As hundreds of thousands cheer the moment Aggieland’s queen is displayed on the jumbotrons at a Texas A&M game, a tradition lounges on the sidelines to watch her Aggies. 

Seen as a distant blob or vague outline of fluff from most fans packing Kyle Field, Reveille X’s details of constant care are more than just meets the eye. Her pristine maintenance is supported by several moving parts — both Aggies and not. 

Pampering the queen

Once an A&M student herself, Hayley Tilson, Class of 2017, has found herself in a full-circle moment. 

Working at a dog grooming service during college, she began her journey grooming Reveille IX, branching off after graduation to become the owner-operator of Dizzy Dazee Dog Grooming — but her dream was to have Reveille back. 

After Reveille’s former groomers shut down following COVID-19, it became a matter of knowing the right people to rekindle the old partnership. 

“My coworker is neighbors with people that are really active with the Corps, and so it was when Batie [Bishop] was the handler,” Tilson said. “And so they sent Reveille to us, and she doesn’t do big dogs — and I was like, ‘Look, I used to groom her. I know what I’m doing. Sign me up.’”

Reveille X now comes in every two weeks and Reveille IX every four, with scheduling attempts to get them to come in together whenever they overlap. 

“She just gets free range of the shop,” Tilson said. “But when it comes down to business, we got to get to business. So we get her in the tub. We use a deep-cleaning shampoo and then a good moisturizing conditioner. … Then we get her on the table, and I have a product that I put in her coat to help make it floof. And then we blow her out, get her dry, brush her and then scissor her up, and then she just relaxes in the shop, like, runs the roost while waiting for the cadet to come pick up.”

Tilson said accomplishing her tamed fluffiness is as simple as lifting it from the root with a metal comb. Whether it’s Reveille recognizing her outside of the office or her family being proud, Tilson doesn’t see this unique task as just a job — but an accomplishment, especially considering her journey’s origins: growing up as a Longhorn in Austin. 

“I get to see her in a light that a lot of people don’t,” Tilson said. “So when she walks in that shop, she’s a dog, right? But let me explain that, in my shop, a dog’s not a dog. A dog, I hold above humans.”

Crafting the coats

Charlotte Boegner crafts the queen’s coats and has been the mascot’s seamstress since 2003, back when Reveille VII sat on the throne. The blankets that wrap her are embroidered and embellished for different occasions, with her maroon design being the most iconic. 

When Reveille needs new coats measured, she visits Boegner’s home, where she and embroidery designer Ashley Taylor fit the dimensions while Rev barks at the cats and horses roaming the land.

Unless it’s a specialty design, the two ladies ensure the exclusive coats — often made out of polyester satin — are finished by the first football game. Reveille receives new maroon and white coats annually with a description, the corporal’s name inside the maroon one and the second dog’s name inside the white. 

“When I first started, probably in the first four or five [cadet handlers], I charged $75,” Boegner said. “Then I found out the boys had to pay for it. I said, ‘That’s it.’ …. And then, of course, I felt like if I was charging, then anybody could get one. You know, that’s the attitude that they could have. But it’s not for the money. It’s just for the love of all their handlers and their parents and everybody in touch with the whole campus, everybody.”

The queen’s first coats had a belt at the bottom that tucked beneath, but they’ve since adjusted to use snaps because of her fluff. Knowing how the fabric stretches when too tight or too loose, and more recently using computerized machines, Boegner and Taylor pour time, care and attentiveness into the intricate designs that have slightly changed over time. 

“Everybody’s looking down on her, so these can’t be off,” Boegner said. “The T [in A&M’s logo] have to be exactly apart from each other. So I made a little cheap stitching to help line it up, and that helps a lot. But you can’t stitch it all at one time. It’s stitched one side at a time. That was one of the biggest challenges I think I had for myself, was making sure that those Ts were straight across.”

Done proudly from the heart, thousands see the easily recognizable coats created by the two that allow the queen to shine.

“I just do it because I can and love doing it,” Boegner said. “It’s out of pride.” 

Game day glory

Up and at ‘em with a day full of visits and visitors, Reveille X and 2024-25 mascot corporal, economics sophomore Joshua Brewton, see long days on campus. 

As the highest-ranking member of the Corps of Cadets, Rev also adorns five sterling silver diamonds engraved with the current year on her coats. Because of the annual change, Rev not only receives new blankets every year but new diamonds as well. After their service, her two coats and leash are passed on to the handler and second dog, with this year’s being Tony De La Cruz.

“There’s a lot of really cool history and tradition that comes with Reveille,” Brewton said. “That’s why, personally, I think that she’s the best tradition A&M. Reveille started in 1931, and there’s really not much that’s changed since. So it’s really cool to see how far back we can go, with the leash being the same style and the blanket being very similar, the training styles, all these different kinds of things.” 

Other things have changed, though — like flying in style. For lengthy away game trips, she’s always taken care of, and often gets her own seat. 

“She doesn’t fly commercial,” Brewton said. “She flies with either the band or some sort of charter plane, something along those lines. … Whenever we first got on the plane to go to South Carolina, the pilots were so in awe of her that they wanted her to go in the cockpit. So she got a really cool picture of her in the pilot seat.”

Rev has also grown accustomed to the booming atmosphere of Kyle Field, often barely flinching at the Spirit of ‘02 cannon firing. She’s unruffled the whole time, Brewton said, and even sports a smile during their “Power”-fueled runout, as a hundred thousand fans roar. 

“She had ‘Power’ for her first two and a half years as a mascot,” Brewton said. “So she was used to ‘Power.’ She knew what the song meant. She knew that it was time. It was go time … I did not know it was coming back, so whenever I got on the field, one of the Yell Leaders told me that was happening. So I had about 15 seconds to realize that Kyle was about to erupt. And so that was a really cool feeling, just knowing that it was about to come down. I mean, that first one might be hard to beat.” 

Sitting next to her as she rests in her dog bed on Kyle Field’s sidelines is another, smaller tradition: a passed-down longhorn stuffed animal from the early 2000s. Tattered with the shirt flipped upside down, the horns were ripped off at least twice by Reveille IX. The stuffed longhorn remains sewn up — and hornless — with red thread in several places, including on the backside. 

“I swear 100% she tore the horns off,” Brewton said. “In fact, one of the previous handlers actually, you can kind of see where the stitching was. He tried to stitch the horns back onto the back to try to show that there was horns at one point, and she proceeded to then rip the horns off that spot. So I think it’s just kind of like a sign, like, ‘Hey, these don’t belong here,’ you know. So she’s definitely a Saw Em’ Off fan.”

As Brewton grows comfortable to the busy but attentive lifestyle that they foster but Rev has known, he recognizes that the role is a service position, and he has to focus on her and her safety. Although the handlers enjoy attending different activities and events, Brewton said the best part of the duty is the reactions from people meeting her.

“Anyone, from a freshman’s first time meeting Reveille in the Commons to Von Miller on College GameDay, like it’s almost the exact same reaction,” Brewton said. “And I think that’s the coolest part of having such an honored and loved mascot that is so interactive with people, is that you can see the interaction that you can get with Reveille you can’t get with any other mascot. You’re not going to get Bevo to go to class.”