Ladies and Gentlemen –
Way before criminal elements flashed hand signs to identify their affiliations….
The members of the Southwest Conference had established identifying hand signs for their respective teams and most if not all the fans of the universities have kept the tradition alive.
Clearly this practice of indentifying one another with hand signs is not unique to the members of the former Southwest Conference, but they did perfect the practice.
After all……
Who hasn’t seen the thumbs up “Gig Em Aggies!” sign..
Displayed on television by thousands of adoring Texas A&M fans at Kyle Field?
I know the fine people in Lubbock….
Still “Get their Guns Up!” for the Mighty Red Raiders of Texas Tech….
And everyone from Memphis to Moscow….
Knows the sign for the University of Texas…
“Hook Em’ Horns”…..
Young and old…..
It’s a way of identifying each other….
But there is a “right way” and a “wrong way”..
To perform this right of passage as a devoted fan…..
As you might imagine..
Different hand signs mean different things…
Case in point…
My buddy Matthew McConaughey of Austin Texas…
Demonstrates the correct form in flashing a proper “Hook Em’ Horns” sign….
While Ed “Apple Butter” Simpson of Texarkana, Arkansas….
Does not….
Not really quite sure what Ed is trying to do here…
It looks like he is describing seeing my sister-in-laws “calcium deposits”….
Conversely…..
The University of Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas A&M Aggies…
Will perform the “Down Horns” sign to signify their inherent dislike for the University of Texas…..
The young children who are raised to be fans of the respective schools learn what each hand sign means before they can even speak……
But as I mentioned earlier….
The old teams of the Southwest Conference didn’t invent the University sign, they just perfected it.
The Horned Frogs of Texas Christian University….
And the Baylor Bears and the Houston Cougars all had hand signs to represent their universities.
Certainly there are others of note around the college football world….
Who hasn’t seen the Gator Chomp….
or The Seminole Tomahawk Chop….
But let us not forget perhaps the most famous of all college football hand signs….
The University of Tennessee…
“Were Number 1” sign….
It is performed quite differently than what you might expect…
It requires “more elbow….”
More College Football Next week….
So stay tuned…
Only 55 days until kickoff…..
RTR
MEB