twelfth man (1926)

[Wilson Gray]

Texas A&M could occur as "Texas Aggies." You may want to try that, if
you haven't already.

(BTW, I used to live in Po Dahthuh.)

-Wilson


On 1/29/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      twelfth man (1926)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Texas A&M is griping over the Seattle Seahawks' usage of "the 12th
> man" to refer to the fans. The Aggies say they've been using the term
> since 1922, and they've registered the trademark (though only from
> 1990).
>
> http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs05/news/story?id=2309668
>
> The earliest cites I can find on the databases do indeed come from
> Texas in the '20s, though there's no mention of A&M.
>
> 1926 _Port Arthur (Tex.) News_ 3 Oct. 10/1 Coaches of this day and
> time realize the value of the "twelfth man" in a football game. This
> "twelfth man" is the rooting section.
>
> 1926 _Port Arthur (Tex.) News_ 7 Nov. 8/1 The "twelfth man" -- the
> Port Arthur rooting section -- must carry out his assignment in a
> perfect manner.
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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