Reveille VIII Funeral Set For Aug. 30

She’s being laid to rest ten years to the day from her debut as mascot at A&M’s home football opener in 2008.

Services for Reveille VIII will be held at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 30, the day her Aggies take on Northwestern State, the university said Monday. Students, former students, faculty and staff are invited; parking information is here. The funeral will also be livestreamed. 

A&M’s former mascot passed away June 25 from an illness; she was 12 years old.

She’ll be buried with her seven predecessors outside the north end of Kyle Field, where the first Reveille was laid in 1944.

Former mascot corporal Ryan Kreider ’17, who famously saved her at a 2014 game by deflecting an SMU wide receiver running toward her on the sideline, said, “She’s a lady, a former student, a loyal companion, and a perfect representation of why Texas A&M is so great.”

Kreider will be present to attend her funeral and was able to visit her shortly before her death; read more about their special bond here.

Four-year-old Reveille IX is A&M’s current mascot, having taken over upon Rev 8’s retirement in May 2015.

Remembering past Reveilles

The previous mascot, Reveille VII or “Rev Sev,” passed away in 2013 but wasn’t buried immediately, because Kyle Field renovations were soon to require that the graves be temporarily moved as they had been in 1997-1999.

Instead, on Sept. 6, 2013, Texas A&M held a memorial service for Reveille VII in Reed Arena. The first six Reveilles were moved to Cain Park during the football stadium reconstruction. Then, on Aug. 28, 2015, the mascots were reburied and Reveille VII buried for the first time at the north end of Kyle.

In 2003, services were held Nov. 2 for Reveille VI in Kyle Field, and she was buried outside Kyle at the traditional site.

See this and more photos by Damian Medina '02 of 2003's service for Reveille VI here.

When Reveille V passed away in 1999, Kyle renovations were also in play. The previous Reveilles had been moved to Cain Park in 1997 because of the north end “Zone” remodeling.

That new end zone also meant the Kyle scoreboard would no longer be directly visible from the spot where Reveilles I-IV were buried.

But never doubt Texas A&M students’ sense of humor, nor how much they love their mascot.

Rusty Burson’s book “Reveille: First Lady of Texas A&M” says, “Throughout all of the 1997 football season and even into the ’98 and ’99 seasons, groups of students took turns holding a dry-erase board in front of the temporary gravesite.”

They updated the score “by listening to the radio, communicating via cell phone, or going in and out of the stadium.”

Cadets oversee the temporary removal of Reveilles I-IV in 1997 to a spot in nearby Cain Park.

On Sept. 11, 1999, services were held for Rev 5 in Kyle Field, and then her casket was carried to Cain Park and interred.

When “Zone” construction was completed in 2000 and the mascots reburied, a small electronic scoreboard had been installed for them on the exterior of Kyle’s north end.

The April 16, 1989, New York Times reported on the funeral of Reveille IV, held during Parents’ Weekend at the end of the Corps review with a crowd of 10,000 in attendance.

Reveille III’s funeral was Sept. 9, 1975, in Kyle Field. On Sept. 21, 1966, some 3,000 attended services for Reveille II in Kyle Field.

Upon the death of the first Reveille, buried at Kyle on Jan. 19, 1944, a poem titled “Good-Bye, Reveille” was composed by Dr. John Ashton, Class of 1906, who had written “Roll Call for the Absent” for Muster.

It concluded:

“Her work is done, now let her rest
If dogs have souls let hers be blest!”

The first Reveille was laid to rest outside Kyle in 1944.

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