For some Aggies, a wedding ring shares its place of honor with a piece of Aggie gold.
Kathryn Greenwade, vice president of the Association of Former Students and Class of 1988, said the practice of wearing an Aggie Ring with a wedding ring has been around since at least the 1940s.
Greenwade said people tell her they choose to wear their Aggie Ring on their left ring finger because it is closest to their heart. Marty Holmes, vice president of the Association of Former Students and Class of 1987, is one of the Aggies who wears his ring on his left hand.
Holmes said he was inspired to wear his Aggie Ring with his wedding ring when he saw his brother doing the same. Holmes said while his wife did not attend A&M, she understood the concept.
“I told her, here’s my thought — ‘Number one, my wedding band is gonna go on first and it’s gonna be closest to my heart. But I love A&M enough that if I had to, I’d marry her in a heartbeat — but she’ll never take your place. Your ring is always first,’” Holmes said. “She swallowed that, and said, ‘Okay, I can get that.’”
Holmes said there is nothing better than being an Aggie, and he wears his ring with pride everyday.
“I love A&M dearly, and I’m married to her for life. I’m not leaving her, and my wife’s the same way,” Holmes said.
Tim Powers, director of the Aggie Honor System Office and Class of 2001, said his reasoning for wearing his Aggie Ring on his left hand is because he also wants the ring to be closer to his heart.
“When you graduate you spin it, and it’s on your left hand, you see both the American flag and the Texas state flag, which indicates that your time at A&M is done, go out and serve the community at large and not just the state of Texas and not just A&M,” Powers said. “That’s part of the symbolism for me, when it’s on my left hand after I graduated, the American flag faces me, which means a lot to me.”
Jim Brewer, Class of 1980, said wearing his Aggie Ring with his wedding band is a tradition he learned from his father, who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and Corps of Cadets Company N-1.
“When I got to A&M and started in the Corps and waited until I got my senior ring, there were several of us who talked about wearing our Aggie Ring on our left hand which would be symbolic of being married to A&M, prior to us actually getting married,” Brewer said.
Brewer still wears his Aggie Ring on his left hand, but said he wears his wedding band on the inside so it is first.
“We wore our Aggie Ring on our left hand after graduation until we became married, and after we got married we made sure that our wedding ring was compatible with our Aggie Ring, but it stayed on the inside of the Aggie Ring because our wives are closer to our heart than A&M is,” Brewer said.