Fandom of the Week: Texas Longhorns. Hook ’Em, The Eyes of Texas, and the Program That Paid $100 Million to Join a Better Conference.
Texas once had its own television network — the Longhorn Network, a dedicated ESPN channel that launched in 2011. When Texas joined the SEC in 2024, the Longhorn Network as a traditional TV channel ended. It relaunched as a free streaming service. No other program in college football had built its own dedicated television network before Texas did. The only program that paid $100 million in exit fees to leave a conference early. The only program whose move to the SEC in 2024 was treated as a national reorganization of college football rather than a routine administrative decision. The identity of the Texas Longhorns is not humility. It is the conviction that Texas operates on different terms than everyone else, and that everyone else knows it.
Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium holds 100,119 people and opened in 1924 as a World War I memorial, funded by 10,000 donors to honor the 198,520 Texans who served. The stadium was renamed in 1996 for Darrell K Royal, the head coach who won three national championships between 1963 and 1970 and who defined what Texas football looked like at its highest level. On October 19, 2024, in their first season as an SEC member, Texas hosted Georgia before 105,215 fans — the largest crowd in stadium history — and the SEC attendance record for a single game.
This is the seventh article in the Fandom of the Week series. Previous entries covered Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Alabama. This week: Texas. The Red River Showdown against Oklahoma is October 10 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The full College Rivalries series has everything you need to understand what that game means.
——— THE COMMUNITY ———
Texas Longhorns Fans: Who They Are and What the Move to the SEC Changed
The Texas Longhorns fan base is defined by scale and expectation in roughly equal measure. The University of Texas is the flagship institution of the largest state in the contiguous United States by area. Its athletic program generated more than $200 million in revenue in recent fiscal years, placing it consistently among the top five athletic departments in the country. Texas fans do not expect to compete. They expect to win, and they expect the program to operate in a way that reflects the state’s sense of its own size and importance.
The move to the SEC in July 2024, which Texas paid $100 million in early exit fees to accelerate, was the clearest expression of that identity in decades. Texas and Oklahoma had co-founded the Big 12 in 1996. Twenty-seven years later, Texas decided the Big 12 was no longer the right context for what the program wanted to be. The announcement in 2021 set off the most significant round of conference realignment in college football history. The move itself, on July 1, 2024, was celebrated on campus with concerts and live entertainment as Texas officially entered the SEC, the move that changed the geography of college football.
Texas fans are spread across a state with no NFL franchise in Austin, a sprawling alumni network, and a program that has historically recruited nationally rather than depending on a single geographic region. Texas fans are spread across a large and diverse state, with an alumni network that extends far beyond Austin. What unifies them is the belief that Texas belongs at the top, and the impatience that follows when the program is not.
——— THE RITUAL ———
Texas Game Day: Bevo Boulevard, The Longhorn Band, and What DKR Looks Like on a Saturday
The Texas game day experience begins on Bevo Boulevard, which transforms San Jacinto Boulevard into a pregame festival. Since 2018, the university has hosted fans on campus for free food, games, and entertainment at Bevo Boulevard before home games, creating a pre-stadium gathering point that extends the game day timeline well before kickoff. The 400-member Longhorn Band marches to DKR from the south campus on game mornings, creating a processional that the crowd follows toward the stadium.
Inside DKR, the student section occupies the south end zone alongside the game’s most famous non-human attendee: Bevo XV, a 1,800-pound longhorn steer with horns measuring 72 inches, led onto the field by the Silver Spurs, a student spirit group. A Bevo has been part of Texas game days since 1916. The current mascot is Bevo XV, the 15th steer to carry the name. Bevo V went after the entire Baylor marching band. The current Bevo XV, originally named Sunrise Spur, is by all accounts more manageable.
After touchdowns, Smokey the Cannon fires from the north end zone. Big Bertha, the world’s largest bass drum and a fixture of the Longhorn Band, marks the rhythm of the game from its position near the ticket counters. Big Bertha has a complicated history: it was purchased by a Texas alumnus from the University of Chicago for $1, having sat under the bleachers at Stagg Field for years after being used during the Manhattan Project. It was radioactively contaminated. It was decontaminated. It was shipped to Austin. It has been played at Texas games ever since. That history — disputed or not — is specific to Texas.
“DKR, as Longhorns call it, is one of six college stadiums in the nation with a capacity over 100K, a threshold it crossed in 2009 after the south end zone seating was expanded. Sitting on the east edge of UT, it’s within a 10-minute walk of just about any spot on campus. Between Smokey the Cannon, The Eyes of Texas, Big Bertha the bass drum and Bevo, there are plenty of traditions that keep a Saturday afternoon in the stands interesting.”
Ticketmaster · Your Texas Longhorns Football Game Day Guide ·
——— THE IDENTITY ———
What Hook ’Em Horns Means, Why The Eyes of Texas Is Complicated, and What the SEC Move Did to Texas Identity
Hook ’Em Horns is the hand signal made by extending the index finger and pinky while folding the middle and ring fingers, forming the silhouette of a longhorn’s horns. It is used as a greeting, a cheer, a farewell, and a statement of affiliation. Texas fans flash it to strangers they identify as fellow Longhorns, at the end of conversations, and in photographs that have nothing to do with football. It functions the same way Roll Tide does in Alabama or We Are does in State College: two words and a gesture that compress an entire identity into an instant.
The Eyes of Texas, written in 1903 to the melody of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad,” is the school spirit song played before and after every game. It is one of the most recognizable songs in college football. It is also one of the most contested. In 2020, following the national reckoning around racial equity in college sports, several Texas athletes and students raised concerns about the song’s historical origins and its continued use as a central part of the postgame tradition. After months of internal debate and pressure from students, alumni, and donors, the university retained the song. The controversy did not resolve the underlying disagreement. It established that The Eyes of Texas is not just a song — it is a test of what kind of institution the University of Texas wants to be.
The SEC move added a new dimension to Texas identity. For the first time in the program’s history, Texas is competing in a conference where it is not automatically the largest brand in the room. Alabama, Georgia, and LSU have equivalent or greater national footprints in college football. The response from Texas fans has been largely competitive rather than defensive: the move was framed as Texas going to find better competition, not as Texas being absorbed into a larger structure. Whether that framing holds up over time depends entirely on the results. Texas fans are very comfortable with the idea that Texas is Texas. They are still figuring out what Texas is when everyone else in the room is also Texas.
——— THE GLOSSARY ———
Texas Longhorns Fan Glossary: Eight Terms Every New Fan Needs to Know
Texas has a specific vocabulary. Here are the eight terms that make everything else make sense.
Hook ’Em Horns
The universal Texas greeting, gesture, and identity marker. Index finger and pinky extended, middle and ring fingers folded. Used at games, in photographs, in conversations, and in any situation where a Texas fan wants to signal affiliation. It is the only response required when someone else throws up Hook ’Em at you. If someone from OU is nearby, do not make eye contact while doing it.
The Eyes of Texas
The school spirit song, written in 1903 to the melody of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” Played before and after every home game. Known by every Texas fan. Contested in 2020 when athletes and students raised concerns about its historical origins. Retained by the university after significant internal debate. Not just a song. A test of institutional identity that is still being administered.
DKR
Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. 100,119 seats. Built in 1924 as a World War I memorial. Renamed in 1996 for the coach who won three national championships. Located on the east edge of campus, within walking distance of everything. Set an SEC single-game attendance record of 105,215 when Texas hosted Georgia on October 19, 2024, in the program’s first season as an SEC member.
Bevo
The live longhorn steer who attends Texas home games. 1,800 pounds. Horns measuring 72 inches. Led by the Silver Spurs student spirit group. There have been 15 Bevos since 1916. The first Bevo was served at a football banquet when food was scarce. Bevo V charged the Baylor marching band. Bevo XV, currently serving, is more composed. He is one of the most recognizable live mascots in college sports.
Big Bertha
The Longhorn Band’s bass drum, described as the world’s largest. Purchased by a Texas alumnus from the University of Chicago for $1. Originally used at Stagg Field during the Manhattan Project. Radioactively contaminated. Decontaminated. Shipped to Austin. Has been played at Texas games ever since. Sits near the ticket counters at DKR on non-game days.
Smokey the Cannon
The cannon fired after every Texas touchdown. Named after its smoky discharge. Operated by the Texas Cowboys, a spirit organization. When Texas scores multiple times in quick succession, Smokey fires multiple times in quick succession. Loud enough to be heard across the stadium. The first sign, for fans watching without sound, that something good has happened.
Texas Fight
The official fight song, first performed at the 1923 Texas-Texas A&M game. Based on the melody of “Taps,” the military funeral standard, at a faster tempo. Played after touchdowns and at the end of the third quarter. Includes a line from The Eyes of Texas in its final verse. The crowd chants “Give ‘em hell, give ‘em hell, go Horns go” during the song. The traditional object of the final “goodbye” in the lyrics is whichever opponent Texas is playing that Saturday.
The Tower
The 307-foot tower above the Main Building on the UT campus, visible from DKR. Lit orange after Texas wins. Lit with a larger spectacle — custom lighting or fireworks — after major victories and rivalry games. After a Texas win, fans look west from the stadium to see the Tower. It has been lit to celebrate athletic and academic accomplishments since 1937. It is the visual confirmation, visible from across Austin, that the Longhorns won.
The program with its own TV network. The stadium built to honor 198,520 Texans who served in World War I. The drum that survived the Manhattan Project. The 1,800-pound steer who attends home games. The song that has been sung since 1903 and is still being argued about. The $100 million exit fee. The SEC debut before 105,215 fans.
Hook ’Em Horns.
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