Former Student’s Legacy Inspires Support For Future Aggies

“What has kept A&M unique—and so special—has little to do with bricks and mortar. It has substantially more to do with the people and values that have shaped the university since its days as a tiny land-grant school in the flatlands of Brazos County.”

Homer Jacobs III ’87, who wrote those words in his 2002 book, The Pride of Aggieland: Spirit and Football at a Place Like No Other, was one of those influential people. Not only did he cover Aggie football for more than two decades, creating 12th Man Magazine in the process, but he also nurtured and developed generations of budding journalists at Texas A&M University.

Jacobs passed away unexpectedly in August 2014 at the age of 49, leaving behind his wife, Laurie, and four step-sons. To honor Homer and his legacy, his family, friends, and colleagues set up the Laurie and Homer Jacobs ’87 Journalism Scholarship — targeted to students with ambitions in sports journalism.

“The thing that he would have been most excited about in regards to having the scholarship named after him was the type of impact it would have on future writers,” Laurie said. “This scholarship will mean that Homer’s legacy will continue forever, and that Aggie students will always be learning the same type of skills that gave Homer’s life so much joy. He would be proud of that.”

Homer graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in journalism. He began his career as a sports editor at local papers such as the Sherman Democrat and the Galveston Daily News before returning to College Station in 1992 to cover his favorite team: the Aggies.

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