Volume 6, No.10

OUTFITTING THE AGGIES Keeping A&M equipped is a major operation By Homer Jacobs

Whether or not the Aggies win the Big 12 South Division, qualify for a bowl game or beat Texas, they will look like a million bucks.

An incorrect figure of speech, you say? It’s more like the staggering figure monetarily that it will take to outfit the Aggies from helmet to cleat this fall.

An in-state scholarship cost at Texas A&M for each player now tops $9,000 per year, but hidden costs of clothing and equipping a team are substantial, as well.

A&M orders over 1,000 pair of shoes, and 450 jerseys before the season starts.

In fact, when the cost of a helmet, shoulder pads, jersey, pants, shoes and other pads are factored in, the price for dressing for success can reach $700 per player.

And, contrary to popular belief, Nike doesn’t pick up the tab. Sure, the shoe and sports apparel company helps out A&M and other athletic departments around the country with endorsement contracts.

Each school has a different deal with Nike, depending on their national pull and weight as a national title contender. With A&M, Nike’s biggest influence is in the design of the Aggie uniforms each season.

In fact, the design specs are already out for the 2002 season, waiting for RC. Slocum’s signature of approval.

But as far as picking up the bill for all of the Aggie gear, Nike prefers to discount or offer two-for-one deals for coaching shirts, hats, uniforms and shoes.

In any case, any help Nike can offer is welcomed by A&M football, whose costs for outfitting players are eye-opening, to say the least.

Starting on top, the average college football helmet is priced at $125. A&M recovers the cost each year by selling old helmets to Aggie fans during the offseason.

"We don’t want to make any money off of that (for used helmets), so basically we charge exactly what we would have paid for it and what the facemask cost and then we turn it around and sell it for $125," says A&M equipment manager Matt Watson. "We could probably easily sell a helmet for $150 or $175 because our fan base is so good.

"We’re not interested in making money off that… all we’re interested in is paying for the next set that comes through."

Add in the skyrocketing costs of technologically-advanced helmets and facemasks, and headgear can approach $200.

"Facemasks are typically $14-16, and there are some facemasks that we’re wearing that cost upwards of $70-80, which is a titanium facemask," Watson added. "Actually, we’ve got quite a few for the guys. With the space-age metals, everything is lighter these days. The guys want to be bigger and faster, too, so the weight of the helmet is a big thing now."

Helmets used to weigh around five pounds 10 years ago, but now are being produced in the four-pound range or below. And the bulky shoulder pads? Well, those too are being streamlined to fit players better, allowing for greater movement up top.

And the shoulder pads, which can come with all sorts of attachments, are the most costly of any piece of A&M football equipment.

"If a guy is pretty simple and doesn’t need a lot of bells and whistles on his shoulder pads, it could be $240-260," Watson said. "Then you get somebody like Ty Warren, and really all of our defensive linemen and Seth McKinney, who are wearing a special pad. We can do some things for them that can help them speed-wise without sacrificing safety. We kind of streamline the pads.

"With Jared Morris, we have to do a lot of work with (the Douglas shoulder pad company) making him a special neck roll to basically immobilize his head from going in one direction. He can’t go this one way or he will get a stinger from time to time."

As for the $80 jerseys, the A&M equipment staff orders approximately 225 of both maroon and white, and each player is allowed to keep his jersey at the end the bowl season. New $70 pants, however, are re-used the following year as practice pants.

And the shoe department in the Kyle Field locker room is stocked well enough to make Foot Locker quite envious. Watson orders over 1,000 pairs of $50 shoes for the season, having to take into account natural grass and artificial turf facilities.

The shoes feature different sizes (freshman defensive lineman Donny Stringer wears the largest with a size 18), varying styles and different cleat patterns, as well. And, poking a hole into some conspiracy theorists, the Aggies aren’t lacking in cleat management.

"For grass shoes, we have a set of screw-ins and a set of molded cleats. We travel with both sets of those. Every time you hear a commentator – like they did at Wyoming – say, ‘Well, A&M didn’t bring their long cleats…’ Well, there’s no such thing as long cleats. In college, we have to wear a half-inch cleat. It’s a mandatory length on cleats. We travel with both sets."

Dressing the Aggies for home games is a task in itself, but transporting all of the equipment on road trips is an exercise in organization that takes days, sometimes weeks in the planning.

The equipment headaches associated with travel have been eased with a new 18-wheeler that was donated by a generous Aggie.

In fact, some trunks for the Colorado trip already have been packed with much of the coaching attire needed for the road game. Normally, the 12-man equipment staff (which includes 10 student workers) begins packing for road trips on Sundays for the following Friday departure date.

And everything is packed… from R.C. Slocum’s personal locker to portable heaters for cold-weather games. Fortunately this fall, Aggie Phillip Garrett donated an 18-wheeler from his North American Van Lines franchise to help with the trip. The Aggies previously had used a smaller Ryder-like truck to move its equipment.

The larger truck, adorned with a mural of Kyle Field on the side, already has paid big dividends with its extra space that can accommodate every possible piece of clothing.

"This year, we have the new 18-wheeler truck, and that helps us out," Watson said. "It gives us a lot more room to take stuff. The Wyoming game was a prime example, where it eliminates the guess work in having to watch the weather so closely.

"The truck left Tuesday night for Wyoming, and we left Wednesday. All preliminary indications were that the weather was going to start in the 70s and maybe drop into the 50s by the end of the game. Once we were up there, it was raining and storming and got down in the 40s. But that truck really helped us because we pretty much packed it for any situation because we had the room."

Rarely – if at all – has the Aggie equipment staff forgotten a key piece of uniform or equipment on a road trip. But those games away from home can be as tense for Watson as it is for some players.

His job isn’t over until the ball kicks off.

"Luckily, since I’ve been here, we haven’t had anything happen yet that we couldn’t get around," said Watson, now in his fifth-year as the head equipment manager. "For me, personally, once the game starts and we kick off, that’s when I (relax). One, you know everybody is dressed and ready to go; and two, you know for sure you brought the kickoff tee. That’s when I can relax. Once we kick off, then it’s all preventative stuff."

Then there’s the case of trying to prevent a meltdown of equipment during a snowstorm, like the one that occurred at the Independence Bowl last Dec. 31. Actually, as is the case with all bowl games, the Aggies moved their entire locker room operation to the bowl site for the entire week.

So when the white stuff began to fall, A&M was well-prepared for the elements.

"It really wasn’t that bad (at the Independence Bowl)," Watson said. "It was actually a fun game besides from losing. Up until the end, that was probably one of the most fun games for me. Being down here, we don’t see that much snow, and it was challenging. But I think we made it through OK."

Table of Contents