Cowboy Motto- Give the best you have to Texas, and the best will come back to you.”

The Cowboys, in the early days, were not all wealthy. The Cowboys were supposed to wear chaps, but many could not afford them, so many wore chaps made of linoleum that resembled leather. Finally, in 1938 Foreman of the Cowboys, Joe R. Greenhill, procured a loan to dress all the Cowboys in leather chaps, and the organization paid the loan off in time.

Heart Surgeon Denton Cooly, in 1939, became a Cowboy. He said, “ I was invited to become a cowboy, which was considered quite an honor”…. In my day, a hot cattle brand was applied to the chest, leaving a scar still clearly visible 40 years later.” The branding was the final event in the initiation hazing for the Cowboys members, and the Cowboys chanted

“this my friend, is the UT.”

The branding was a source of pride for each member. It was a badge of honor “, particularly when strutted around Barton Springs without a shirt.”

COWBOYS- The Guardian of Smokey

In 1953 Smokey the Cannon was born to offset the power of the O.U. Rugnecks canon. Smokey was built by UT’s mechanic’s engineering laboratory, but all was not well with young engineers building canons. The original smokey is at the bottom of Town lake compliments of an Aggie prank.

The Twice Smokey was almost excommunicated. The first came after a shot close to the stand in 1954 exploded inside the barrel, which brought a complaint from a woman who said she suffered temporary deafness and a burn hole in her dress from the blast. Smokey underwent an overhaul to accommodate a double-barrel 10- gauge shotgun for the 1955 season. That did not work, so Smokey converted to a 12 gauge blank.

Smokey III is a replica of a Civil War cannon; it is 6 feet tall and 10 feet long weighing 1000 pounds.

In 1966 the SWC faculty committee outlawed all cannons for league games. The SWC reinstated cannons at football games in 1969!