Reveille VII To Retire After Final Review
Senior Cadet Grant Rollo shows his admiration for
Reveille VII at her retirement announcement
14 FEB 2008
Reveille VII, current keeper of Texas A&M’s decades-old mascot tradition—and the ranking member of its Corps of Cadets—will formally retire in May at the conclusion of the spring semester for the 46,000-student university.
She announced her retirement plans Wednesday afternoon (Feb. 13) with the help of Student Body President Connor Prochaska and several members of the Corps of Cadets, including her faithful handlers in Mascot Company E-2.
Rev VII, a star attraction at Aggie football games and numerous other university events, has served as the school mascot since 2001. The registered Collie arrived in Aggieland as a four-month-old pup on Feb. 16, 2001, aboard a special flight from her birthplace in Ft. Lauderdale , Fla. , and was warmly greeted by hundreds of Aggies and other well-wishers.
The pats and other forms of Aggie affection have continued through the years for the well-traveled mascot and will carry through until the Corps of Cadets’ traditional school-year-ending Final Review, a formal march that this year will be on May 10.
Final Review is the most fitting formal finale for the First Lady of Texas A&M, students and university officials agree, since she is the ranking member of the Corps of Cadets—the only bearer of five silver diamonds in the 1,800-member corps. The cadet colonel, the ranking officer in the corps, wears four diamonds on his uniform.
While Final Review will be Rev VII’s last official appearance, several other events honoring her are being planned prior to the end of the current school year, officials noted.
University Vice President Dean Bresciani said he will appoint a panel composed of students and other university constituencies to recommend a host family to care for Rev VII and to recommend her successor.
The first Reveille was a mongrel that, according to campus lore, was picked up by some cadets along side Highway 6, which runs through College Station . The precise date of her arrival on campus is believed to have been in 1931, and it is well documented that she died on Jan. 18, 1944, and received a formal military funeral on the 50-yardline of Kyle Field. Her name was reportedly prompted by her habit of howling when the corps bugler played reveille to wake the cadets each morning.
Contact: Jason Cook, Vice President for Marketing & Communications, at
( 979) 845-2217 or email: jason.cook@tamu.edu.
