Texas Our Texas

New: UT football players were told in a meeting with athletic officials they must stay on the field for the Eyes of Texas going forward b/c donors were upset.https://t.co/9ZZbeGa5gL

— Kate McGee (@McGeeReports) March 3, 2021

NEW: UT-Austin football players say they were forced to stay on the field for "The Eyes of Texas" song to appease angry donors and fans. https://t.co/xwV9CFMLOR

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) March 3, 2021

Texas players also said an athletic official told them he received emails from alumni threatening their future job prospects in TX.

Former Longhorn Caden Sterns tweeted earlier that alumni said players should look for jobs outside of TX if they didn’t participate in the Eyes.” pic.twitter.com/9UhtQf9ABc

— Kate McGee (@McGeeReports) March 3, 2021

The funny part of this is watching everybody in the chain passing the blame to somebody else. Football players push back by blaming the athletic officials, athletic officials blame donors, and one donor thinks he's got the clout to block any football player from ever working in Texas again.

Shit, that part's downright hilarious! 

The best part is the students saying they didn't want to stand around while the song was played.  Considering UT hasn't had a football team worthy of much attention since Darrell Royal made them significant for oh-so-brief a period (which UT football has been dining out on/wistfully remembering ever since.  I lived in Austin for 15 years, and I was stunned to realize Royal left in '76 and the last time UT was a national champion under him was '69. The way he was still lionized 2 decades later you’d have thought he won the national championship almost every year.)  He didn't exactly establish a Penn State or Alabama-style legacy, which has always left me wondering what alumni thought they were paying for.  UT used to light up the Tower in orange with office lights left on to make a giant "1" on each face only for football championships.  While I was living in Austin they gave that up and honored any athletic victory (even for women's teams!) with an orange tower (for championships) or even the "1" (when appropriate), because it was clear the football team wasn't going to win another national championship anytime soon.

It's been up and down since Royal, but the stadium was named for him, so he's still the most famous coach in UT history; his wins are still the "wins" UT remembers best.  But it's been 52 years, guys.  Maybe the school song isn’t that important in the grand scheme of things....