Our Alex is thriving in Aggieland; Dianne & I couldn’t be prouder. An engineer spending year #1 at TAMU-Galveston, Alex is making the grades and says he’s on pace for a much-coveted aerospace major next year in College Station. Dianne (A&M MBA ’93), Marc (raised in College Station), and Linda (former Aggie faculty/administration) have big plans to visit our old homes in Aggieland next year.
Alex has also caught the Aggieland spirit bug, learning to play the Aggie War Hymn on the piano and diving deep into the many traditions of Texas A&M. In Galveston, Alex and his engineering buds recently gathered to take a picture with a very special guest: Reveille, the mascot of the Aggies. Reveille, or “Ms. Rev,” is the highest-ranking member of the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M.
Although Reveille’s history does not date as far back as the Kangaroo at Texas A&M’s elder statesman Austin College, Reveille is nevertheless one of the most famous symbols of Aggieland. After Alex showed me the photo with Ms. Rev, I of course did what I often do. I started working on an Aggie Roo Tale. This tale is about a guy named John U. Parker from the Texas town of Sherman.
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John U. Parker’s father (also John) arrived in Grayson County in 1896; his mother (Ida) was a native of nearby Whitewright. The two were married in 1897 in Whitewright and later moved to Sherman. In 1910, John U. Parker was born. Like Marc, whose youth was spent on the campus of Texas A&M, Parker’s formative years took place on the campus of Austin College.
In 1923, Parker was active in his church while a student at Sherman Jr. High. The Sherman Democrat reported on a church youth group gathering near AC that included (insert Marc foreshadowing) “group yells” and joke telling: “a contest in joke telling was another pleasing feature of the evening, and in this the prize went to J.U. Parker.”
In 1924, Parker competed on the campus of Austin College. From the Whitewright Sun: “One of the most successful interscholastic meets ever held in Grayson County. That is the way Superintendent A.E. Boyd termed the 1924 meet held in Sherman at Austin College. J.U. Parker of Sherman High was the winner in (insert Marc foreshadowing) boys’ declamation (public speaking).”
In 1927, Parker was the team manager of the Sherman Bearcats football team. The 1927 Bearcats are the most successful football team in Sherman history, falling to the eventual state champion in the state semifinals. Sherman’s quarterfinal playoff win over Athens took place at Cashion Field on the campus of Austin College. Numerous Sherman Bearcat team members enjoyed future careers as Roo players and coaches.
The 1927 Bearcats were coached by AC graduate Russell (Dutchie) Smith, who had played for the Roos in 1924. Smith scored the lone touchdown in AC’s 7-3 upset victory that year over SWC champion Baylor in Waco; the Bears responded to that AC loss one week later by defeating (insert Marc foreshadowing) Texas A&M.
Texas A&M was Parker’s college of choice after his 1928 Sherman High graduation. In College Station, he flourished as a member of the Aggie Corps of Cadets. Given the nickname “Two Gun Herman from Sherman” from his classmates, Parker was elected Head Yell Leader in 1931. He established the first ever Midnight Yell Practice that same year.
But his involvement in yet another Aggie tradition is my favorite. From the June 19, 1990, edition of the Texas A&M newspaper The Battalion: “It’s back to school [this week] for almost 70 [special] former A&M students. Among the group is one of the men responsible for adopting the first Reveille. J.U. Parker, Class of ’32 and a former head yell leader, recalled the night they brought her to A&M.”
“’During the summer of 1931, six of us snuck out in my Model-T Ford to go drinking near Wellborn,’ he said. ‘On the way home, we found her in a ditch. She was sick from lack of food. She had not been hit by a car as some [Aggie] legends will have it,’ he laughed. ‘But we brought her back. By the fall, Reveille was leading the [Aggie] band.’”
“In the morning when she heard reveille, she would jump up barking and running around the hall waking everybody up. This is why we called her Reveille. After she began acting as [band leader], I took up nickels from fish [freshmen] to buy her a jacket and some light harness. A fish was always appointed to care for her on visiting trips.”
After his Texas A&M graduation, J.U. Parker began a long career as an authority on safety within the oil & gas business in Houston. Post retirement, Parker became a public advocate for safer Texas highways. J.U. Parker passed in June of 2000. Because of his ties to numerous Aggie traditions, Parker remained an influential member his entire life within the Texas A&M Association of Former Students.
Parker’s Reveille, now known as Reveille #1, passed in 1944. She received a formal military funeral on the fifty-yard line of Kyle Field. Reveille #1 was buried at the north entrance facing the scoreboard, so that she could always watch the Aggies play. Since 1944, seven additional Reveille mascots have also passed.
All eight departed Reveilles are buried in a small gravesite north of Kyle, alongside a custom-built scoreboard to allow the former first ladies of Aggieland to keep tabs on A&M football. Just this month, Texas A&M unveiled a statue next to the gravesite of the first eight Reveilles. Reveille IX retired in 2019, handing over the reins to the Reveille X who recently visited our son Alex.
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Alex is excited to begin his 3-4 years in College Station next fall. He’s already secured housing on Wellborn Road, not far from the spot where Sherman’s J.U. Parker found the first Reveille nearly 100 years ago. Dianne and I both know that Texas A&M, and not his Dad’s Austin College, is where Alex will call home. Just as Alex is his own man, and no longer just his father’s son.
But the kiddos can never fully escape the influence of their parents, just as big Texas A&M cannot escape the influence of little-yet-historical Austin College. Like the story of Reveille. For there would be no Reveille where it not for a Grayson County kid who earned the Aggie nickname “Two Gun Herman from Sherman.” And whose youth was defined by his ties to the Kangaroos of Austin College.
