Save the date! The Josh Bauerle Foundation Event September 17th, 2023!
Texas A&M Traditions
Aggie Muster
Memorial Student Center
Aggie Muster
Century-old roots provide the basis for Muster as Aggies know it today. It has changed, yet the Spirit in which it was established remains the same. Since the founding of Texas A&M, every Aggie has lived and become a part of the Aggie Spirit. What we feel today is not just the camaraderie of fellow Aggies, it is the Spirit of hundreds of thousands of Aggies who have gone before us, and who will come after us. Muster is how that Spirit is remembered and celebrated, and it will always continue to unite Texas A&M and the Aggie family. A&M may change, but the Spirit never will.
April 21 has been a special day for Aggies since the very earliest years of Texas A&M. In the 1870s and 1880s, campus field days were held on the anniversary of the battle of San Jacinto, marking Texas’ independence. By the 1890s, it was an official college holiday.
Meanwhile, A&M’s earliest alumni organizations were starting a tradition of reading aloud a list of names at their annual June meetings to honor their fellow former students who had passed on in the preceding year.
During World War I, Aggies gathered on April 21 in the trenches and towns of France, Belgium and Luxembourg. In the early 1920s, The Association of Former Students encouraged all A&M Clubs to hold April 21st meetings and parties; these spread around the U.S. and elsewhere in the ’20s and ’30s.
Then, in 1942, a reported gathering of Texas Aggies under fire on April 21 made this Texas A&M tradition famous nationwide. News headlines spoke of the Texans’ courage and camaraderie during Japan’s siege of the Philippine island of Corregidor. The next year, more than 500 Aggie Musters worldwide honored the Aggies of Corregidor; The Association sent out the first “Muster packets” to chairs, and the Muster tradition became a permanent part of the Aggie Spirit.
Today, Muster is celebrated in more than 300 locations worldwide, with the largest ceremony taking place on the Texas A&M campus in College Station. The ceremony brings together more Aggies worldwide on one occasion than any other event.
Silver Taps
Memorial Student Center
Aggie Muster
Silver Taps is one of the most sacred and significant traditions at A&M. It is one of the final tributes held for any current graduate or undergraduate student who has passed during the year.
Silver Taps is held the first Tuesday of the month following a student’s death. Starting in the morning, the flags on campus are flown at half-mast. The names, class and major of the fallen Aggies are on cards placed at the base of the flagpole in the Academic Plaza and on the Silver Taps Memorial. Throughout the day, students can write letters to the families of the fallen Aggies. That night at 10:15p.m., all the lights on campus are extinguished. Hymns are then played on the Albritton Bell Tower, always including How Great Thou Art and ending in Amazing Grace. Around this time, students gather silently in the Academic Plaza. The families of the fallen Aggies are also led into the plaza. At 10:30p.m., the Ross Volunteer Company marches into the Academic Plaza at a slow cadence. Once they arrive, they fire a three-volley salute in honor of the fallen Aggies. After the last round is fired, buglers atop the Academic Building begin to play a special rendition of “Taps” called “Silver Taps,” which is unique to A&M. The buglers play “Taps” three times: once to the north, once to the south, and once to the west, but never to the east, because it said the sun will never rise on that fallen Aggie again.
This solemn tradition was held for the first time in 1898. No other university in the world honors students in this way.
Memorial Student Center
Memorial Student Center
Memorial Student Center
Every Aggie has a home away from home in the Memorial Student Center, Texas A&M’s student union. However, this facility is unique because it is also a memorial. After the world wars, former students wanted to build a memorial to honor all of the Aggies that had lost their lives during battle—and at the same time, the students wanted to build a student center. The Memorial Student Center — or the MSC, as it is known on campus — was built and dedicated on Muster Day (April 21) 1951 to all of the Aggies that have lost their lives in wars past, present, or future.