campusology

1998 Lombardi Award

1977 Sun Bowl Ring

On Jan. 2, 1977 the Aggies beat Florida 37-14 to win the Sun Bowl.  This is the ring from that bowl game.

1992 SWC Championship Trophy

1992 was Coach Slocum's fourth year as the head coach of the Texas Aggies, and went 12-1-0 on the season. The one loss was to Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl.

The Aggies ended the season ranked No. 7 in the country.

1939 Conference Champs (Pennant)

2006 Holiday Bowl (Watch)

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2007 Alamo Bowl Ring

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1922 Dixie Classic (Pennant) / 1921 Southern Champions

This is an authentic pennant that is from the 1921 season. The pennant is made of felt, as are the letters that have been sewn to it. The Football (that you see on the white field) is a leather patch.

Notice the pennant says "Southern Champions." Texas A&M was a member of the SWC from 1915 to 1996. However, the SEC was not formed until 1932 and the "Southern Conference" (that pre-dated the SEC) was formed in February 1921. This would probably be reason enough for a team that had beaten "Centre" (the Power from Kentucky) enough credit to expand its bragging rights beyond the borders of the SWC and claim to be "Champions of the South!"

Actually, one could argue that beating Centre in 1921 would give you the distinction of "National Champion," however, A&M's overall record in 1921 could have been a little better.

Truth-be-told, I think the name on the pennant is really just more evidence that the idea of bright-line championship boundaries that we are so use to in today's sports world were very blurry in the 1920's and before.

Because it is not apparenlty obvious by simply looking at the pennant I will go ahead an point out the obvious. This pennant is for the 1921 season. However, ask any Aggie the date of the "Dixie Classic" and they will tell you it was Jan. 2, 1922! So, "obviously" the 1921 season ended on Jan. 2, 1922 with the Aggies facing Centre College (and Charlie Moran) in the famed Dixie Classic. It was in this game that Coach Dana X. Bible called E. King Gill from the stands in order to "suit-up" and be ready to play, thus creating the 12th Man Tradition that lives on at Texas A&M today!

1939 SWC Champs (Charm)

This is a "charm" for the the 1939 SWC Championship. Notice that the charm is for a "Conference Championship" and not the "National Title" (which was won in 1939). This is more than likely due to the fact that these charms were made right after the Aggies won the conference title (so sometime in Nov. or Dec. of that year). The Sugar Bowl (vs. Tulane) was not played until January, and even then, the National Title was probably not determined by the AP right away.

However, this exact charm may simply be a replica. I can't tell if it is an original from 1939. It does have a stamp in the back of the charm that says "12th Man." This leads me to believe that it is a "replica." However, if anyone happens to know, please shoot me an email and let me know.

1941 Cotton Bowl Trophy

This trophy was not in the best condition when I found it. It was in a storage closet and had been banged up pretty good. I spent a little time cleaning it up before taking this photo. Most of the damage to the trophy appears to be the wood finish on the base is gone, and the metal pillars and football player are "pealing." The pealing is simply because they are not solid metal of any kind. They are cast/made of one material but then "shrink wrapped" in a shiny gold or silver material. Over the years, those shinny coatings begin to peel off.

However, the strutural integrity of the trophy is alright. It is just not a very well made (quality material) trophy. In fact, its very similar to the quality that you might find today at a trophy shop....although a little better than that.

Either way, it has found a way to survive since 1941 without a real caretaker, and is still in decent shape.

Being that it is the 1941 Cotton Bowl; that game was played on Jan. 1, 1941 and capped off the 1940 season. The 1940 season was the year A&M was trying to defend its 1939 AP National Title. The Aggies went 9-1 on the season, and 5-1 in SWC Play. They Tied for 1st place in the SWC with SMU and finished 6th in the Nation. The only loss was to t.u. in Austin, where the Aggies lost 0-7. If I remember my history correctly, that was the game that Noble Doss (t.u.) intercepted a late A&M Pass that would have either given the Ags an 7-0 lead OR would have tied the game at 7-7. Either way, losing that game to t.u. kept A&M from a trip to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Instead the Aggies go to travel to Dallas for the Cotton Bowl where they defeated Fordham 13-12. Oddly enough, the Aggies won their bowl game the year before (Sugar Bowl vs. Tulane) by only one point as well (14-13).

1927 SWC Championship Trophy

I am still searching for more information on the SWC Trophies from the 1920's, however this trophy from 1927 seems to be the year that the SWC Trophies changed in form from (just) a football to a player.

All of the other SWC Football Championship Trophies from the 1920's (that pre-date this 1927 trophy) are very simple. They are all the same color of silver, and have the same black wood base. However, all the trophies I have seen that pre-date this one from 1927 are shaped like "footballs" only.

Due to the make of the trophies, I believe they were all made by the same company. But, for some reason, the 1927 trophy (and I think the 1928 trophy - won by t.u.) seems to be the year when the manufacturer (or the conference) decided to change the trophies form to what is pictured here (a player carrying a football).

A&M also has SWC championships from 1925, 1921, 1919, and 1917. However, as far as I can tell, no one knows where these trophies are located. I am not really sure that there were any trophies given for the 1919 and 1917 season, but it is very possible that there were trophies for 1925 and 1921. Baylor has a couple of SWC Championship Trophies on display at Floyd-Casey that are from 1922 and 1924 (if I remember correctly). Baylor's trophies are just silver footballs (as I described) and if I remember correctly, at least one of them does not have a base at all. This leads me to believe that a 1925 trophy was given, but I am still lacking any kind of evidence that a trophy was given in 1921.

Seeing that the 1921 season is the same season that ended with the Dixie Classic (Jan. 1922), it would be interesting to find a SWC Championship Trophy from that year.

1987 SWC Champs (RING)

2005 Cotton Bowl (RING)

Although this ring often classified as a ring for the 2004 season, a more fitting classification would be that this ring represents the participation in the 2005 Cotton Bowl which occured at the end of the 2004 season.

That may simply be a matter of semantics, however for purposes of this site, it is much easier to label rings such as this as a "Bowl Ring" vs. a "Season Ring."

In fact, as it currently stands (in case your curious) I catergorize Football Rings into three categories. The first is that of "Bowl Ring" (whether the Bowl game was won or lost is irrelevant). The second category is that of "Championship Ring" (for Conference or National Titles, etc.).

This second category is made up of rings that represent a Conference Crown (or National). However, they also often display information about the Bowl Game that followed the Conf. Title season. Again, just as with the "Bowl Rings," the outcome of the Bowl Game (on a Conference Championship ring) is irrelevant to the classification of the ring itself.

Finally, the third category (which is so rare that it's almost not worth mentioning) would be "specialty rings." These are rings that are made for another purpose (Ex: Letterman's Ring). However, these rings can also fit into one of the first two catergories as well as this third category. Or otherwise stated, a Category 3 ring could also be a Category 1 or 2. However, a category 1 or 2 ring will never be anything else but a 1 or a 2.

1997 Big XII South Division Champs (RING)

1994 "Best in the SWC" (RING)

In 1994, Texas A&M was 10-0-1 and had the best record in the conference. If not for "probation," A&M would have won the Conference Championship. No other team in the SWC had as good of a record as A&M!

1993 SWC Champs (RING)

This is one of my favorite A&M Championship Rings.