It gave UTEP a place in history.
That is very cool to hear in this day and age where so many seem to seek division and unheathy unrest, Derek just described UH as a model society should be striving to achieve versus this BS society is currently swimming in.
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I think HISD forced the change. They are Texans now, pretty original. I know in the early 90s Justin Nelson got the students to vote on it and he said that 90 percent wanted to keep the name.
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The interesting thing is that Mirabeau B. Lamar actually led raids against Native Americans. Iâm surprised that they didnât change that name also.
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Some time along my 74+ years on this planet, I recall hearing or reading something about some one or some thing âhurtingâ my feeling, then I am allowing that someone or something to have control over me. I have had to get over a lot over the years, insults included. Iâm still alive and thriving . . . . .
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Very, very very very right?
uta is racist and have a history of it. I am proud of my university for what we did.
No one is P5 and we are not because uta said so.
As a teenager playing basketball in every free moment, in New York, the Game of the Century was the greatest game I had witnessed. Previously, I paid attention to the NBA. After that game, Alcindor, E, Wes Unseld became my focus. Both the NIT & NCAA became more important than the NBA playoffs.
Odd post to reply to on this one, I mean you know Iâm always ready for some Internet fisticuffs. But I think you might be replying to me on topic when that was off topic.
But since you asked for my on topic take. The alums blindly defending The Eyes are choosing an odd hill to die on. Mostly because as Law pointed out its origin and history is problematic, but itâs something that can be talked around forever in a never ending loop.
On us as big pointed out we were not first, and not without our own issues. Did we come around sooner than most? Absolutley, and we should be proud of that. But saying we were breaking barriers takes away from the schools who really did break barriers.
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I have seen my Dadâs Lamar U. yearbooks from the early 60s, and they definitely had Blacks on their football team at the time, although, to be fair, Lamar wasnât D1 back then.
Three key points:
#1 - Racism was present & pervasive on every college campus in America in the 1960âs;
#2 - Most every school was starting to recruit at least a few black athletes to try to win more games;
#3 - UT had/has three (3) factors that remind me of who they really were/are:
(i) FB Roster - their alumni proudly proclaim(ed) that their 1969 FB team was the last âall whiteâ national championship FB team;
(ii) Stadium Chant - their FB stadium chant was âTexasâ from one side followed by âFight or Whiteâ from the other side, and
(iii) UT Humor - besides telling Aggie jokes, one of the UT alumniâs favorite jokes at the time was to ask: âDo you know the meaning of the word renege? It means that the UH FB team is putting in their second string.â I heard that sick joke a dozen times and I did not know or work with many UT alumni at the time.
I think that is unwarranted, just because a guy likes to dress flamboyantly doesnât mean he has gay or transgender tendencies. I donât think anyone should be assuming anything about anotherâs tendencies or making suggestions about them in that regard. Just my opinion, but you do what you think best.
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Call a Native American a redskin to his or her face and let us know how that works out for you.
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Iâm most certainly not an apologist for UT fans, who mostly are self-deluded anyway. But, let me suggest that the whole the Eyes of Texas is racist thing probably caught 99.9% of them by surprise, and not in a good way.
Many of those fans, like me, grew up attending Texas public elementary schools back in the pre-electronics age; and we had âmusic classâ once a week. Music class consisted of a âmusic teacherâ, who was not a regular classroom teacher, coming in, handing out song sheets to the students and then leading the class in a singalong. - We thus learned to sing all sorts of American music, ranging from Sheâll Be Cominâ âRound the Mountain to America The Beautiful. And we learned to sing âTexas songsâ like Home on the Range, Deep in the Heart of Texas, Texas, Our Texas (which is our official state song), and, yes, The Eyes of Texas. - No one associated Sheâll Be Cominâ Round the Mountain with SMU or the Eyes of Texas with UT. - And, even though as elementary school students we also learned to sing Swanee River, no one considered that any of the songs we learned to sing had anything to do with race.
So, I can understand a large segment of UT alumni (which includes many donors) reacting as they apparently have to what I perceive as a manufactured crisis at the 40 acres.
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Hey heâs just being not politically correct, which of course 95% or so of the time just means âIâm white and I want to be able to use ethnic slurs without consequencesâ
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EXACTLY! But they dont wanna have that conversation.
Iâm sure that it did catch them by surprise. Nevertheless, ignorance of the songâs racist origins is no excuse. Once they know the songâs origins (and by now, they certainly all do), and how disturbing said origins are, they should immediately recognize the problems that that song presents, and drop it on that basis.
As another poster said, these alums have sure picked a strange hill to die on.
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There is no doubt that the song has racist beginnings a century ago. But those racists meanings have long disappeared and far more decades have past. The reference to Robert E Lee is a weak one. Lee has nothing to do with the song and is not honored. One of their old presidents loved Lee and stole Leeâs saying about the âEyes of the Southâ and used it for UT with the âEyes of Texas are upon youâ. That is it.
Obviously you have two sides at UT that are just talking past each other and it appears that the alums and especially the rich donor class is winning. But do they continue to win in the very long run? TBD.
To me, they ought to come to some middle ground where they recognize the racist beginnings of the school song and other parts of their racist history and show their new beginning. The song does mean a tremendous amount to so many of their alums and that counts also. They can make other commitments about making it a more inclusive university and campus and be a âwin/winâ by all versus this one way or the other that causes division in the longterm. Not everythnig has to be cancelled or detroyed in our ridiculous culture we live in today. Come to some middle ground that serves both sides and move on.
Iâm not sure what the middle ground on that song would look like, to be honest.
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Perhaps another verse mentioning change and acceptance? But the current cancel culture on both sides may not allow for middle ground.