Aggie War Hymn

The Aggie War Hymn is the war hymn of Texas A&M University; officially, the school does not have a fight song.

It was written by J.V. "Pinky" Wilson, one of many Aggies who fought in World War I. Wilson combined several Aggie yells then in use at the time into a song called "Good-bye to Texas University." He wrote the lyrics in 1918 on the back of a letter from home while holed up in a trench during a battle in France. He later put the words to music after Armistice was signed and before he returned to the United States. Upon returning to Texas A&M in 1919, the song was frequently performed by a quartet that Wilson had organized, called the "Cast-Iron Quartet."

One night in 1920, several of the Aggie Yell Leaders heard Wilson's quartet singing the song at a Bryan,TX theater during the intermission of a movie and they asked him to let them submit it in a contest for a new fight song to be held that fall. Wilson agreed, and the song was performed by the quartet during a yell practice. No midnight yell was occurring at this point in time. It was held outside Sbisa Hall after the evening meal . It became such a success that the song was officially adopted that fall under its current title.

The song is noted for beginning with Recall, an old bugle call, in two different keys. These are the keys of the bugles in use by the US Army during World War I, the M1894 Field Trumpet in B-flat (aka, the "Trench Bugle") and the M1896 Field Trumpet in G, which is the "bugle" still in use today. This is a nod to Texas A&M's past as a military school. Indeed, for many years, the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band's halftime show has begun with the drum major shouting "Recall! Step off on 'Hullabaloo!'"

The starting phrase of the song, "Hullabaloo, Caneck! Caneck!" was widely thought to originate from an Old Army Aggie yell written in 1907, though other uses of the phrase have been recorded as early as 1889 at Johns Hopkins University.The Hullabaloo is also the "Varsity Yell" for the Tulane University Greenwave. Texas A&M University president Jack K. Williams jokingly defined the phrase as Chickasaw Indian for "Beat the hell out of the University of Texas".

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