Aggies everywhere can take part online in one of Texas A&M University’s most revered annual traditions on April 21 as the Muster Live website, MusterLive.AggieNetwork.com, livestreams both the Texas A&M campus Muster and the live Worldwide Roll Call for the Absent.
Aggie Muster is a more than century-old tradition in which Texas A&M students and former students (alumni) hold hundreds of gatherings worldwide on or near April 21.
In the Brazos Valley, there will be at least six Musters this year, from Franklin to Brenham – see the map at tx.ag/FindAMuster.
These Musters can be casual or formal, held in backyards, restaurants, hotel ballrooms or parks (tx.ag/MusterPhotos). Most include a reading of the names of local Aggies lost in the past year. The traditional date of San Jacinto Day (April 21) honors Texas independence, and the term "muster," meaning a gathering (as of military troops), was first applied in the 1940s.
For Aggies who can’t make it to a Muster in person, the Muster Live website gives the chance to watch the annual Worldwide Roll Call of over 1,350 names as well as the campus Muster, attended by thousands in College Station.
The Worldwide Roll Call begins at 6:51 a.m. The Association of Former Students and volunteers will read more than 1,350 names on the 2022 Muster roll of Aggies who have passed away since 2021's Muster and answer "Here" for each. At 7 p.m., the campus Muster livestream will begin. Both events can be replayed on the website after they conclude.
Muster Live also allows Aggies, family and friends to upload photos and remembrances. For 2022, this "Muster Reflections" feature will go live on April 19.
Order of names: During the Worldwide Roll Call, which takes some 2.5 hours, most names will be ordered with the earliest A&M Class years first. (Some names will be called at the end; these were reported after April 12.) Within each Class year, names are alphabetized.
Very early Class years: The beginning of 2022’s Worldwide Roll Call will include A&M Class years as far back as 1909, 1913 and 1921. In such cases, the death may have occurred more than a year ago, but The Association had not yet been notified.
The Muster Live website was created in 2020 by The Association of Former Students (A&M’s alumni organization) and Texas A&M so that Aggies could gather for Muster virtually. It has become an annual tradition. The Worldwide Roll Call reading was created in 2018 by The Association to ensure that every Aggie name would be called and answered with “Here.”
For more information, visit tx.ag/WatchMusterLive2022.
The Association of Former Students, established in 1879, is the official alumni organization of Texas A&M University. The Association connects hundreds of thousands of members of the worldwide Aggie Network with each other and the university, and provided $13.6 million in impact to university scholarships, awards, traditions and student activities and recognition for students, faculty, staff and former students in 2021. For more information, visit www.AggieNetwork.com.
Contributed by Scot Walker ’90, vice president, Communications for Aggie Network.