1. Texas A&M was the first public institution of higher learning in Texas, opening in October 1876.
2. In addition to the main campus in College Station, Texas A&M has two branch campuses: Galveston, TX, and Doha, Qatar, as well as 10 other universities in the Texas A&M System.
3. Texas A&M is home to the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
4. Approx. 22,000 Aggies served in WWII, with 14,000 of them being officers.
5. After WWII, models of the Liberty Bell were given to every state. Texas's Liberty Bell hangs in the Academic Building at Texas A&M--the only one not to be in a state capital. When asked why, Texas Governor Allen Shivers said, referring to the number of Aggies who fought and were killed in combat, that, "No one suffered more than the Aggies, so we will give it to them."
6. No one scored on the 1919 Texas A&M football team. They were later recognized as national champions by Billingsley Report and the National Championship Foundation.
7. Ethel Hudson, the first woman to attend Texas A&M, began to take classes in 1893 but was denied full admission because of her gender. Mary Evelyn Crawford Locke (class of 1925) was the first woman to earn a diploma from Texas A&M, but was not allowed to attend graduation because the college was still all-male. Aggieland became co-ed and desegregated in the 1960s under President Earl Rudder.
8. A number of A&M graduates work for Pixar, and because of that, the character of Sully in Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University was named after Lawrence Sullivan Ross, a president of the university. Also, a building in Monsters University is a replica of the Academic Building.
9. We are the happiest campus in the nation, according to the Huffington Post and The Daily Beast.
10. The Big Event, a one-day service event, started at Texas A&M in 1982 as a way of saying thank you to the residents of Bryan/College Station for supporting the university. The Big Event has spread to over 60 colleges/universities since then.
11. The Gig 'Em sign was first used before a football game versus TCU in 1930. When asked what the Aggies were going to do to the TCU Horned Frogs, "Official Greeter" Pinky Downs replied, "Gig 'em, Aggies."
12. Aggie students never sit at a football game, except for when the opposing band is playing during halftime, to show solidarity with the team and in reference to E. King Gill, an athlete who had quit football to play basketball, but was called down from the press box by the football coach and told to suit up, as there were only 11 players available. He did not ever go in and play, but was standing on the sideline, the 12th man on the team, in case he was needed.
Thanks and Gig 'Em!
