CURRENT: Matthew and Elizabeth Hand
Recent Texas A&M graduate Elizabeth Hand quizzes one of her three Aggie siblings. On StoryCorps, an elated Matthew Hand, Class of 2014, remembers almost every detail of a major football win played during his first semester: He sat on the Kyle Field, was part of a rare fan rush post-game in 2010 and was surprised with whom he linked arms for the Aggie War Hymn.
- [Matthew] That year, our football team wasn't great, we were unranked and we were still in the Big 12 then. We actually beat, one of the games, my favorite game was when we beat Nebraska and they were in the top ten that year. So they were having a stellar season and we beat 'em. And it was a huge victory for the Aggies and back then it was before the brand new stadium we've got now. And they actually because of the overflow, they put people on chairs on the track around the field to sit. And those were the last tickets that people pulled because they were just the reserved, they were seating just in case. So they were the last ones you pulled and as a freshman you pull last. And so you had to sit on the field which you know was pretty awesome for me because I loved being really close to the action. If you like being up above, and concession stands and stuff during football games maybe it's not for you but I loved being that close to the action. And so when we beat them, the whole, I just remember standing on the sideline for the last couple minutes of the game because it was down to the wire. I was up on the sideline and the people who are supposed to keep me away from the sideline, the people working security were too into the game to notice that I was there. So me and my buddies are standing with our toes on the white stripe.
- [Elizabeth] Oh yeah, that's close.
- [Matthew] Down on the other end, we were on the other end of the action so it wasn't like we were in the way but our toes were on the white line. And we won the game and I saw people start to kind of waterfall down in front of me cause I was facing the student section. And I realized they were jumping over the wall. And I just took off, me and all my buddies just took off and ran onto the field. Just elated that we had won the game. I remember the first thing I did, I ran straight up to our starting quarterback who at the time, he used to be a wide receiver for us, that was his first, it was his first season of playing quarterback with us, he was already a junior. And right now he plays for the Miami Dolphins, Ryan Tannehill.
- [Elizabeth] Guess he's pretty good at it.
- [Matthew] He was pretty, he ended up being a pretty good QB. And so I ran straight up to him and kind of did a high five, you know one arm hug deal with him and told him "Great game" and everything, pat him on the back. And then I ran over to our starting running back and pounded him on the chest and was like "Good game, man, good game!" I mean they were so excited, they were just "Yeah it was awesome!" You know, they didn't care that they didn't know who I was, just some adoring fan or whatever. But it was just, it was fantastic. We're out there on the ground and everybody's running around. And I got, at the end of the game we do the Aggie Fight Song and we do the "Saw 'Em Off" and normally it's the players and the coaches on the field facing the students doing the "Saw 'Em Off" and the students doing it. But cause there were so many people on the field, all the students just did it on the field in their own rows. And I was on the front row and I looked to my left and right and I was with a player and one of the coaches doing the "Saw 'Em Off" at the end of the game. It was just a crazy experience. I mean, it was awesome.
- [Elizabeth] Man, I wish.
- [Matthew] And actually me and my buddies, just very briefly, but we were on ESPN for it because the camera the way it was facing we ran across the camera shoot. So that was pretty cool. So we didn't know it at the time, and my buddy of course didn't tell us about it when we confronted him when we saw the video, but he accidentally ran too close to a police officer or somebody and he got decked. He got kind of clotheslined a little bit. He got knocked over on national TV. Because he just bumped into him and he just got jostled over to the side, I mean we were running out in a huge crowd. He got knocked over and so we teased him a little bit about that.
- [Elizabeth] That's funny.
- [Matthew] Yeah. I mean, that year was packed with just so many great experiences. So many.