan Northcroft writes.
“It is also estimated that getting every fan through the match-day tests and disinfectant turnstiles would take two hours, based on a 50,000-capacity stadium with multiple entry points and a modern layout.”
I certainly hope it isn't.
The entire experience of being a fan isn't negative, but much of it is.
When the negatives outweigh the positives, then you have to make a decision.
I think the discussion needs to happen about whether the negatives of the athletes experience outweighs the positives. Because the millions spent on college athletics at UT could be redirected to other scholarships and educational opportunities for underserved communities. There are thousands of kids with the academic qualifications to succeed at UT who don't get that chance. I am talking about first generation college students, minorities of all kinds. They would support UT and widen the reach of the UT community.
It was performed at a minstrel show 117 years ago. We get it. We're sorry. The song itself is not racist, and once the song escaped the minstrel show, it has been sung for generations to UNITE the Longhorn community.
But, we are now being force fed a meaning of the song that we do not recognize. Apparently that 117 year old stain will never be able to fade.
All that said, the song is going away, so you can be happy for that. I'm not, but to each his own I guess.
Lol, what? Newsflash: song isn't racist. At all.
I fear the administration will not take the school song issue on directly. They will in typical political fashion attempt to kick the can down the road, leaving a divided student body in the wake. Just deal with it. I've said before, feelings are strong on this. Trying to walk down the middle of the road will get you run over from both directions. The song is racist or it isn't. I believe it isn't. Make a decision one way or the other and take whatever hit that generates. Then move forward with whoever is left and don't bring it up again.
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IF you are trying to make a point with this post, I'm requesting you spell out your point to me.
Did it not get included?
There were discussions and protests about changing the names of buildings when I was there in the late 80's. The touchstone then was Painter Hall. Students wanted the name changed to Heman Sweatt Hall.
I think it's time to rethink the naming of buildings. We aren't living in the same society we were back in the 70's and 80's. This school is so much more diverse now than it was 30 years ago. And part of diversity is change.
What's happening on the 40 Acres right now is a microcosm of societal changes. Changes aren't always easy and painless. Progress never is.
The university didn't think twice about evicting folks from East Austin for the baseball stadium back in the 70's. Well, guess what, times have changed and power has been dispersed.
The players understand they have more power than they thought. The more schools and the NCAA work to exploit their unpaid labor, the more the players will stand up to it.
These young men are learning valuable lessons in life. Change never comes voluntarily. If you want change, you have to push the issue and you are going to step on toes.
I am happy to see the players taking a stand and I support them in making this university a more diverse campus in which every student is respected.
I think it's time to rethink the naming of buildings. We aren't living in the same society we were back in the 70's and 80's. This school is so much more diverse now than it was 30 years ago. And part of diversity is change.
What's happening on the 40 Acres right now is a microcosm of societal changes. Changes aren't always easy and painless. Progress never is.
The university didn't think twice about evicting folks from East Austin for the baseball stadium back in the 70's. Well, guess what, times have changed and power has been dispersed.
The players understand they have more power than they thought. The more schools and the NCAA work to exploit their unpaid labor, the more the players will stand up to it.
These young men are learning valuable lessons in life. Change never comes voluntarily. If you want change, you have to push the issue and you are going to step on toes.
I am happy to see the players taking a stand and I support them in making this university a more diverse campus in which every student is respected.
Your perspective of who "we" might be totally different from "what" the UT Administratoon is, and stands for.
We better cancel the Track Team and Longhorn Band.
How disgusting is it that our track team was built on and funded by minstrel shows!
Longhorn Band is obviously complicit as well.
Well, privileged white boys have no beef with the system. They've never been subjected to oppression based upon the color of their skin.
Empathy is a wonderful thing. Give a thought to what it must be like for someone who looks different from you and has a different history to walk among statues and buildings that honor Confederate figures and supports of Jim Crow.
If it’s a matter of empathy for how some feel, there appears to be no reciprocal concern.
Then we'd also at least ban Boomer Sooner from being played in our stadium, and the Aggy War Hymn too (if god forbid we ever played them again), because both are just as racist as The Eyes of Texas.
What about those that don't want change? Are their rights not to be recognized? Change isn't always a good thing. Ask the German Jews of the late 1930's.
I have been all over the map on this. I would love to see it conclude in a stronger Longhorn community but have doubts that a global comprise will not just piss off all concerned. The quote from Caden Sterns struck a chord with me when he said something like “I am at the school for a few years but I will be black for life”. That is a strong point to base actions on. The flip side I hope these young student athletes realize at some point is you are a Longhorn for life too. The Longhorn community will support, lift up, reach out and pull our fellow Horns up when needed/asked. That is a STRONG network that can help drive the change you envision. Use it, leverage it, don’t alienate it.
I suggest you read this: HISTORY OF STUDENT ACTIVISM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN (1960-1988). See if you can find any mention of the Eye's being racist.
As a student during the late 60s and friend of Ernie Haywood, there was never a mention about the Eye's being racist. Read the history of the fight against racism in the 60s on the UT campus and in the City of Austin. That was where the battle was. Segregation in housing, restaurants, bars, transportation, etc.. We made progress and won.
Now we have some babies crying about a song? Give me a fkn break.
