By Abigail Gan | Staff Writer
The rivalry between Baylor and Texas Christian University has long been ingrained in both schools’ cultures. Finally, the rivalry became official through a joint resolution by Baylor and TCU’s student governments. After 124 years, TCU and Baylor are officially rivals.
Baylor’s Student Body External Vice President and project lead of the resolution, Lily Davis, said the origins of this project date back to last year.
“That was amazing to create not only a partnership with [TCU] but really start my job as External Vice President with this project,” Davis said. “Once we’ve gotten back to the school year, I’ve led the effort now in a different way of actually coordinating it through the Baylor institution. So, being the project lead looks like not only coordinating things with the TCU side of things but working with all the different multifarious aspects of Baylor.”
Davis said she hopes this rivalry will increase engagement and pride. Davis said there are also many fun and exciting things that they are hoping to implement by the Nov. 18 game, but some are still under wraps for now.
“One of the aspects that I think I’m personally most excited for is a trophy. So the winner of the game will be getting a trophy. And this is to be a traveling trophy that goes back and forth between the two institutions, whoever wins that year,” Davis said.
Previous Student Body President Hunter Walker came up with the idea to create a formalized rivalry. Davis said in the last few weeks of last school year, Hunter gathered Baylor student government members and TCU student government counterparts.
Davis said they met weekly or biweekly throughout the summer to figure out what the rivalry would look like.
Davis said it has been a team effort and has taken coordination with many people, including Baylor’s marketing, athletics and legal teams.
“It’s been amazing to be in the room with those people, and honestly, just a humbling kind of job of recognizing this job has nothing to do with me but rather depends on the teamwork and the collaboration of so many different people,” Davis said.
Davis said the project has many different aspects and spheres. Davis said McKenzie Arata, Internal Vice President, headed the Senate and legislation side of the resolution.
In a press release, Arata said this was “an initiative that started with student leaders from both campuses and has gained great momentum and received support from executive leaders at Baylor and TCU. This resolution is just the first phase in a multifaceted project.”
TCU’s Student Body Speaker of the House, Kamryn Sakson, worked closely with Arata in order to draft and prepare a joint resolution to present to the respective student governments and “essentially put into writing the century-long rivalry that we’ve had between the schools,” Sakson said.
Sakson said that while meeting over the summer, they decided that they wanted this legislation to be symbolic.
“We initially discussed the history of the rivalry when it started — how many games we played between the schools — that kind of thing. And so I think that was our main goal when we first sat down and discussed the resolution completely was just so that it could be a symbolic document that people could look back on later and say, Wow, this is really how the rivalry started, or not necessarily started, but how it became started a writing,” Sakson said.
Davis said there was an overwhelming excitement from both student bodies. Davis said hard work, dedication and support during this project with TCU have amplified the project as it has progressed.
“As we both agreed to go into this partnership with one another, there’s been, just overwhelmingly, a sense of support in hard work and diligence, which has been beautiful to see the friendships and the camaraderie and the unity that’s come out of this,” Davis said.
Davis said the informal tagline of this rivalry is that it is a rivalry of respect.
“There’s something so unique about this rivalry, and then the fact that it was created by the students and for the students,” Davis said. “It’s something that we hope conjures up not only respect and celebration of the history of both of our institutions but also deep pride and excitement and engagement. Because, as you may know, football seasons and successes come and go, and one season may be really amazing and other seasons may be full of tribulation. And to us, a rivalry connotes and symbolizes a way in which we can thoughtfully engage despite the outcome of the game.”
Davis said she hopes students will latch onto the ideas that are already organic and so embedded in our culture. Sakson said the reaction from both student governments was very positive.
“It was very expected from both student governments; they were both very excited. Both pieces actually passed with 100% of the vote,” Sakson said. “I would say it just made both student bodies just really excited for the future and for the upcoming game.”