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MyLine:Cover Story
The history behind one of football's prized traditions
Date published: 1/23/2007
By MATT KELLY YOUTH CORRESPONDENT T IS MID-JANUARY, and the NFL playoffs have brought amazing finishes and upsets. While only two teams remain now to play in the Super Bowl on Feb. 4 in Miami, fans for each of the 12 qualifying teams have stories of successes, near misses or devastating losses during the postseason. The home teams went 4-0 in the wild-card round and 2-2 in the divisional round. In Sunday's conference championship games, the home teams, the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts, again dominated 2-0. No matter how close the match-ups were, though, the one advantage home teams had was their 12th man. A fan takes the fieldThe 12th man is how football lovers refer to their team's home crowd, the noise they bring and their willingness to support their team week in and week out. It can be an important factor in football games, too, as it was in the recent playoffs. You frequently see players on defense and the sidelines telling the crowd to make some noise by raising their hands during the opponent's offensive drive, making it hard for them to hear, which often leads to penalties such as "false start" and "delay of game." The term "12th man" traces its origin to Texas A&M University. According to the A&M Web site's aggietraditions.tamu.edu, the 1922 Dixie Classic (which was eventually renamed as the Cotton Bowl) had the Aggies of Texas A&M facing off against reigning NCAA champions Centre College.
The game's first half went exactly the way they didn't want it to. The Aggies encountered many injuries. Then coach D.X. Bible looked up into the stands for a familiar face: E. King Gill. Gill originally had played on that 1922 Aggie team as a reserve, but decided at the end of the regular season to leave the team in order to play basketball. Gill was called upon to suit up for the Aggies in the second half. Of course he did, but all he did was stand on the sideline for the second half as a reserve. From that specific event came the 12th man, because of the fans' willingness to support their team en route to victory.
Date published: 1/23/2007
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