HOUSTON CHRONICLE ARCHIVES

Paper: Houston Chronicle
Date: TUE 11/26/2002
Section: Sports
Page: 1
Edition: 3 STAR

Tragedy strikes A&M family / As always, Aggies will answer call

By JOHN P. LOPEZ
Staff

PERHAPS the best, most meaningful Aggie tradition of all is one you wish never happened.

Muster, the Aggies call it.

It is a tradition of honoring those Aggies who have died in the previous year. Every April, friends and family members of the recently deceased gather among thousands of fellow Aggies and answer with a quiet "here" during a roll call of the dearly departed.

The tradition of Muster began decades ago when Aggies with friends who died fighting wars overseas wanted to honor their schoolmates' legacy by keeping faith and the "Aggie spirit" alive.

During Muster, the room is darkened, with light coming only in flickers from the subtle glow of candles held by those in attendance. Taps is trumpeted. Names are read.

And when a name - like Brandon Fails - is read, someone answers, "Here."

It is touching and important and so much a part of what Aggies say outsiders cannot understand about being an A&M student or former student.

But this, everyone would understand. This, we would find incredible and important and perhaps the best tribute ever made to a fallen schoolmate and teammate: Introducing Fails, a defensive tackle who died suddenly and shockingly Monday morning on campus, as a starter for the Aggies in Friday's annual Texas-Texas A&M showdown.

Some Aggies players want to trot 10 men out for the Longhorns' first offensive play. They want Fails, a behemoth of a young man with a world of talent, whose dream was to be a starter for A&M, to get his wish in absentia.

The mother of a Texas A&M athlete called early Monday evening as news of Fails' death spread. The woman relayed the news of how at least a handful of A&M football players, distraught over the loss of a friend, wished they could pay tribute to him in the most meaningful of ways.

This way. Start the young man in an otherwise meaningless game, as Texas-Texas A&M games go. Make the legacy meaningful. Make this an Aggie Muster, during which Longhorns and Aggies alike can realize the perspective of it all and quietly say "here" when Fails' name is mentioned by the Texas public-address announcer.

Fails was a jovial, well-liked gentle giant, nicknamed "Juicy" for the way life just seemed to seep from the pores in his skin. His talents were abundant. His potential to become a collegiate and NFL star was boundless.

Fails was widely regarded as the heir apparent to the defensive line position held by current Aggies great Ty Warren. Even with Warren anchoring the A&M defensive line, Fails likely would have been a starter going into Friday's game if not for a knee injury that cut short his freshman season.

He was 18 years old. Just a Fish. But already Fails had made a significant impact on his teammates and formed deep friendships. Had the tragedy of Monday morning's attack that took his life not occurred, everything his teammates knew about Fails we all eventually would have known.

A great talent. A great kid. A good student. A future star.

The travesty of losing a promising young life such as Fails' always seems to be the emptiness of it all. We were short-changed for not getting to know Brandon Fails, for not seeing him realize his potential and become everything he should have become.

His family's devastation is something incomprehensible. R.C. Slocum, his head coach, only thought he was feeling pressure when things like wins and losses dominated the headlines.

On Monday, Slocum had to sit in a room with Charlie and Valerie Fails and tell them their son had died. He had to gather together nearly 100 of his players and staff members and inform them their friend and teammate had died.

And then he had to somehow make sense of it all and begin preparing his team for the biggest game of the year.

"A traumatic, shocking thing," Slocum called it.

Unfortunately, most of us never got to know Brandon Fails, and we are sorry we did not. But we know the kind of young man he must have been.

We know because the Aggies are preparing for the most important game of the season, and some within the team do not want to hear about "perspective" and life going on or the importance of winning a rivalry game.

They want to muster the strength, so to speak. They want to dedicate a moment to Fails. They want to line up before kickoff and hear the Texas public-address announcer say just one thing.

"And starting at defensive tackle, No. 89, Brandon Fails."

"Here."

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