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10/21/2005
50 years of 'Hook 'em Horns'
Hand-sign creator to emcee anniversary event with other cheerleading alumni
By
Noelene Clark
Cheerleaders teach the "Hook Žem" hand sign at Gregory Gymnasium during a Nov. 11, 1955 football rally.
1955 was the year the first McDonald's started serving up hamburgers, the year Chuck Berry released his rock 'n' roll single "Maybelline" and the year the University installed lights in Memorial Stadium.
It was also the year that Harley Clark, the University's elected head cheerleader, introduced the "Hook 'em" hand sign - an event that Clark will reenact on its 50th anniversary on Nov. 11. Clark and UT Heritage Society Director Jim Nicar met Tuesday to make plans for the event.
But before the "Hook 'em" hand sign became the rallying call for Longhorns across the country, it was a shadow puppet.
A week before a big football rally on campus, Clark's friend Henry "HK" Pitts had suggested to Clark that the University adopt a hand signal, similar to the Aggies' "Gig 'em" thumb, for their upcoming game against Texas Christian University.
"Henry said he's been doing some shadow dancing," Clark said, and a fist with a extended pinky and forefinger looked like a Longhorn, Pitts showed Clark.
"I tried it out on some fellow students, and most of them thought it was corny," Clark said. "But I thought it was a natural."
The rally before the game took the form of an old-fashioned religious revival, during which audience members were encouraged to "Git the Longhorn Spirit" by a student "preacher" who handed around chicken buckets as collection plates to raise money for charity.
At the end of the event, Clark stood before a gym full of cheering Longhorn fans and lifted his hand in what would become the University's traditional "Hook 'em" hand signal, declaring, "This is the official sign of the University of Texas to be used whenever and wherever Longhorns gather!"
The audience fumbled with their hands, and "a lot of people didn't get it right at first," said Neal Spelce, who attended the rally when he was a student at the University. "There was a mixed reaction. Some people said, 'What the hell is this all about?' But for the majority, we were at a pep rally atmosphere, so we got with it."
Clark was "standing satisfied" with his hands on his hips as students filed out the gym after the rally, "all having a big time" playing with the hand signal, he said.
"Dean [of Students Arno] Nowotny took hold of my elbow, wheeled me around and said, 'Harley, I'm furious with you,'" Clark said. "He told me, 'You didn't get permission for this, and this is going to catch on. This is going to last.'"
Clark said he was confused, and Nowotny paused for a very long time.
"Then he took the hand signal and put it right up in my face and said, 'Harley, do you know what this means in Sicily?'" Clark said.
Nowotny had reason for concern; in some parts of Europe, it's used to insinuate that a man's wife is being unfaithful to him. It's also viewed as a salute to the devil in some Scandinavian countries and is part of the American Sign Language word for "bullshit."
In some parts of Italy, the hand sign is supposed to ward off the evil eye - a tactic that proved unsuccessful when the Longhorns lost the TCU football game after the rally. But the sign itself was a big success. During the game, Clark watched the signal spread from the student section throughout the entire stadium, he said. Within the next few months, people began raising the symbol during the alma mater.
Clark and Pitts, now 75 years old, will reenact the rally in person, and Spelce will emcee the event, which will be attended by 1955 alumni and the Texas Alumni Cheerleaders. The Tower will be lit orange, bearing the number "50" along its shaft commemorating the anniversary. During the week preceding the event, a "UT in the 1950s" exhibit will be set up at the Main Building, nighttime campus tours will delve into the University's history and the Texas Union Film Committee will show a drive-in 3D movie at Clarke field.
The week's events are the doing of the UT Heritage Society, part of the Texas Exes alumni organization, which will also be "collecting memories" of 1950s alumni to be archived and shared, Nicar said.
Clark said that he enjoys seeing a football stadium full of people making the hand signal as though it were second nature.
"Everyone does it. You see mothers and fathers teaching their little kids how to do it," he said. "I love it. I get a kick out of it."
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