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Editor’s Note: Cathy Capps, the manager of the Texas A&M Lettermen’s Association Athletic Sports Museum, visited with 12th Man Magazine’s Homer Jacobs in this week’s Q&A session: Q: What’s the reception been like for the new A&M Sports Museum? Capps: It’s been positive. We’ve had a lot of great comments, and we’ve had a lot of lettermen and former athletes who may not necessarily be lettermen come through and really enjoy seeing themselves and their teammates honored. We’ve received a lot of great ideas, and we’re working on implementing those in the future. We definitely want to hear what people have to say. So far, it’s been nothing but great things.
Q: Are football game days just a mob scene inside the museum? Capps: Game days are great. The way the museum is designed, it’s never really overcrowded. For the McNeese State game, we had over 1,400 visitors. For Notre Dame, we had 1,100; and for Baylor, we had about 600. The crowds have varied, but they’ve always been good. It’s flowed really well, and we’ve had a constant stream of people. It’s just been real exciting. Q: What are the most popular stops along the A&M Sports Museum tour? Capps: Probably the most popular stops are at the interactive sites. They really enjoy looking at the great plays and playing around with the interactives. Probably the next most popular attraction is John David Crow’s Heisman Trophy. That’s actually in the center of the Legends Gallery, and we get a lot of traffic through that area. Q: What were the parameters of the selection process for entry into the museum for former athletes and memorabilia? Capps: We had committees established for each sport. For instance, the Aggie spirit area was basically designed by a committee of former yell leaders. The football area was designed by a committee of former football lettermen, and it was the same for all the sports. Committee members actually sat down and, over the course of several meetings, determined what they wanted represented on the walls. They then came to the Lettermen’s Association and kind of sent us out on a scavenger hunt to find photos or other information that would actually represent what they had chosen. As far as the Legends Gallery, we actually asked each of those individual committees to make recommendations of whom they would like to see honored in the Legends Gallery from their sport. Those lists went to our Legends selection committee, and very few changes were made. Q: How many legends made the final cut into the Gallery? Capps: From the 2001 class, there were something like 121 athletes. Every four or five years, we’ll go back and review the athletes and their accomplishments and we’ll add to it. It’s going to be an ever-growing list. Q: And the rest of the Sports Museum also will reflect change throughout the years? Capps: It won’t change yearly, but we do plan to change it every three or four years. We want to keep it fresh and exciting for the visitors, but yet, we want to maintain some consistency with all the exhibits.
Q: What are your personal favorite pieces of memorabilia as you walk through the museum? Capps: My personal favorite is the blanket that the very first Reveille wore. And in addition to that blanket, we have the blanket that covered the casket at Reveille I’s funeral. That blanket was brought to us by Bill Terrell who is a track lettermen (1944) who lives in town. He had the blanket for years and years. And when I asked him how he was chosen for that honor, he said it was during the depression and he was actually the only one who had a maroon blanket at the time. He kept it and preserved it over the years, and we’re excited to have it. My other favorite area is probably the donor wall, because that really emphasizes that the museum was a project undertaken by lettermen. It was designed and 100 percent funded by the lettermen, so that’s a great tribute to them. Q: How much funding was required to build the A&M Sports Museum. Capps: We surpassed our goal, as we actually set a goal of $1.7 million. We raised $2.3 million in the end. Not only were we able to cover our expenses, but we were able to establish a sustaining fund, as well. Q: What’s the oldest piece of memorabilia in the museum? Capps: We’ve got some great lettersweaters from the 1920s and 1930s. We’ve got one of the official playbooks that (Coach) Homer Norton used during the 1939 season. We have memorabilia that belongs to Dick Todd and Joe Routt, who were some of our first great football athletes. But we’re always looking for more, so if anyone out there has anything, please notify us. Q: How did you gather all of the memorabilia? Capps: We’ve been working on this for about three years. During that time, we sent out newsletters and emails. And just through word of mouth, we were telling people that we were looking to collect this memorabilia. Once the museum opened, we also had a lot of people come through and saw what a great facility it was. They stepped up and offered memorabilia that they had been holding on to. The quality of the facility has encouraged a lot of people to add their collections to ours. Q: How does this facility compare to others on college campuses across the country? Capps: We’ve had several of our committee members go around to different museums just to get ideas. Our museum is one of the very few that represents every varsity sport. We have a space for all 17 varsity sports that were being played as of the year 2000. And we have two new sports – archery and equestrian – that, at the time, we weren’t able to get into the original design. But we’ve put some memorabilia on our time wall to represent those two sports, and we plan to add an area later to honor those sports, as well, because they’ve been real successful programs. Q: Aside from Sports Museum selections, what’s the criteria for induction into the Texas A&M Athletic Hall of Fame and Hall of Honor? Capps: The Athletic Hall of Fame honors former athletes who have earned a varsity letter and have been away from the university for five years. Basically, our committees look at athletes who, during their time at A&M, excelled in their sports and brought signal credit to their university for what they did. It’s really not what they did after the left A&M, but what they did while they were here. The Hall of Honor inductees are not necessarily athletes, but they can be any supporter of the athletic program… not just financially but with their time, as well. We have six Hall of Fame inductees and generally two or three Hall of Honor inductees every year. |
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