There's a Secret Can Ne'er Be Told

Check out these little-known facts and suspicions about Aggieland buildings past and present.

By Mamie Hertel '24

Lead photo provided by Cushing Memorial Library and Archives

October 11, 2022

With more than 5,200 acres and 146 years of history, there are bound to be a few secrets and mysteries around Texas A&M University. We searched through archives at Cushing Library, online TexAgs forums and even the r\Aggies Reddit thread to compile both confirmed and questionable information about buildings on campus.

Do you know these little-known facts and suspicions about Aggieland?

Fallout Shelters Turned Food Facilities

From the late 1950s through the 1970s, areas underneath the Academic Building, Sbisa Dining Hall, the Doherty Building and the Animal Science Building were turned into bomb shelters. With nuclear war imminent, the shelters were stocked with barrels of water, survival equipment and many boxes of non-perishable foods.

Today, one of these bomb shelters houses the Sbisa Underground Market that serves students Chick-fil-A, Papa Johns, Houston Street Subs and Smoothie King. As for the rest, they are no longer designated as bomb shelters, and emergency provisions have been removed from the buildings.

Coke Building Conspiracies

The table in the Coke Building's third-floor dean's suite may have belonged to Gen. James Earl Rudder '32. (Photo: Bailey Payne '19)

Some say that when the Coke Building was completed in 1951, it was a white brick structure. After a few years, the brick started to turn a salmon color that was suspiciously close to burnt orange. Rumors circulated that the bricks were sold to Texas A&M by a Longhorn who wanted to pull the ultimate rivalry prank and have a burnt-orange building in Aggieland. However, campusology experts like Dr. David Chapman ’67, retired director of Cushing Memorial Library and Archives and Texas A&M University archivist, have said the brick was always meant to be a reddish-pink color.

Inside the building lies another substantiated rumor that the conference table in the third-floor dean’s suite belonged to Gen. James Earl Rudder ’32. This speculation comes from the building’s occupation history, as President Marion Thomas Harrington ’22 moved administrative offices to the Coke Building in 1951. This means that Rudder’s office, and desk, called the building home at some point in time. Chapman has said he cannot prove or disprove this Coke Building claim to fame.

The numbering on the Albritton Bell Tower clock is rumored to have originated from rivalry. (Photo: Texas A&M Division of Marketing & Communications)

A final fun story about the Coke Building surrounds a small, closet-like cutout in the advising office. While you might find tablecloths and miscellaneous objects in there now, it used to be the location of a safe for cash tuition payments and Aggie rings. Today, it might take a much larger closet to serve such a purpose.

T.U. or Teatime

The Albritton Bell Tower, located west of Simpson Drill Field, is one of the tallest buildings on campus at 138 feet. It’s also the topic of a tall Texas A&M tale.

The roman numerals on the clock have an anomaly that Aggies like to attribute to rivalry. Instead of “IV”, the clock uses “IIII”, which some speculate is due to “IV” resembling “T.U.” However, the irregularity is typical for clocks in Europe, particularly in France and England, so the feature is more likely rooted in the clock’s origination in Annecy-le-Vieux, France.

Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

During his time as the ninth university president, William Bizzell witnessed many historic Aggie moments, including nearly half of campus empty as Aggies joined the fight in World War I and the birth of the 12th Man tradition in 1922. What few know is that Bizzell was also the driving force behind the first and only zoo at Texas A&M.