Rumors of Aggie mischief circulate as maroon bluebonnets pop up on University of Texas campus

BCS Eagle ^ | 4-10-2014 | Andrea Salazar

[fishtank]

Rumors of Aggie mischief circulate as maroon bluebonnets pop up on University of Texas campus By ANDREA SALAZAR andrea.salazar@theeagle.com | Posted 4 days ago

The land of burnt orange has received some unwanted maroon in the form of the state flower.

Maroon bluebonnets have popped up in flower beds outside the University of Texas Tower, causing enough student reaction to prompt groundskeepers to remove the seeds, said Markus Hogue, program coordinator of irrigation and water conservation at UT.

Rumor has it that an Aggie is behind it. After all, the only place on campus that has bloomed the Aggie-cultivated maroon variant of the beloved wildflower is in two flower beds outside one of the most iconic campus landmarks, Hogue said.

The university renovated the beds with bluebonnets five years ago but started noticing one or two maroon ones in the last couple years. This spring, however, there were about a dozen maroon bluebonnets in two flower beds, Hogue said.

Some of Hogue's Aggie friends have already asked for the "descendants" of the famed UT Tower maroon bluebonnets.

Although UT students want the maroon flowers gone, Hogue prefers the wildflower over other pranks, such as burning the A&M logo onto UT turf with weed and grass killer.

"This time it's a drought-tolerant plant that adds color," Hogue said. "I kind of like that. I'm a water conservationist. This is not too detrimental to the campus."

While no one has taken ownership for planting the maroon bluebonnets, "obviously someone threw some maroon seeds out there," Texas A&M professor and horticulturist Doug Welsh said.

Whoever did plant the maroon seeds "had a long, firm plan of making a statement," Welsh said. The seeds would have had to be planted as recently as last fall and as far back as a couple of years ago.

Instead of getting rid of the plants, Welsh encourages Longhorns to enjoy the maroon flower as Aggies do a field of orange Indian paintbrush at the West Campus Greenway behind the Texas A&M Agrilife Extension building.

The maroon bluebonnets won't be around for long anyway.

"The color variants other than blue are all recessive genes, so as years go by, the blue is dominant, so they'll all go back to blue," Welsh. That could happen as soon as next spring.

Aggie horticulturists spent two decades isolating pink bluebonnets from the dominant blue in an attempt at planting a Lone Star flag of flowers for the state's sesquicentennial birthday in 1986.

Their efforts have yet to yield a cherry red variant, but maroon can be spotted at the Texas A&M West Campus Greenway and the State Capitol this spring.

Another color horticulturists have yet to cultivate? Orange.

"There is no naturally recurring orange bluebonnet, so there is a possibility that Mother Nature is an Aggie," Welsh said.

[Jane Long]

Pardon my ignorance, but is there some sort of rivalry between these two schools?

Not anymore. A&M is now SEC...and left TU in the dust ;)
(See post # 18)

Whoop!

[petro45acp]

Gig em!!!

Go Corps!

KYPD

[GeronL]

Auburn is still in denial that Alabama comes first in dictionaries?

[MarineBrat]

I planted a bunch of Texas Bluebonnets in my flower beds this spring. The seed packet was several years old, and only a few germinated, but the ones that have look like they’re happy little sprouts.

[17th Miss Regt]

The seeds would have had to be planted as recently as last fall and as far back as a couple of years ago.

How did the editor let this boner get by?

[fishtank]

This is a small part of the story here:

http://everything2.com/title/Texas+A%2526M-University+of+Texas+Rivalry

Also, going back to the Vietnam War times, the rivalry was especially fierce, because Texas A&M was full of patriotic military cadets and t.u.austin was full of hippie-antiAmerican commie-loving baistages.

[fishtank]

http://www.thebatt.com/sports/bill-would-revive-a-m-ut-rivalry-1.2977750#.U0xPffldXl4

Bill would revive A&M-UT rivalry
By Mark Doré

Published: Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Updated: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 00:01
Share on email10
Rivalry house bill photo
File
The A&M-UT rivalry is the third most-played rivalry in Division 1-A college football.

Texas State Representative Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City, filed House Bill 778 on Monday, an action that, if passed, would reinstitute a longstanding, recently discontinued in-state athletic rivalry.
Guillen, a Class of 2000 Aggie graduate, took to Twitter saying the bill would require UT and A&M to play each other annually in a nonconference, regular season football game.
The two schools met on the football field every year from 1914 through 2011, but an A&M move to the Southeastern Conference derailed the rivalry.
“This game is as much a Texas tradition as cowboy boots and barbecue,” Guillen told The Texas Tribune. “The purpose of the bill is to put the eyes of Texas upon our two greatest universities to restore this sacred Texas tradition.”
The bill doesn’t specify when the game should occur, but it does state that whichever team refused to participate in the contest would suffer restrictions on its athletic scholarships, reported the Texas Tribune.
“I think the people of Texas want a game, and we’re trying to get them one,” Guillen said.
There is some precedent for the filing. In 1955, a Florida Legislature bill that sought to require an annual Florida-Florida State game in all sports was struck down, but then-governor LeRoy Collins personally requested that the schools’ athletic directors work out a deal, which they eventually did.
In 1997, a similar bill was passed in North Carolina Legislature demanding University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill and North Carolina State play East Carolina annually.
The Alabama House of Representatives also passed a similar measure in 1947 intended to encourage an Iron Bowl renewal between Auburn and Alabama. When the schools continued their impasse, the legislature threatened to withhold state funding unless the rivalry was resumed.

[fishtank]

http://bevotraditions.blogspot.com/2010/11/bevo-and-how-he-really-got-his-name.html

Some teasip wrote this.... since it's almost a 100 year old tradition, who knows?

[SPRINK]

actually a rivalry has to be close. UT has dominated them in almost every sport...do they dis-like each other? yes but there really isn’t a rivalry in a true sense

[tillacum]

That is a good “DON’T TREAD ON ME”

[Milton Miteybad]

Actually a rivalry has to be close. UT has dominated them in almost every sport...do they dis-like each other? yes but there really isn’t a rivalry in a true sense.

Even Mrs. Miteybad, a loyal an Aggie as there ever was, said, upon hearing that A&M was joining the SEC: "What? Shouldn't they learn how to win in the Big XII first before they try something like that?"

[Scoutmaster]

If it's a prank, well played, Aggies, well played.

This UT alumnus respects A&M.

However, when you mess with the color of bluebonnets, you're not messing with UT, you're messing with Texas.

[Sequoyah101]

Rivalry? Rivalry you say? How about mortal enemies?

I have seen Tea Sips driven from the sacred ground of Kyle Field at SABER POINT! I’m not saying which end of the Saber my “friend” was at.

Whoooop!

‘course I’ve also seen Ags duct taped between two mattresses naked, hauled to Nebraska and dumped in a truck stop parking lot. The Corps gets pretty tough when it is open season on white belts.