‘I Just Hope There Is An Aggie Network In The Hereafter!’

Jimmy Tyree ’54 has a way of focusing attention on others. During the course of his 90 years, Tyree—one of the oldest living Texas A&M University Yell Leaders—has used the spotlight to encourage others to get involved and to strengthen relationships. 

He’s also parlayed his experience in front of Aggie crowds into a gift for making connections, whether that’s building relationships on the Quad, in the business world or at the retirement community that he calls home. Tyree’s experience underscores the Yell Leaders’ commitment to the Aggie Core Values, their influence and the power of Aggie Network.

Baytown Romance

Growing up, Tyree lived with his family in a Baytown hotel that his grandmother owned. The hotel served as temporary housing for workers from the nearby refinery. “I was the only kid in the hotel,” he said. “It wasn’t a great upbringing,” adding that he relished spending summers in Gonzales, Texas, where he worked on a relative’s poultry farm.

However, Baytown proved to be pivotal to Tyree’s life when a new student joined his seventh-grade class. “Her name was Jimmie Treat, and my name was Jimmy Tyree, so we sat alphabetically and that’s how we met,” he said. “Her mother didn’t like me because I tied a part of her dress to the chair. At the time you had to stand up when you had to say something, so it tore a piece of her dress.”

Tyree’s journey to Texas A&M also took an interesting twist. “I grew up with six guys—and they were University of Texas fans,” he said. “But I just never fell in love with Texas.”

Instead, he fell head over heels for Texas A&M after attending Bonfire as a high school senior. Impressed by the spectacle, Tyree, who at the time was a cheerleader at Baytown’s Robert E. Lee High School, found himself especially mesmerized by the Yell Leaders. When the evening ended, Tyree had begun to plot his future: to enroll at Texas A&M and be elected as a Yell Leader.

A Sign for the Times 

Soon, he had overcome the first hurdle, enrolling as a student in 1950 and becoming the first in his family to attend college. And Tyree’s passion for the Maroon and White started influencing future generations of Aggies, such as Paul Holiday ’56, who also was elected Yell Leader. “He lived on the same block I did,” Tyree explained. “I asked, ‘Why did you go to A&M?’ He said, ‘After knowing you and you talking about A&M, you know I was going there!’” 

Yet even while he focused on his studies to earn two bachelor’s degrees—one in poultry science and the other in agriculture journalism — and completed his duties with the Corps of Cadets, Tyree continued to plan how he would achieve his ultimate college goal—being elected Yell Leader. 

As elections neared during his sophomore year, Tyree began contemplating what he could inexpensively do to get name recognition among the all-male student body. A Coca-Cola ad proved to be the spark for his campaign and Tyree began thinking about signs he could place at eye level over the 192 dormitory urinals to catch the attention of the all-male study body. His idea rivaled what was being developed by Madison Avenue’s marketing wizards at the time as his posters read: 

When you take a pee, 

Think of me, 

Jimmy Tyree 

for 

Junior Yell Leader

His campaign worked, but at the time, there was no fanfare on campus celebrating the new group of Yell Leaders, which included Head Yell Leader Tom Collins ’53, John Childs ’53, Bill Henderson ’53 and Monty Montgomery ’54. Tyree was reelected his senior year, joining a group that included Montgomery (who was a second-generation head Yell Leader), Joe West ’54, Glenn Langford ’55, and Sam Akard ’55. 

Collins’ and Montgomery’s leadership in shaping the Yell Leaders’ decisions was important, Tyree noted, because at the time, there was little supervision or financial support from the university. “When I was a Yell Leader, we had to buy our own uniforms,” Tyree explained. “There was virtually little or no help to go to an away game, so we just didn’t go.”

Yet, the group embraced every opportunity afforded to them, whether leading yells on the old YMCA’s steps and the Grove, or being thrown into the Fish Pond following Aggie wins. One of Tyree’s fondest memories is running onto Kyle Field for the first time as a Yell Leader. His favorite yell has been “Farmers Fight!” which always roused the crowd of Aggies in the stands.

Finishing Before Starting Anew 

By 1955, his future mother-in-law’s initial concerns had waned, so Tyree and Jimmie married. “I’m told that when all was said and done, my mother-in-law liked me better than the other guys,” Tyree laughingly noted.

The couple started married life while Tyree was completing his studies at Texas A&M. “We had to come up here so I could go to summer school. Jimmie had finished Baylor and got a job teaching in Caldwell,” Tyree said, adding that her salary combined with his $500 scholarship equaled $3,300, just enough to cover their expenses. 

Tyree finished school just in time. “I got the second degree on a Friday, and I reported to Fort Sill on Monday,” he said. “At that time, fortunately, the Korean War had ended, but they needed officers in Korea, so my time in training was cut short.” 

He credits Texas A&M’s Corps of Cadets for preparing him for his 16-month assignment to South Korea. At one point, he requested a two-week rest and relaxation period and invited Jimmie, who had returned home to Baytown and had never flown in an airplane, to join him in Tokyo. “My father-in-law said that Jimmie’s love for me was more than her fear of flying,” Tyree laughingly said. 

After completing his commission, the couple moved to the Chicago area, where Tyree went to work with a publishing company that put together The Poultry Tribune. After a year, he began to look for another job—and a want ad for a Fort Worth petroleum company caught his eye. It turned out that one of the managers was an Aggie—which helped him get the job working on publications related to the oil industry. “I didn’t know about the oil industry, but I knew how to get the publications out,” he said. “That’s how I learned about the printing business.” 

Tyree remained with the Fort Worth company for about 18 months before moving to an agricultural company in Nacogdoches, Texas, and then the Houston-based Wetmore Company as advertising manager. At the time, Exxon was starting to offer self-serve gasoline at its service stations and needed a variety of printed materials. Tyree had the opportunity to meet with an Exxon executive about this work when the Aggie network came into play. “He said, ‘Is that an Aggie ring? I’m an Aggie, too! I think I know you! You were Yell Leader!” Tyree said, noting that he ended up getting the lucrative account. “That’s the best break I ever got.” 

During his tenure as the association’s president in 2005, Tyree undertook an aggressive campaign that more than doubled the number of AFYL’s $1,000 lifetime memberships. “If you become a leader of something that you feel that you want to help and you see the necessity of what’s going wrong, you can make adjustments,” he said. “You have to dedicate yourself timewise.” 

Looking Back 

Now many years later, Tyree has retired and returned to Aggieland. His home’s walls are full of memorabilia—including a photo of Jimmie in seventh grade, another photo of Tyree and Jimmie from the Class of 1954 Ring Dance, and a highway sign from 1951 that says “College Station – Population 7,898.”  

Additionally, Tyree is especially proud of a picture that showcases three-generations of Aggie hands sporting four Aggie rings. In addition to Tyree’s hand, the picture highlights the hands of Tyree’s son, Jim ’79, and grandsons Andrew Tyree ’10 and Taylor Tyree ’13. Tyree also has a daughter, Kimberly, who has a son, Christian Curling, and daughter, Isabella Curling, who live in Oklahoma.

Nearing the 70-year anniversary of his college graduation, Tyree doesn’t regret his decision to come to Texas A&M—and he’s seen the power of the Aggie Network, especially as a former Yell Leader. “Gig ’em and Farmers Fight!” he said. “I just hope there’s an Aggie Network in the hereafter!”