Behind the Scenes of UT’s ‘The Eyes of Texas’ Controversy
When you go back and look at it, really look at it, it’s not even a good image. It was shot on a phone. It’s strangely cropped. Blurry.
But it sure captured a moment.
The photo taken of University of Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger at around 4 p.m. at the Cotton Bowl stadium, in Dallas, on the second Saturday of last October, carved its path, the way that viral social media posts and the most destructive tornadoes do. Maybe you heard it cost a coach his job. Maybe you saw it and felt outrage at the supposed lack of respect it depicted. Maybe you cheered the young athletes who protested a song with racist origins.
Several minutes had elapsed since Oklahoma had beaten Texas, 53–45, in a four-overtime thriller that ended when Ehlinger threw an interception in the end zone. Ehlinger’s helmet now hung from his left hand, while he held his right hand up in the “Hook ’em, Horns” sign. He stood at attention during the playing of “The Eyes of Texas,” the university alma mater. Oddly, the photo has often been described as showing Ehlinger alone. There are about a dozen others—mostly coaches and trainers—in the frame, all facing away from the camera.
But the reason this photo rekindled the brushfire that had consumed much of the Texas football program in 2020, is that not a single one of those others is a Longhorn football player.
Zoom out a little, and you’ll see a different narrative. Defensive tackle Ta’Quon Graham also stayed out there for the song, standing about five yards out of frame. Other Longhorns remained on the field as well.
If you could add sound to the image, you’d understand that the Cotton Bowl’s tinny PA system made it hard to hear “The Eyes of Texas,” and many didn’t even know it had started to play. If you were able to rewind a few weeks, you’d see that much of the scene captured after the Oklahoma game mirrored the aftermath of the three previous contests. By then, nearly every UT player had made a habit of leaving the field after the final whistle, protesting “The Eyes of Texas” because of its roots in minstrelsy.
