BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas (FOX 44) – Texas A&M University and the Corps of Cadets will hold a funeral service for the former First Lady of Aggieland.
The service for Miss Reveille IX will take place at 5 p.m. Friday on O.R. Simpson Drill Field. It will be open to current and former students, faculty, staff and the public. Miss Reveille IX will be laid to rest alongside the previous eight Reveilles at the dedicated Reveille Memorial outside of the north end of Kyle Field following the ceremony.
The university says Miss Reveille IX served as the official mascot of Texas A&M from May 2015 until her retirement to the Stevenson Companion Animal Life-Care Center in April 2021. She received around-the-clock care from Stevenson Center staff and Texas A&M Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students who live and work at the center. She passed away on Saturday, Aug. 23, at the age of 11.
According to the university, the Reveille tradition began in 1931 when members of Texas A&M’s Corps of Cadets hit a small black and white dog on their way back to campus from Navasota. Pets were not allowed on campus, but the cadets picked up the injured dog and cared for her and hid her away in a dorm room. Her cover was blown the next morning when “Reveille” was played by a bugler to wake the cadets and she began barking, earning the name Aggies around the world know her by today. Reveille I was named the university’s official mascot the following football season when she led the band onto Kyle Field. The first Reveille served as mascot for 13 years until her death in 1944.
Reveille II, a Shetland Sheepdog donated by a Texas A&M graduate, made her appearance on campus eight years after Reveille I passed away. Reveille III was the first full-blooded American Rough Collie, and every Reveille since then has belonged to that breed. The current Reveille is Reveille X, who was introduced in spring 2021.
Texas A&M says each Reveille has been cared for by cadets in Company E-2, the “Mascot Company,” since 1959. Each spring, one rising sophomore cadet in Company E-2 is selected to serve as the mascot corporal for the coming school year.
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