Ambassador for All Aggies
Written by AggieReport.com
As seen here http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/Aggies_Mailbag_A_readers_ode_to_RC.html

Coach R. C. Slocum was inducted into the Texas A&M Athletic Hall of Fame on September 19. During his tenure as head coach, Coach Slocum won more football games at Texas A&M than any other head coach, accumulating more than 100 career wins between 1988 and 2002.

Beginning in 1972 as a receiving coach under head coach Emory Bellard, he was shifted to coach the defensive ends the next year. In 1976, he was moved to linebackers coach and then to defensive coach under Tom Wilson in 1979. After a one-year stint as USC’s defensive coordinator in 1981, head coach Jackie Sherrill brought Slocum back to become Texas A&M’s own defensive coordinator.

In 1985, Coach Slocum was promoted to assistant head coach. When Sherrill left A&M under the cloud of scandal in 1988, R.C. Slocum was asked to take over the Aggie football program.

During his 14 years as head coach, Coach Slocum accumulated a record of 123-47-2, making him the most victorious coach in Texas A&M University history. As head coach, Coach Slocum never had a losing season, led the Aggies to four conference championships, including an unprecedented three consecutive perfect Southwest Conference seasons and one Big 12 Championship in 1998.

Under Coach Slocum, Kyle Field became known as one of the toughest home fields in the nation, with a mere 12 home team losses during Slocum’s 14 years as head coach.

During his time as head coach, Coach Slocum accumulated the best winning percentage in Southwest Conference history, one game ahead of the University of Texas’ Darrell Royal. He also managed one additional achievement that will go down as Aggie legend: The Wrecking Crew. Under Slocum, The Wrecking Crew was every Aggie opponent’s worst nightmare. It led the SWC in four statistical categories from 1991 through 1993, and led the nation in total defense in 1991.

Despite his winning history, Coach Slocum was more than just a coach. At a time when the Texas A&M student body needed it the most, he was also a healer. The collapse of the Aggie Bonfire in 1999 was an event that shook A&M to the core. Following the collapse, many students and Aggie alumni wondered aloud if the rivalry game versus Texas should be played that year.

It was a reasonable question, yet one that ran counter to A&M’s tradition of moving forward against even the most daunting obstacles, in the case of post-Bonfire A&M, that obstacle consisting of our own overwhelming emotions. Coach Slocum took his leadership of the football program (and through it, A&M) seriously, and gave a talk to mourners at Kyle Field that re-focused all of us on the spirit of A&M.

To my experience, it filled Aggies with that undeniable pride that we all know and cherish. And it was that pride and sense of unity that led all of us to the game that year. I remember being at that game with my friend, Jonathon. I’ve never experienced a setting at A&M that was filled with so much emotion and Aggie pride.

Jonathon and I — as did, I’m sure, the other tens of thousands of Aggies at the game and watching on TV — had goose bumps as we stood in the stands for not just our team, but our school, and all that it stood for: integrity, honor and the unity of spirit that is Texas A&M.

As those final seconds ticked off the game clock, there were no words to express the joy, sorrow, respect and love we felt for each other and our university. Winning that day felt almost like those 12 Ags who lost their lives had a hand in our victory — and in some sense, they did.

Before R.C. Slocum was released of his head coaching duties, he brought much needed attention to the poor quality of Texas Aggie sports facilities, and stressed the need for their improvement if A&M was to continue to vie for the nation’s top sports recruits.

Coach Slocum was well known for being unwilling to “bend” the rules. He inherited an Aggie football program under severe NCAA sanctions for being corrupt, and he quickly cleaned it up. He was quoted in 2002 as saying: “I wouldn’t trade winning another game or two for my reputation as a person” and “I’ve said from day one I’m going to do things the way I think they should be done. There were those who said, ‘If you don’t cheat, you’re pretty naive. You can’t win that way.’ Well, we’re going to find out. That’s the way we’re going to do it. I can walk away and look myself in the mirror and say, ‘We did it the right way.’”

In honoring R.C. Slocum’s contributions to Texas A&M University, we should all take to heart his integrity and the lesson that it has for us all. Currently, Slocum continues to serve Texas A&M as a special adviser to the university’s President and works for the Texas A&M Foundation. He has become an Ambassador for Texas A&M and for all of us who love A&M with that undying spirit that encapsulates what it means to be an Aggie. It’s a spirit that can not be explained, but that can only be experienced.

In this writer’s opinion, Coach R.C. Slocum is an Aggie icon, a role model and a bright star for all of us to look up to and emulate, and that goes for both Aggies and “everyone else.”