Credit: Madi Telschow
The Century Tree stands tall and wide in the center of Texas A&M University’s flagship campus . Among the decades-long traditions unique to the Aggie family, the iconic tree promises lasting love to those who walk beneath its branches. However, to understand how it came to represent so much, one must look at its beginnings — back when Texas A&M was the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas.
“At the time, the campus was a vast grassland, located about five miles south of Bryan, the closest town,” states the late Andy Duffie on a broadcast from Texas A&M’s StoryCorps website. “In those early years, new buildings were being added and there was an increasing demand for firewood to heat the buildings during the winter. Most of the native trees on campus were chopped down to be used as firewood, and it didn't take many years for the campus to become a barren grassland.”
Credit: Madi Telschow
Duffie, founder of the Aggie Century Tree project, explained that the prominent wives on campus soon responded with a campus beautification project. Given no one knew which trees would fare well, the horticulture department undertook the task of determining which trees should be planted for Texas A&M’s soil and climate. “They planted over 70 different species of test trees in three little grove areas around the present-day academic plaza. At the end of that 20-year period, the conclusion was that the live oak was the species of choice. The live oak test subject, planted at 18-inches, had already grown to over 25 feet tall.” That test subject, Duffie explained, was the Century Tree, formerly referred to as the Century Oak.
As it grew, its large, drooping branches came to represent strength and loyalty on campus. “The Century Tree, once a sapling, symbolizes the enduring bonds of the university as well as those forged under the boughs of the tree,” according to the Famous Trees of Texas website, sponsored by the Texas A&M Forest Service.
This symbolism, as most things do at Texas A&M, eventually turned into tradition. According to Texas A&M’s website, it is tradition that if a couple walks together underneath the Century Tree, they will eventually marry — and if a marriage proposal takes place under the tree, the marriage will last forever. “That has made it popular to propose under the Century Tree, especially if you are in the Corps of Cadets,” says Taylor Theriot, a former Texas A&M tour guide. “Cadets will have their buddies (other cadets in their outfit) line up along the sidewalk leading to the tree and make a saber arch, while their significant other walks to them or with them under the tree.”
Credit: San Angel Photo
This tradition is so romanticized that it has even made its way into children’s literature. Anna Meagan: The Aggie Cinderella Story, by Cindy King Boettcher, revives the classic fairy tale to incorporate a whole host of Aggie traditions. With a wave of her Twelfth Man towel (normally waved at athletic events), she is transformed by her “fairy godmother” Miss Reveille (Texas A&M’s mascot) and meets a cadet at the senior class tradition, Ring Dance. At the end, she reunites with him underneath the Century Tree, thus indicating the two will live “happily ever after.”
While this romantic aspect of the tree is most common, there remain a couple, lesser-discussed traditions. One of these is the legend that, while walking under the tree together will bring lasting love, walking under alone will bring lasting loneliness. Fortunately, however, Duffie rebuked this side of the tradition. “This addition of being alone has only come about in the last 15 years,” he said in a 2016 interview with Texas A&M’s student newspaper, The Battalion.
Although the sidewalk that runs through the middle of the tree’s canopy of branches gets the majority of foot traffic, there is also a path that runs underneath a prominent side branch. According to Theriot, those that walk under this branch, known as “the friendship branch,” will be friends forever.
