Aggie Muster, established over a century ago, is an annual remembrance held on April 21 to honor the past, present and future of the Aggie family.
According to the Aggie Network, Aggies began to celebrate San Jacinto Day on April 21 in the late 1800s. Eventually, Aggies began to use the holiday as a time to gather off campus. During the early 1900s, this included Aggie gatherings in Europe during World War I.
In 1922, Texas A&M clubs, The Association of Former Students and A&M President William Bizzell encouraged former students to gather on April 21. A&M clubs and Aggie groups held “April 21 Parties” and San Jacinto Day “meetings” throughout the 1920s and 1930s.
“If there is an A&M man in one hundred miles of you, you are expected to get together, eat a little, sup a little, and live over the days you spent at the A&M College of Texas,” Texas Aggie magazine wrote on April 15, 1923.
Beginning in the late 1920s, some on-campus San Jacinto Day gatherings included a roll call honoring former students who passed away. In the 1930s, most “April 21 A&M Parties” were hosted off campus by former students across the state and the nation, and included several international gatherings.
On April 21, 1942, on the small island of Corregidor in the Philippines, Brig. Gen. George F. Moore, Class of 1908, and Maj. Tom Dooley, Class of 1935, gathered a list of Aggies fighting on the island to be honored. The list named 24 Aggies, and solidified the Muster tradition for future generations. Less than a month later, Corregidor fell to the Japanese, resulting in the Aggies and their comrades being killed or taken prisoner.
In 1943, The Association of Former Students head E.E. McQuillen, Class of 1920, named all April 21 gatherings “Muster” and in 1944, the first on-campus student Muster was held along with over 600 Musters worldwide.
Eight weeks after Corregidor was recaptured, three Aggies held a Muster on the island in 1945. In honor of the 1942 Muster, 128 Aggies visited Corregidor in 1946 for Muster.
The Association of Former Students produced the live Worldwide Roll Call for the Absent in 2018, which marked the first time the entire annual Muster Roll was read and answered in one location. The live roll call is now an annual event.
The 2023 Campus Muster Ceremony will be held on Friday, April 21 at 7 p.m. in Reed Arena. Tickets are not required to attend the event and doors open at 5 p.m. for first-come, first-served seating. Free parking will be available from 5 p.m. to midnight in Reed Area lots 100a through 100f, 100j, 100m, and Lots 61, 74, 95 and 97, according to Transportation Services. Paid parking is available in the West Campus Garage.
Muster will honor the names of enrolled students and other Aggies from the on-campus community. The 2023 Roll Call can be found at tx.ag/CampusMusterRoll.
