History
In 1922 the University of Texas at Austin found itself in need of a men's service organization. Two men, Arno Nowotny, then head cheerleader, and Bill McGill, president of the Longhorn Band, began working together to recruit a very select group of young men who were dedicated to leadership and service. In 1922, forty men from all aspects of campus life were chosen by McGill and Nowotny to be the first Texas Cowboys. Throughout its nearly 100 years of existence, becoming a Texas Cowboy became a high honor, developed through the accomplishments of its members and from the organization's tradition of service and spirit.
In 1954 Smokey, the original UT cannon, was presented to the University of Texas by the Texas Cowboys. That same year, the Cowboys began their involvement with and support of Austin's Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC).
On the Monday following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, Smokey fired a 21-gun salute to the fallen President during climactic moment in a public ceremony in front of the state Capitol building.
Smokey II was created by the School of Engineering to replace the original Smokey in 1968. Smokey II served the University well until 1988. The following year, Smokey III, a civil war replica cannon standing six feet tall and weighing 1,200 pounds, was constructed and remains in service to this day.
In 1995, the Texas Cowboys were cancelled as a campus organization following the accidental death of one of its members and a determination by the University administration that the organization had violated the University's hazing policies. Through the efforts of the Texas Cowboys Alumni Association, the campus organization was reestablished in 2000 with the expressed mission "to represent and serve the University of Texas at Austin with spirit, character and leadership."
In 2004, the Texas Cowboys Alumni Association, in conjunction with the Texas Exes, completed construction on the Texas Cowboys Pavilion. It is the only structure on the University campus named for a student organization.
Today, the Texas Cowboys serve the University in service, spirit, and social capacities. Each year the Texas Cowboys organize and host Harvest Moon, a fall concert held in Waterloo Park, and Spring BBQ, an on-campus barbecue to raise funds for the ARC of the Capital Area. Previous headliners at the Harvest Moon concert include:
1985: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jerry Jeff Walker, Delbert McClinton
2005: Jerry Jeff Walker
2006: Pat Green
2007: Cory Morrow and Aaron Watson
2008: Cross Canadian Ragweed
2009: Stoney LaRue and Roger Creager
2010: Robert Earl Keen
2011: The Josh Abbott Band and Jack Ingram.
2012: Casey Donahew and Roger Creager
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“As History stands, it is a sort of Chinese Play, without end and without lesson.”
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—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“In history the great moment is, when the savage is just ceasing to be a savage, with all his hairy Pelasgic strength directed on his opening sense of beauty;—and you have Pericles and Phidias,—and not yet passed over into the Corinthian civility. Everything good in nature and in the world is in that moment of transition, when the swarthy juices still flow plentifully from nature, but their astrigency or acridity is got out by ethics and humanity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)