Texas AD Tells Players To Stand For 'Eyes Of Texas' As Longhorns Season Implodes
The Texas Longhorns (2-2) aren't back and things aren't pretty inside the program. Athletic director Chris Del Conte angered some players and fans on Wednesday when he said that players need to "stand together as a unified group'' and "show appreciation for our university, fans, and supporters" by singing school spirit song "Eyes of Texas" at the end of games.
The song, which originated at a 1903 campus minstrel show, has become a hot topic at a school where black players demanded, during the Summer of Woke, that the school drop the song. Texas greats Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams have said the song should stay.
The history of the song and how it came to be a Texas tradition is long and full of interpretation from numerous thinkers. The quick version is that UT President William Lambdin (Colonel) Prather was a student at Washington College when Robert E. Lee was the school's president. The story goes that Lee would tell his students "the eyes of the South are upon you."
Later, when Prather was UT's president, he created his own version for his students. "The eyes of Texas are upon you," Prather would say. Those words became the basis for the song that is now so controversial for the program.
"The song’s message is simple: we uphold a standard that cannot be shirked, even in death," at UT blog Barking Carnival wrote this summer. "After Gabriel’s Horn blows, there is a final reckoning."
”I’ve encouraged our staff and team to join me in participating after games if they are comfortable doing that. I do believe it’s important that we acknowledge and thank our fans after a hard-fought game. Sam Ehlinger and some of our team did join me in standing with our fans who had cheered so hard and helped us greatly in our comeback against Oklahoma. I applaud them and respect that,” Herman said Monday.
“That said, some members of our program have concerns and aren’t comfortable participating at this time. I respect that as well,” Herman said. “This is an issue we will continue to have meaningful conversations about and will work through.”