What an athletic year the Aggies are having, and it's not over.
A&M has retained the Lone Star Showdown trophy -- a piece of hardware some said they'd never win once, let alone keep it for a second year. The men's golf team won the national championship, the school's first NCAA-sanctioned team title in 22 years. And the men's and women's track team could be hoisting national championship hardware late Saturday night in Arkansas.
Remember, A&M has never won more than one national championship in a school year.
So, this the best year in school history. Right? Maybe, depending on how you define best.
They didn't have the Sears Cup or the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Directors' Cup two decades ago, but you didn't need them to know 1986-87 was a pretty good year in Aggieland.
That campaign was capped by A&M's national championship in softball. That, though, wasn't what had things buzzing around here.
The football team went 9-3, including a 7-1 record in the Southwest Conference. A&M had turned the corner in a big way under Jackie Sherrill, winning the second of three straight SWC titles. The Aggies suffered a 28-12 Cotton Bowl loss to Ohio State, which ending up costing A&M three straight Top 10 finishes. Still, the Aggies were 12th in the country.
Baseball also was booming back then. The Aggies were 44-22-1 under third-year coach Mark Johnson. A&M was 14-7 in the SWC, good for third place. The Aggies had been co-champs the previous year and just ahead was a 110-22 record for two seasons, including back-to-back 17-4 SWC championship teams.
The men's basketball team finished eighth in the SWC, but veteran head coach Shelby Metcalf pulled off a miracle by winning the SWC tournament and earning a trip to the NCAA Tournament. In men's track, Floyd Heard won the NCAA 200-meter dash. Stanley Kerr, Lawrence Felton and Greg Lewis also were All-Americans, while weightman Randy Barnes and hurdler Craig Calk were making national headlines.
The men's golf team won the SWC and finished 19th at nationals, its 11th straight Top 25 appearance.
Other than softball, women's sports -- many of them in their relative infancy -- were having a tough time gaining the spotlight from their male counterparts, but the volleyball team under Al Givens was second in the league and 17th in the country. The women's tennis team, under young head coach Bobby Kleinecke, was the SWC champ in 1986.
Sherrill, who was the school's AD from 1982-88, thought A&M should be competing for national championships in all sports. He thought Aggieland was a sleeping giant with its traditions and loyal alums, which is why he referred to it as the Mecca.
He thought the success in the late 1980s would be the start of something special around here. It wasn't though, at least not from a standpoint of national championships.
The football team kept winning after Sherrill left, going 94-28-2 in the 1990s, including three straight Top 10 finishes (1992-94). A 2-6 bowl record in that time, though, kept the Aggies from being considered an elite program and was a prelude to the struggles of the next decade, which the program is still trying to escape.
The rest of the sports have had mixed results since the dawn of the 1990s.
The baseball program made two trips to the College World Series, but the Aggies have fallen short of returning to Omaha for 10 straight years. The men's basketball program nose-dived after winning its last SWC tournament, not returning to the NCAA Tournament until its current run of four straight appearances. The women's basketball program reached the Sweet 16 in 1994, but that was the highlight until the arrival of Gary Blair and this current string of four straight NCAA Tournaments.
Even softball, the athletic department's most successful program in the 1980s, struggled in the 1990s. A&M missed the NCAA Tournament five of the 10 seasons, never making it back to the Women's College World Series until 2007.
Softball last year almost beat the men's golf team to ending A&M's national championship drought -- in NCAA-team sanctioned events -- with its national runner-up finish.
You knew it was only a matter of time before an Aggie team won a national championship, as the athletic program gradually climbed to a program-best 12th last year in the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Directors' Cup.
Former athletics director Wally Groff made some outstanding hires, including men's golf coach J.T. Higgins, and he started building several of A&M's world-class facilities. Current AD Bill Byrne has continued improving facilities and he made several shrewd hires, especially in both basketball programs.
There's no doubt A&M is in position to have unparalleled success, but for that to happen the football program has to become a Top 20 program.
Most will argue that seasons like 1986-87 were more successful than this one, even if A&M ends up with three national championships. A 4-8 football season just doesn't look good on the national ledger of success.
It always gets back to football, whether you live in College Station or Columbus, Ohio. I've been asked several times this week what the prospects for the A&M football team are this fall. Not once has anyone asked me what I thought A&M's chances were for winning a national championship in track.
It's not that Aggies don't care. They do. It's just that they care a whole lot more about football, which is why the 1990s -- even with bad basketball -- was a pretty good decade for many.
BIG 12'S NATIONAL TITLES
The men's golf championship by Texas A&M was the Big 12's 32nd since the league's inception. Here are the others:
Baylor: women's basketball (2005); men's tennis (2004).
Colorado: men's cross country (2001, '04, '08); women's cross country (2000, '04).
Kansas: men's basketball (2008).
Nebraska: football (1997); women's volleyball (2000, '06).
Oklahoma: football (2000); softball (2000).
Oklahoma State: men's golf (2000, '06); wrestling (2003, '04, '05, '06).
Texas: baseball (2002, '05); football (2005); women's indoor track (1998, '99, 2006); women's outdor track (1998, '99, 2005); men's swimming (2000, '01, '02).
Source: Big 12 Conference
NCAA TITLES
Here are the overall team NCAA championships by Big 12 institutions:
Oklahoma State48
Texas45
Oklahoma24
Colorado23
Nebraska20
Iowa State13
Kansas10
Texas A&M5
Baylor2
Missouri2
Texas Tech1
Source: Big 12 Conference
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Posted by: On: 6/16/2009
Comment Title: Whoop!! Gig'em Aggies!
Way to go Track & Golf teams!!!!
Posted by: Pablo On: 6/15/2009
Comment Title: Wow!! Take 2
Congrats to the Men's & Women's track teams, made us all real proud to be Aggies! Got to hand it to Coach Henry for building a top flight program.. only took him 5 years and BAM! National Championship! Here's hoping Sherman can come as close.. even if it takes 5 years (hopefully not)!
Posted by: Seeing Stars On: 6/14/2009
Comment Title: JC Transfer
The kid is probably in JC for a reason (academic). If this turns out to be true, while Sherman and staff did not set his schedule it is damn sure their responsibility to check it out, especially under the circumstances which are namely a kid who is a JC transfer AND a loud and clear year long message about recruit ACADEMICS and CHARACTER being of particular concern and maybe more important than athletic ability. I believe there were some posts under another article about how we "checked out" Loston in depth and passed on him at the last minute because of his academic situation. Course work problems on a JC player are an unforgivable oversight. This was a 4.4, 4* corner, not a 2* punter. Remember the kid from Navasota that went to okst at the last second because of the lsu incident. Had we had a scholarship left, who knows.
Posted by: miller58 On: 6/14/2009
Comment Title: NOW THAT'S THE AGGIE SPIN MACHINE AT IT'S BEST, BELOW?
My personal opinions:_____Four star corner that we desperately need, and multiple months have gone by since we committed a scholarship and he accepted?_____And nobody is supposed to check with him and our admissions people on his taking the right courses to transfer?_____And we stop recruiting corners?_____The kid is barely out of high school, and has no prior experience in juco admisissions problems? Come on, you can make up something better than that?_____miller58
Posted by: On: 6/14/2009
Comment Title:
Sounds more like the kid and his junior college didn't do their jobs. A&M and its coaching staff didn't play a role in setting up his class schedule. To suggest Sherman is somehow at fault here is ridiculous.
Posted by: miller58 On: 6/13/2009
Comment Title: DID SHERMAN SCREWUP BY NOT CHECKING A JUCO's COURSEWORK AGAINST A&M REQUIREMENTS EARLIER?
My personal opinions:_____Seems to be a question on a juco having a problem on correct coursework and A&M requirements at this late date?_____If this turns out to be true as a coaching discipline problem, can we add checking coursework in with drive stopping penalties, turnovers, fumbles, dropping passes right in the hands, poor execution, missed blitz pick ups, multiple missed tackes on the same play, dropped coverages, etc. to this fall's list of major screwups?_____ miller58
Posted by: miller58 On: 6/13/2009
Comment Title: Congratulations to that part of the athletic department that the won championships!
My personal opinions:_____I just wish that the Aggie Spin Machine and the like, would also honestly acknowledge that part of the athletic department has really poor coaching and even worse recruiting!_____To repeatedly on almost a daily just flat out lie, and to say the poor coaching is good coaching and that the worse recruiting is good recruiting, is just dispicable and does only harm!_____Under the Honor Code, you cease being Ags when you lie and just make up things,if you ever were an Ag; maybe most of you that lie daily, never even went to A&M or didn't graduate anyway?_____AGAIN CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR AGGIE CHAMPIONS!_____Let's hope we get the changes now, to enable us to compete for the Big 12 and the mnc in football, and the ncaa in basketball every year just like sadly, only tu and ou do in football, and kansas does in basketball._____ And let's hope the ex-Ag dorks stop the daily lies, huh?_____miller58
Posted by: On: 6/13/2009
Comment Title:
Congratulations to the entire Ath Dept for the three national titles this year. Jackie's dream might finally come true. I just wish nay-sayers like miller58 and the like would at least acknowledge those sports winning titles rather than continually running down the football team.
Posted by: On: 6/13/2009
Comment Title: Not debatable any more
Men & Women NCAA Outdoor Champions!!!
Posted by: jay On: 6/13/2009
Comment Title: Journalism at best
Love how you visual through words. That sums it all up. Looking at the team accomplishments, you are right about the 3 big programs (like baseball, basketball and football). Regardless how many other sports a shool have won, it is still how one school accomplished with the big 3 sports. Look at OKState the have more NCAA titles but they are overlooked because of Tu's accomplishments with baseball & football or for that matter OU still is popular compare to OSU's accomplishments because of their football program. Our community is very appreciative. But this is a football town living in a football world. Heck, USA is considered a powerhouse when it comes to soccer but who cares we love our footie.
