Texas A&M is a big deal these days in Fort Worth. It’s not the first time that’s happened

Fort Worth is rolling out the red carpet for Texas A&M as its expanded campus takes shape downtown.

Businessman John Goff calls it a “game changer” in city history. Estimates are that it will pump as much as $350 million into our community while refocusing urban life on the south end of the business district.

Downtown Fort Worth has not seen this much construction since the convention center was built 60 years ago. Goff calls it “the most impactful thing to happen to Fort Worth this century.”

Those with a short memory trace A&M’s interest in Fort Worth back to 2013 when its law school opened in that same area of downtown. Truth be told, however, Fort Worth’s love affair with the Aggies goes back to 1927. That was the year Fort Worth proclaimed “Aggie Day.”

The city had been home to a large and active alumni organization for more than a decade by that time, but this was something far bigger. Discussions began in September ahead of A&M’s first scheduled conference visit to play TCU in football.

TCU had been admitted to the Southwest Conference in 1923 after building a stadium big enough to hold major conference football games. In the next four years, according to the Record-Telegram, Fort Worth became a “football town” supporting the TCU Horned Frogs. However, this was the first time the two schools had met officially.

Frog fans were advised not to expect much from the hometown boys against the mighty Aggies, but that did not mean the city would not be hospitable. Wherever the Aggies went, they brought along a large entourage of fans, pep squad, and cadet corps. All those visitors had to stay somewhere and eat somewhere, which translated into a financial windfall for the town’s business community. “Let’s give ‘em a Cowtown welcome!” was the cry.

Fort Worthers, even those who had not attended A&M, were already familiar with the Aggies. For years, the A&M band had played at the annual Fat Stock Show. They were invited back every year. Now, city fathers wanted to show our College Station visitors the kind of hospitality that would make them want to come back every football season.

Fort Worth would extend no similar welcome to the University of Texas, SMU, Rice, Baylor, or the other members of the Southwestern Conference. The Aggie connection was special. Cowboys and cadets were a mutual admiration society.

The big welcome on Oct. 22 began with a parade by the 2,400 members of the khaki-clad cadet corps down Main Street. The young men marched in precision, drill team order “straight into the hearts” of the hometown crowd that lined the street. As the newspaper reminded readers, the A&M cadet corps was second in national regard only to West Point’s cadet corps; they were the “Pride of [all] Texas,” not just College Station.

Coming soon after Charles Lindbergh’s visit (Sept. 26, 1927) and proclamation of “Lindy Day,” the intention was to make Aggie Day “a close second” to all the hoopla surrounding the “Lone Eagle’s” visit.

Aggie Day climaxed with the football game in Clark Stadium. The Aggie team was highly favored over the Horned Frogs, whose glory days were more than a decade in the future.

The Fort Worth faithful only hoped the Horned Frogs would not embarrass themselves. That afternoon 13,000 raucous fans filled the stadium, which the Record-Telegram called a “capacity crowd.” (That did not jibe with the boasted capacity of Clark Stadium when it opened – 20,000.)

To everyone’s shock the two teams battled to a thrilling scoreless tie, 0 to 0. As the Record-Telegram put it, the boys in purple “passed, kicked, and tackled” their way to a “moral victory.”

But it was more than just a moral victory on the football field. It was credited with inspiring a new sense of civic pride that helped launch a population explosion, a construction boom, and national recognition that carried us well into the 1930s and the Great Depression.

There is no denying nothing sparks civic pride like a winning sports team. “Thank you, Frogs” was on the lips of Fort Worthers who had not even attended the game.

Two days after the game, city fathers announced the creation of an official “Aggie Day” to be held every fall when A&M came to town. The visitors from College Station would be welcomed in royal style with a parade and banquet before the two teams squared off in what it was hoped would become a historic rivalry. That, of course, would depend on the Horned Frogs not being the doormat of the Southwestern Conference.

TCU’s dream became reality in 1935 and again in 1938 when the football team won national championships, leaving its fellow Southwest Conference schools in the dust. Sometime after that, “Aggie Day” fell off the calendar, and finally in 1996 the two schools were no longer even in the same athletic conference.

Now, all is forgiven as the old athletic rivalry no longer defines the relationship between the two schools. Texas A&M Law School calls Fort Worth home as will a world class research campus very soon. Aggies and Horned Frogs live in harmony in the classroom and the boardroom – at least until some future day when we are in the same athletic conference again.

Author-historian Richard Selcer is a Fort Worth native and proud graduate of Paschal High and TCU.