Hook 'em Horns

This article is about University of Texas at Austin hand gesture. For other uses of this hand gesture, see corna.

A fan displays the Hook 'em Horns during a Texas football game versus Arkansas.

Hook 'em Horns is the slogan and hand signal of The University of Texas at Austin. Students and alumni of the university employ a greeting consisting of the phrase "Hook 'em" or "Hook 'em Horns" and also use the phrase as a parting good-bye or as the closing line in a letter or story.

The gesture is meant to approximate the shape of the head and horns of the university mascot, the Texas longhorn steer Bevo. The sign is made by extending the index and pinky fingers while grasping the second and third fingers with the thumb. The arm is usually extended, but the sign can also be given with the arm bent at the elbow. The sign is often seen at sporting events, during the playing of the school song "The Eyes of Texas", and during the playing of the school fight song "Texas Fight". It is one of the most recognized hand signals of all American universities. A variant of the Horns, formed upside down, is often used by rivals of the Longhorns and is considered insulting, especially when performed by a player or coach of the team in question.

History

File:SI cover 1973 10 10 Hook em horns.jpg

September 10, 1973 cover of Sports Illustrated.

George W. Bush displays the Hook 'em Horns.

Harley Clark introduced the Hook 'em Horns sign in 1955. Clark was head cheerleader at the university, a position that was elected by the student body. "It was second only in importance to the Texas governor," he jokes. Clark got the idea for the hand-sign from his colleague Henry Pitts, who had been casting shadows on the wall at the Texas Union. In addition, the "gig 'em" thumbs up hand signal created by archrival Texas A&M University twenty five years earlier was growing in popularity across the state and a similar hand signal was desired by the University of Texas. Clark showed an enthusiastic student body the sign a few nights later at a football pep rally at Gregory Gym. According to Neal Spelce, who attended the rally when he was a student at the university, "a lot of people didn't get it right at first," but it caught on rapidly from there. By the thousands, students extended an arm to create the now famous salute. The next day, at the Texas Longhorn vs. TCU football game, Clark stood in awe as the "Hook 'em Horns" hand sign surged from one side of the stadium to the other.

Within a few years, the symbol was widely known to football fans across the state and country. Sports Illustrated featured the Hook 'em Horns symbol in front of a Texas pennant on the cover of their 10 September 1973 issue (pictured). That issue of the magazine highlighted the Texas football program as the best in the nation at that time. That title was usurped shortly thereafter as the Longhorns proceeded to lose their very next game (Miami-20, UT-13), followed a few weeks later by a drubbing from the University of Oklahoma (OU-52, UT-13).

Beginning in 2004, The University of Texas has featured the slogan in a television advertisement titled "Rallying Cry". The advertisement is one of nine ads that make up the "What Starts Here Changes the World" campaign, all of which are narrated by university alumnus Walter Cronkite. The narration for "Rallying Cry" is:

Is there a rallying cry for the thinkers and doers of tomorrow? A motto that sums up their passion for creativity and their pursuit of discovery? Sure there is: "Hook 'em, Horns". We're Texas. What starts here...changes the world.

The hand gesture is not featured in the advertisement, which shows an aerial view flying along Interstate 35, then over downtown Austin, Texas, past the Texas State Capitol and finally arriving at the Tower of the Main Building as Cronkite says the slogan. The advertisements are typically run during NCAA sporting events.

Identical uses of the gesture

In some European cultures, the identical corna gesture is used to suggest spousal infidelity or Satanic association. Images of Jenna Bush publicly "throwing the horns" resulted in startled reactions in Norway. In 1985, five Americans were arrested, due to its satanic connotations after dancing and displaying the gesture in front of the Vatican while celebrating the victory of the Longhorns.

The gesture is used by fans of heavy metal in the same fashion. Originally it was used to denote goat horns as a form of Satanic association, but has evolved into a more generic celebratory gesture over the years.

The gesture was also adopted by the '70s funk group Parliament Funkadelic and their fans as a gesture of celebration and solidarity.

In popular culture

• In 2006, country rap artist Cowboy Troy released a single called "Hook 'em Horns" as a tribute to the University of Texas at Austin.
• On the Ugly Betty episode "After Hours", Vanessa Williams' character Wilhelmina Slater has to impress a potential buyer from Texas (played by Brett Cullen) and decorates her office with Texas décor. He notices the longhorn on her wall and asks, "You went to UT Austin?" Slater says her assistant went to UT. The assistant Marc, who did not attend UT, responds by saying, "Yes I did. It was so southern. Go Longhorns! Yay! God bless America." Instead of showing the "Hook 'em" gesture, Marc shows the shaka sign.

External links

• Texas Traditions: Hook 'em Horns
• Mack Brown Texas Football: Hook 'em Horns
• Texas Exes: Hook 'em Horns is 50!