Still sounds ridiculous, and now I've wasted 30 seconds to read about it...
Rather than end a conversation with "goodbye", many conversations between Aggies end with "gig 'em", usually accompanied by a
thumbs up. This tradition began at a 1930
Midnight Yell Practice held before the
football game against the
Texas Christian University Horned Frogs. In an attempt to excite the crowd, Pinky Downs, a 1906 Texas A&M graduate and member of the school's Board of Regents, asked "What are we going to do to those Horned Frogs?"
[13] Using a term for frog hunting, he answered his own question, "Gig 'em, Aggies!"
[13] For emphasis, he made a fist with the thumb extended. The phrase and hand signal proved popular, and it became the first hand sign of the
Southwest Conference.
[13] Gig 'em is also the name of one of the school yells, which is used during football
kickoffs.
[14]
The university's traditions council recognizes another possible origin for the expression. The word "gig" is used in the US Army to indicate an infraction of the uniform code, and the A&M cadets used the same vocabulary. New cadets would quickly learn to fear being "gigged" during inspection for having unshined shoes, unpolished brass, or a non-aligned "
gig line".
[15]Click to expand...
