Aggies and the 12th Man

To say that I am not an Aggies Fan is an understatement.

But the Aggies do have some great traditions. One of them was mentioned by our Pastor yesterday in his sermon.

The Twelfth Man. Evidently, a number of years ago the Aggies were having a number of injuries in a big game. They got down to just eleven members of the team who were uninjured. One of the fans came down from the stadium and volunteered. He got suited up and was ready to go into the game. He was the Twelfth Man. And that is why Aggies stand during the football games. The Pastor's point is that we need to get off our duffs so to speak and be ready to go into the game of faith. At any rate it is a great tradition.

Another great tradition was that Aggies never admit that they loose football games. They only run out of time.

Aggie's have other traditions that our Pastor did not mention such as kissing their dates after they make a touchdown. Now my wife and I have been fans of Baylor University and The University of Texas . My folks are Baylor people so I have been on the otherside of the stadium watching these Aggies for years. It always seemed to me that the Aggies had figured out a pretty good tradition and I kinda wondered why Baylor and UT if they were so smart had not come up with one as worthy.

Then there was the Aggie Band. Now everyone agreed that the Aggie Marching Band was always the best and put the rest of the Bands to shame. We all knew that and there was no arguing about it.

Well, the pastor didn't mean to but he got me to thinkin about wonderful traditions and having a great spirit, and the things that make traditions. In a few minutes, I wandered back to the service-but it made an impression.

I also thought about courage. My story is about a woman that had more guts than The Twelfth Man. As a young married, my wife Brokerbelle, who has uncommon courage (as many wives and mothers do) went to the game with me. We ended up with tickets on the Aggie side-about five rows down from the Aggie Band. Now the Band was being obnoxious when our team was doing well and being down right rude. In a moment of silence, my wife stands up and lectures the entire Aggie band about not being rude and obnoxious. HarleyDad, who sometimes has the courage of an animal (a rabbit) thought surely we would die. But you know that band settled right down for the rest of the night. Well, that takes more guts than the Twelfth Man any time. She didn't even have any football equipment on when she did it.

Next time our pastor preaches, I think he should use the Brokerbelle story. Heroes and heroines are closer than we think.