Before reading about Frank Dobie and his perceptions of longhorns, I had not thought about why exactly the longhorn was the University of Texas at Austin's mascot. Through reading his various depictions of wild longhorns and mustangs, I noticed the character similarities between Longhorns and the students on this campus. Longhorns are our totem because they, like the cattle that Dobie described, represent perseverance, resourcefulness, and "efforts to maintain freedom." (p.145). Both the stories of Sancho and Table Cloth illustrate a longhorn's never ending quest for freedom. To Sancho, freedom meant grazing outside of the Kerr's cabin on Esperanza Creek enjoying the occasional hot tamale. For Table Cloth, freedom meant roaming as a wild longhorn. "Hadn't Table Cloth fairly won life and liberty?"(p.150) This question is posed following the boss's orders to bring back Table Cloth's carcass. I don't think animals should have to work so hard to free themselves from the grasp of man, but any animal as persistent as the one's illustrated, further prove this point. Animals deserve the chance to live their lives free of cages and shackles.
Relating the characteristics of these "outlaw" Longhorns to the students at this university, I can see many similarities. Having the Longhorn as our totem allows students a symbol to represent the University of Texas and the diligence, hard work, and determination expected of students. Sharing this totem also serves in unifying the campus. In 1916 T.B. Buffington, class of 1892, presents "...the University of Texas a mascot or protecting spirit that now and in future years will bring good luck to the institution and it's teaching" (p.154)
Dobie himself inspired in students traits that a Longhorn like the one's depicted in his stories would bear. "Dobie protested when they fired the president of University Homer Rainey in 1944, when they tried to censor the Daily Texan, etc. He was always on the side of the students."(p.129). From the way he was described, I believe Dobie taught students, through example, to fight for what they believed in. Today I can look around on campus and see a diverse body of students exercising their right to protest, raise awareness, or share differing points of view.
In my first semester of college here at the University of Texas, I was taking an introduction psychology class where the professor told us all to look around the room at what everyone was wearing. As a class, we noticed that the majority of the people in the room had on UT Longhorn paraphernalia of some sort. We were told that people are always looking to be included and the burnt orange Longhorn was an emblem of inclusion for this campus. Just by advertising our affiliation with UT, we are given the sensation of being a part of a larger group. Totems are described as being "worshiped or esteemed by members of the clan bearing its name" (p.152). Our longhorn totem, Bevo, "stands for the fighting spirit of progress" (p.154).
Again, while reading The Mustangs, I was reminded that even though I'd like to believe that longhorns, mustangs, and all animals meant to be wild remained wild, sadly most are in danger of being domesticated.
Dobie describes a mustang "...trembling with fear before his captor, bruised from falls by the restrictive rope, made submissive by choking, clogs, cuts and starvation." Dobie assesses that the mustang "... had lost what made him so beautiful and free. Illusion and reality had alike been destroyed. Only the spirited are beautiful."(p.165). What we admire in the longhorn is their freedom, endurance, and drive, but by the mass breeding and capture of longhorns for their horns, meat, and hide, what makes the longhorn so majestic and inspiring is being stubbed out.
"As the great longhorn was free to roam the wilderness of Texas, so must the University be free to roam the world of thought, unhampered and unafraid." (p.154)
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