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Editor's note: This excerpt first appeared in photographer and author Harold Davis' recent Focal Press book, Photographing Flowers: Exploring Macro Photography with Harold Davis.
The closer you...
AUSTIN -- Here's a good one: The son of University of Texas System Chancellor
William Cunningham is enrolled as a freshman at -- drum roll, please -- Texas
A&M University.
John Cunningham is even referring to UT as "t.u." -- the Longhorns hate when
that happens -- and he is running for president of the A&M freshman
class.
So how did UT's top official become the butt of this newest Aggie joke?
The younger Cunningham said Wednesday that he's going to school in College
Station because he lost a bet with his best friend on the outcome of last year's
A&M-UT football game. Cunningham said his pal gave him "a nice spread" but
the Aggies slaughtered the Longhorns, 34-10, and the friend easily won the
bet.
Had Cunningham prevailed, he and his buddy would be going to a school of his
choice. But he lost, and they are both now enrolled as freshmen in College
Station.
"It is a pretty funny situation,"Cunningham said.
Chancellor Cunningham, who has taken some ribbing from UT alumni, is standing
behind his son's decision. But he's not laughing.
He was on the road Wednesday and had an assistant fax over a dry, almost
somber statement on the matter. In that one-page statement, he said the decision
on what college to attend should ultimately rest with the student. He noted that
he is in the administration and that his wife, Isabella, teaches at the school,
and said he understands his son's desire to get out of the family's shadow.
And he holds out some hope for the future: "John has expressed interest in
attending graduate school at The University."
For now, John is sold on Aggieland.
"It's completely different from UT," he said. "I couldn't be happier. It's a
totally different environment. The people are much nicer. ... I get people asking
me, `Why didn't you go to t.u?' I just like this better.
"I know he never really expected me to go to UT, because I had pretty much
grown up on the campus and if anything, I was getting a little sick of it,"
Cunningham said. "But I don't think he ever, ever, ever expected me to come
here."
John made one attempt to bring his newfound school spirit home, affixing a
bumper sticker on his dad's Buick Park Avenue. "I'm an Aggie's Dad," it read. "I
put it on his car when he wasn't looking," John Cunningham said. "I was hoping it
would make it to his office. ... He found it early the next morning, and no one
ever saw it."
Some UT alumni first heard this traitorous tale directly from Chancellor
Cunningham, who mentioned his son's choice at a meeting of the Ex-Students
Association. Others saw it in the Alcalde, the school's alumni publication. "I
saw that and did a double-take,"said Jerry Scarbrough, who publishes The True
Orange Newsletter for the school's diehard football fans. "You can't help what a
kid does, but you don't have to announce it in our official publication."
Scarbrough, faced with a similar situation a few years ago, informed his
daughter she wouldn't get family financing if she wanted to go to the University
of Oklahoma, another UT rival. "Kids are going to sometimes rebel, but ... if
you're financing it, you're abetting the rebellion," he said.
Jim Boon, executive director of Texas Exes, said he hasn't heard much from
alarmed alums. "I've received one letter," he said. "Most people that I talk to
about it say `Anybody who would be concerned about this ought to get a life.'
"
John Cunningham, an electrical engineering major, has more than a dozen
opponents in the race for class president. But even if he loses, Aggies are
delighted to have the Orangebloods of UT turning maroon with embarrassment.
"What's to get upset about?" joked Don Carter, Texas A&M's registrar.
"This is the greatest school in the country. If you were the president of UT,
wouldn't you send your son here?"
