BATON ROUGE, La. – Bringing a beloved Aggie tradition from Kyle Field to bars, restaurants and stages across the nation, The Association of Former Students has hosted Midnight Yell Practices before away games for more than 20 years.
At midnight on Saturday, about 350 people were in attendance at the pre-LSU Yell Practice held at Galvez Stage at North Boulevard Town Square in Baton Rouge.
“The Association of Former Students is happy to help coordinate this,” said Kathryn Greenwade, Vice President of Communications and Human Resources for The Association. “We feel it’s important to bring Aggies together and to especially give those Aggies who live out of state an opportunity to gather and perpetuate tradition.”
The Association works with local A&M clubs and opposing team’s alumni associations to coordinate locations for away game Midnight Yells, Greenwade said.
“At every away game location there is usually an A&M club within a few hours if not in that city itself,” Greenwade said. “We let them be our boots on the ground and give us recommendations on locations we should look into.”
Although usually attended by around 25,000 people in Kyle Field, away game Midnight Yells typically have an attendance anywhere from a couple hundred people to a few thousand.
“It really depends on the location,” Greenwade said. “The smallest one we’ve had this year was about 200 [people] for the Georgia game. For the Southwest Classic, we had close to 6,000 people there for Yell Practice.”
Aside from attendance and venue, there aren’t many differences between a Midnight Yell in Kyle Field and one held on the road, said Association communications specialist Cait Shields.
“The Spirit is the same,” Shields said. “It’s quite a bit smaller, but the Yell Leaders are still here and travel to every away Midnight Yell, and they always make an effort to come early and mingle with any Aggies who come.”
Junior Yell Leader Jacob Huffman said one big difference he notices at away game Yell Practices is the absence of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band.
“The Midnight Yells in Kyle Field are definitely more of a production,” Huffman said. “We don’t have the [Aggie Band] behind us when we aren’t at home, but as far as the stories, the yells and everything like that goes it’s pretty much the exact same thing.”
Away game Midnight Yell practices are open to all Aggies, as well as anyone else who would like to see a Yell Practice but may not be able to make the trip to Kyle Field for home games, Shields said.
“Absolutely everyone is welcome to attend,” Shields said. “We usually have other fans, as well as friends and family at every away Midnight Yell.”
Lana Wright, an LSU fan in attendance at the Baton Rouge Yell Practice, said she didn’t initially understand the tradition, but after experiencing her first Midnight Yell, she understands why people love to attend.
“I thought it was fun,” Wright said. “I didn’t really know what was happening, but it was super fun. I can see why people get into it, and all of the fans were really nice and explained everything to me.”
Agricultural economics junior Nicole Vance was one of the many Aggies in attendance, brushing up on her yells before she heads to Tiger Stadium on Saturday.
“This is my first away Midnight Yell and it’s awesome,” Vance said. “Us being a huge family is just incredible out here.”
This was the last regular season Yell Practice for Senior Yell Leaders Reid Williams, Kenny Cantrell and Karsten Lowe.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Lowe said. “It doesn’t seem too terribly long ago that I did my first one as a Junior Yell Leader, so my thoughts are just about what an honor it has been and just doing my best to empower the 12th Man to be loud for those that are on the road here in Baton Rouge.”