The petty, fantastic and delightfully bizarre rise of Horns Down
John Slate discovered himself caught on the facet of the freeway amid a collection of harmful storms in Might in Oklahoma.
Tornadoes had given strategy to flash flooding. There was nowhere to go in bumper-to-bumper site visitors. A neighborhood information crew noticed him on the facet of the highway in El Reno, sitting on the tailgate of his pickup.
He’d tried to be slick, to be that man who drives up the shoulder when no one else is shifting. Did not work, he stated, with a deadpan nod to the digicam. Now, stranded with nothing however a bag of pork rinds to maintain him firm, Slate noticed a possibility. And he took it.
This man is now the Governor of Oklahoma pic.twitter.com/ZzhlxXzzWm
— Bunkie Perkins (@BunkiePerkins) Might 21, 2019
Bam. A Horns Down within the wild. A shot on the Texas Longhorns proper there on the freeway, on the information, in the midst of Might with none actual rhyme or cause.
Marvel all you need. Slate stated it makes excellent sense.
“Nothing goes higher collectively in Oklahoma than tornadoes, pork rinds and Horns Down,” he instructed ESPN that afternoon. “It is an Oklahoma factor. It is one thing that brings us collectively. Whether or not you are a Sooner or a Cowpoke, we will all agree that Texas sucks. It is a common signal of affection for Okies.”
Texas’ Hook ‘Em Horns signal is undoubtedly some of the iconic symbols in sports activities. However it’s additionally distinctive in its widespread appropriation by rivals. Followers can sarcastically mock Florida’s Gator Chomp or USC’s V for Victory, however nothing fairly has the vigor of a briskly delivered Horns Down. There isn’t any less complicated act of pettiness in faculty soccer.
And in Oklahoma, it’d as effectively be as vital a convention because the Sooner Schooner.
“Nothing goes higher collectively in Oklahoma than tornadoes, pork rinds and Horns Down.”
Oklahoma fan John Slate
“So long as Horns have been going up, Horns have been taking place at Oklahoma,” legendary Sooners coach Barry Switzer stated this week. “Nobody’s ever gonna cease doing it.”
Between a bonus Texas-OU rematch within the convention title recreation for the primary time in 115 years, new rivals getting taunting penalties, John Slate’s pork-rind-fueled gesture and Baker Mayfield being Baker Mayfield, it has been the largest 12 months within the 64-year historical past of the inverted Hook ‘Em Horns signal.
Rise of the controversy
Greater than 60 years in the past, Henry “HK” Pitts confirmed Harley Clark, Texas’ head yell chief, his hand within the form of a fist, along with his index and pinky fingers prolonged, and stated it regarded just like the horns of Texas’ mascot, the longhorn steer. That week, Clark, with none warning to or enter from the administration, took it upon himself to declare the gesture “the official hand signal of the College of Texas, for use every time and wherever Longhorns collect” at a soccer rally forward of a November 1955 recreation in opposition to TCU.
Clark’s phrases grew to become fact. The Hook ‘Em Horns signal immediately grew to become a beloved Texas custom. Horns Down caught on nearly as rapidly amongst rivals, even with out assistance from social media. The entrance web page of Texas’ scholar newspaper, the Each day Texan, featured a Baylor fan doing the Horns Down in 1963.
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Texas followers actually do not admire the gesture. However for Texas officers, saying something about it’s a no-win state of affairs. The Longhorns politely declined to debate the subject for this story.
It is not arduous to see why. The makings of the trendy Horns Down controversy got here when Texas coach Mack Brown tried to make a degree about what he thought-about to be one hypocritical name in a recreation.
In 2012, dealing with Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas receiver Mike Davis was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct for utilizing his palms to fake he was placing weapons in a holster, a play on Texas Tech’s Weapons Up hand signal.
Requested about it throughout his Monday information convention that week, Brown stated, “That is one thing we ought to speak about as a league. The Horns Down are disrespectful for gamers on the sector. If Horns Down are OK, we must have Weapons Down be OK.”
In fact, all followers heard was Brown interesting to the Huge 12 on behalf of a behemoth — Texas — to cope with a hand signal that was a fan favourite of rivals. Twitter, even in 2012, went nuts. A narrative about Brown’s quote within the Each day Oklahoman in Oklahoma Metropolis was the most-read story on the paper’s web site that day.
Final November, it grew to become A Factor once more when West Virginia got here to Austin. Within the first quarter, Mountaineers receiver David Sills V caught a 60-yard landing move, trotted by means of the again of the tip zone, regarded as much as the gang and threw a double-barrel Horns Down, instantly drawing a 15-yard penalty for taunting. After scoring on what turned out to be the profitable two-point conversion to make it 42-41 with 16 seconds left within the recreation, quarterback Will Grier reprised the two-fisted model to the gang and drew one other flag.
David Sills V was controversially penalized for this Horns Down in a 2018 recreation in opposition to Texas. Temitayo Adesokan/DailyAthenaeum
After the sport, Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger, a lifelong Longhorns fan who grew up in Austin and whose household had Texas season tickets, tweeted, then deleted, what each Texas fan was feeling:
“I bear in mind each single crew/participant that disrespects the wealthy custom of the College of Texas by placing the Horns down. Don’t suppose will probably be forgotten sooner or later.”
Faculty soccer was quickly engrossed in a full-fledged Horns Down debate, notably forward of a Texas-Oklahoma rematch within the Huge 12 championship recreation, marking the primary time the bitter rivals had met twice in a season since 1903. That week, Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley stated he’d requested the league for a ruling on the gesture and instructed reporters, “Yeah, we will not do it.”
Texas coach Tom Herman stated after a apply, “We have been disrespected for so long as that hand sign has been round. We’re kinda used to it.”
Huge 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby known as the Horns Down controversy a “tempest in a teapot” for the league in an interview on “The Dan Patrick Present.”
And now, it appears, the Horns Down are up in all places.
• Cleveland Browns quarterback and Oklahoma legend Baker Mayfield taught campers the right way to do it at his soccer camp in Austin.
Baker Mayfield and his campers working towards the Horns Down at his Lake Travis camp. Not kidding. I feel he is received it down.
— Kirk Bohls (@kbohls) June 14, 2019
• Junior golfers did it in a photograph with former Texas star Jordan Spieth.
Observe to self: Keep in mind this @dallasnews picture for Texas-OU meme functions in October. pic.twitter.com/RNz6roO5kS
— Scott Bell (@ScottBellDMN) June 27, 2019
• West Virginia put the Texas emblem the wrong way up on the schedule inside its soccer facility.
It is formally a “factor” contained in the Puskar Middle. #WVU pic.twitter.com/x2ADG17J92
— Sean Manning (@SeanManning_DP) March 7, 2019
• Texas A&M observe athletes wore their bibs the wrong way up so the Horns could be down on them on the Texas Relays in Austin.
Texas A&M males’s 4×400 relay wins a 13th Texas Relays title as they defend their 2017 title. It is the fifth title for A&M within the 4×400 since 2010. Total it was the 39th relay victory for the Aggies up to now 10 years of the Texas Relays. pic.twitter.com/BWYA4gy0MK
— Texas A&M Observe and Area (@aggietrk) March 31, 2018
• A camper from Norman, Oklahoma, did it whereas standing subsequent to Herman at a Texas soccer camp.
I took my soon-to-be ninth grade son, @Parker32Andrews , right down to a Texas final Sunday for soccer camp and he had a possibility to fulfill Texas’ coach, Tom Herman. Parker by no means wastes a possibility! 🤣😂#ClassOf2023 pic.twitter.com/V6sXS1rJIp
— Greg Andrews (@LawyerGreg405) June eight, 2019
But when this many individuals are interested by Texas, is that essentially a nasty factor for the Longhorns?
“There are many sports activities franchises constructed on how a lot individuals hate them,” stated Whitney Wagoner, director of the Warsaw Sports activities Advertising and marketing Middle on the College of Oregon.
It is why Oklahoma and Texas A&M followers will purchase Longhorns decals — paying a royalty to the College of Texas — to place a sticker on their truck the wrong way up, or within the Aggies’ case, with the horns “sawed off,” as indicated of their combat tune.
Given the extraordinary nature of these rivalries, Texas followers nearly are prepared to grasp why Oklahoma or A&M followers will rejoice with a Horns Down slightly than merely cheer their very own crew.
However the West Virginia incident is new territory. Realignment has unfold the sector, so to talk.
College of Memphis professor Cody Havard, Ph.D., research fan habits. One space of his analysis is measuring perceptions followers have towards their favourite crew’s rival.
“We polled faculty followers and requested them who their largest rival was,” Havard stated. “Texas has 11 totally different groups figuring out them as a rival, by far probably the most within the nation.”
“Our rivals are totally different,” stated Cari Clark, an Austin realtor and the daughter of the late Harley Clark, who launched the signal. “So that is what it takes now. You do not have these long-standing rivalries, so that they’re attempting to create drama the place there is not.”
Havard understands the psychology, as a result of that is his job. However as a local Texan who received an undergraduate diploma from Texas, he additionally understands the Longhorns followers’ sentiment.
“You do not like when anyone does it,” he stated. “But when somebody within the prolonged household does it, it is higher than a whole stranger.”
Baker Mayfield is without doubt one of the world’s foremost consultants and practitioners of Horns Down, even instructing correct approach to children at his soccer camp. AP Photograph/LM Otero
That also doesn’t suggest the Horns prefer it. Houston Nutt can testify to the longevity of their reminiscence.
Nutt was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. He grew up watching revered Arkansas coach Frank Broyles tackle Darrell Royal and the Longhorns when the rivalry had nationwide championship implications within the 1960s and ’70s. Then, Nutt performed for Broyles and the Hogs.
Years later, on the finish of his second season because the Razorbacks’ head coach, on the sidelines of the 2000 Cotton Bowl, he was about to shut out a 27-6 win for Arkansas’ first bowl victory since 1985. And better of all? It was coming in opposition to the dreaded Longhorns.
This meant one thing to him, going all the way in which again to his childhood.
“When Texas got here to play Arkansas, it was this enormous, enormous factor,” he stated. “I bear in mind being taught on the age of 6 outdoors Conflict Memorial Stadium [in Little Rock] the right way to do the Hook ‘Em Horns Down signal.”
With about two minutes left and the sport effectively in hand, Nutt rotated to the followers to soak it in. Muscle reminiscence took over.
“It was a sea of purple, they usually have been largely doing the Hook ‘Em Horns Down,” Nutt stated. “What did I do? I can not assist it. I am proper there with ’em.”
In that second, he wasn’t ready for the aftershock. For the screengrabs that will dwell eternally. For the opposing coach to get so upset.
“I bear in mind being taught on the age of 6 … the right way to do the Hook ‘Em Horns Down signal.”
Houston Nutt
“Mack [Brown] instructed me he wasn’t too appreciative,” stated Nutt, now a university soccer analyst for CBS. “He stated, ‘I can perceive your gamers doing it. However not you, Coach.'”
Sonny Dykes, now the coach at SMU, was on the sidelines for one more of the all-time Horns Down indignities. In 2016, when he was the pinnacle coach at Cal, Texas traveled to Berkeley to face the Golden Bears. Along with the Bears profitable 50-43, some Cal gamers gave Texas the enterprise.
zero:40
Davis Webb lasers a landing move to Chad Hansen to place Cal up 34-33 on Texas after which Hanson celebrates by mocking the Longhorns.
“My dad was on the workers at Texas,” Dykes stated, referring to Spike Dykes, the longtime Texas Tech coach. “I grew up going to video games at Memorial Stadium. That place at all times meant a bit of one thing to me.”
So he understood how a lot the second meant even when his crew did not. Certain, his gamers should not have performed it, Dykes stated, earlier than a bit of little bit of his Lubbock began exhibiting.
“Texas in all probability should not have allow us to beat them twice, both.”
Sure, the Longhorns know profitable is the most effective antidote. However a sports activities psychologist with a bit of expertise within the matter thinks Horns Down can truly assist with that, too.
“I do not suppose it is unhealthy for Texas in any respect, whether or not it is penalized or not,” stated Lyn McDonald, a licensed psychological efficiency guide on the Texas Middle for Sports activities Psychology in San Antonio. “In the event that they’re penalized, nice. However the psychological benefit is extra useful than the 15 yards. It could hone within the motivation to kick ass.”
Former Texas linebacker Emmanuel Acho agrees.
“If the opposing crew is gonna throw the Horns Down, you higher imagine I’ll throw them up even more durable, even sooner, much more aggressively after I make a giant play,” stated Acho, an ESPN NFL and faculty soccer analyst who began 26 video games at Texas, the place he additionally earned a grasp’s diploma in sports activities psychology.
McDonald, too, has a bit of first-hand expertise within the rivalry as a former 12th Man on the Texas A&M kickoff crew, graduating in 1990. He is seen a couple of Horns Downs up shut.
“I did not do it whereas I used to be taking part in,” he stated. “However I could have performed it at a Spurs recreation on the JumboTron as soon as.”
The massive debate: Ought to Horns Down be a penalty?
There’s one Texas villain who’s surprisingly empathetic to Longhorns followers: former Miami receiver Randal “Thrill” Hill, who famously stored operating up the tunnel after scoring on a 48-yard landing move in No. four Miami’s 46-Three throttling of No. Three Texas within the 1991 Cotton Bowl, punctuating it with a six-shooter celebration. Hill’s efficiency, together with Miami’s document 15 penalties for 202 yards, led to the adoption of the “Miami Rule” by the NCAA simply weeks later, which added a clause prohibiting extreme celebration, or “habits demeaning to the picture of school soccer,” to its unsportsmanlike conduct tips.
“So far as somebody getting penalized for Longhorns Down, I suppose you’ll be able to thank me for that,” Hill stated.
“I can perceive why individuals get tremendous delicate about it,” stated Hill, who in a pleasant bit of school soccer coming full circle says his daughter would possibly attend Texas. “It is type of like placing [Miami’s] The U signal the wrong way up. It is gonna trigger an issue. I problem you to go to some areas of South Florida and throw The U the wrong way up and see what occurs. You ain’t gonna get too far.”
With out testing that idea, there’s solely the on-field debate. The celebration rule Hill helped drive remains to be open to interpretation by officers, which is why Horns Down will proceed to be hotly debated.
West Virginia’s penalties have been based mostly on NCAA Rule 9-2-1, which says, “No participant, substitute, coach or different particular person topic to the foundations shall use abusive, threatening or obscene language or gestures, or interact in such acts that provoke in poor health will or are demeaning to an opponent, to recreation officers or to the picture of the sport.”
Brown, now at North Carolina, instructed ESPN.com this offseason he thinks Horns Down qualifies.
“Should you’re being derogatory to the opposite college, why would not that be a penalty? I’ve at all times thought that. I’d’ve thought the identical factor with any signal of any crew that was utilized in a derogatory method,” he stated. “We’re attempting to show children to be optimistic about your college and never be destructive in regards to the different. For followers to make use of it, that is wonderful. However I did not suppose we should always apply it to the sector and in entrance of the opposite crew as a result of it was positively derogatory and unsportsmanlike.”
Oklahoma superfan John Slate is not going to cease doing Horns Down anytime quickly. Courtesy of John Slate
However that nearly solely applies at Texas, even in a state the place each main crew has a hand image. Final season, simply down the highway, Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant did a double Gig ‘Em Down after scoring a landing in opposition to Texas A&M, which simply offers off extra of a Siskel and Ebert vibe and got here and went with out a lot discover.
The Hook ‘Em signal is “an iconic hand sign whenever you consider faculty sports activities,” McDonald conceded. However merely flip it the wrong way up, he stated, and it has “grow to be this untouchable sign you’ll be able to’t do versus the two,000 different hand indicators in American soccer.”
“It is a infantile gesture,” stated Diane Gottsman, a nationwide etiquette professional and founding father of The Protocol Faculty of Texas. “It could simply escalate into an act of aggression when feelings, liquor and the incorrect personalities are concerned.”
However manners apart, ought to or not it’s a penalty in a soccer recreation?
“One factor the NCAA doesn’t wish to do is get into being the gesture police,” Walt Anderson, then the Huge 12 coordinator of officers, instructed Austin American-Statesman columnist Kirk Bohls in 2012 after Brown’s assertion that the convention ought to become involved.
Final 12 months, six years later, Huge 12 spokesman Bob Burda instructed ESPN after the West Virginia kerfuffle that the choice to flag gamers for taunting due to gestures is as much as “officers’ judgment.”
Slate, a self-described “frequent Horns Down consumer,” will not be swayed. “By God, we’re certain not going to cease doing it as followers,” he stated. “We’re speaking a couple of hand gesture of a rivalry — of a pleasant rivalry — that is been round 100 years.”
Nutt stated his Horns Down incident was a “one-time deal” and that he’d made peace with Brown, a superb pal. However he nonetheless understands its attract.
“Why is everyone so enthralled with this factor?” he requested. “Nicely, whenever you beat Texas, you look again at Darrell Royal, Earl Campbell, little James Avenue, I’ve watched ’em all, man. They broke my coronary heart many days. It is a respect.”
Acho thinks it is painless.
“If you cannot throw the Horns Down, what are you able to do?” he stated. “It is probably the most well mannered disrespect that you are able to do within the recreation of soccer. It is not a kick within the nuts.”
And Switzer, effectively, he is received his personal causes.
“S—,” he stated. “It is simply enjoyable!”
ESPN’s David M. Hale contributed to this report.