During my senior year in college, the University of Texas campus became embroiled in a debate over the school’s alma mater, “The Eyes of Texas.” The song, it turned out, had been written for a minstrel show. As the country reckoned with race in 2020, some football players demanded that the school stop singing the song.
UT football players march to the Texas Capitol days after the death of George Floyd. Credits to Eric Gay/AP
And then all hell broke loose.
I teamed up with legendary college football writer Ivan Maisel to write this definitive history of the episode, speaking with players, coaches, administrators to detail how, exactly The Eyes controversy unfolded.
Here’s an excerpt:
When you go back and look at it, really look at it, it’s not even a good image. It was shot on a phone. It’s strangely cropped. Blurry.
But it sure captured a moment.
The photo taken of University of Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger at around 4 p.m. at the Cotton Bowl stadium, in Dallas, on the second Saturday of last October, carved its own path, the way that viral social media posts and the most destructive tornadoes do. Maybe you heard it cost a coach his job. Maybe you saw it and felt outrage at the supposed lack of respect it depicted. Maybe you cheered the young athletes who protested a song with racist origins.
But the story the photo tells isn’t exactly what happened.
The viral photo of Sam Ehlinger singing “The Eyes of Texas” after losing to Oklahoma on October 10. Credits to KXAN TV
