Muster
Silver Taps Memorial Student Center
Aggie Ring
Gig 'em Reveille
12th Man
Bonfire Midnight Yell
Yell Leaders
Maroon Out
Boot Line
"Howdy!"
All-U Night Big Event
Replant
Student
Volunteerism
Diversity & Unity
Senior Boots
Fightin' Texas Aggie Band
Final Review
Class Gifts
Elephant Walk
Ring Dance
Boot Dance Current Class Councils
Graduation
Traditions Council
Assoc. of Former Students
Texas A&M Foundation
Texas A&M University
Memorial Student Center
MSC Services On-Line
Elephant Walk
Elephant Walk marks the end of the usefulness of the Aggie seniors to the
student body. Like dying elephants, which wander the jungle looking for a
place to die after their value to the herd is over, thousands of seniors
will join hands and wander aimlessly about campus visiting landmarks for
the symbolic "last time."
The event occurs annually prior to the last regularly scheduled football game. Seniors meet at Kyle Field for a yell practice and presentations. Afterwards, senior yell leaders and redpots will lead the group through campus. The seniors will stop at Fish Pond, the Lawrence Sullivan Ross Statue, and the Corps Quadrangle for brief yell practices before heading out to the Bonfire site on the Polo Fields. This Aggie tradition is known to underclassmen as "E-Walk" since it is bad for underclassmen to say the word elephant as it is classified as a "senior word." It all started in 1922. Two Aggie Band Fish from the Class of 1926 wandered out of Kyle Field after the football team was outscored the second time in the first two weeks of the season. They began to play a mournful funeral march. The goal of the march was to break the "jinx" that haunted Aggie football at the time. One by one, others joined the march, creating a long, serpent-like column that wandered throughout the campus. For the rest of the season, the fish continued their walk regardless of whether or not the football team was outscored. After their freshman year, the Class of 1926 discontinued their marches throughout campus. During their senior year, the Class of 1926 decided to give one last Walk to show their spirit for the A&M College of Texas. The other three classes on campus at the time had never seen the ceremony. Led by the same two "Fish", the seniors rested one hand on the shoulder of the Aggie in front of them and walked around campus as they did when they were freshmen, only this time they were wearing their senior boots. The seniors cried as they walked through the campus, remembering good times and bad, buddies for life, and those that had fallen along the way. The Class of 1926 "died" much in the same fashion as elephants do in the wild. Thus, the solemn tradition of Elephant Walk was born. |