The Spirit of Aggieland

"Low and behold, a Red Raider friend of mine text me yesterday, "I feel like you really, really, want me to like the aggies :-p"

Now we have a saying down in A&M, From the outside looking in, you can't understand it. From the inside looking out, you can't describe it. There is one instance, one day, where I think the whole world understood what it meant to be an Aggie- November 18, 1999. But I will write more about Bonfire in a later post. About once a month I am now going to write some special stories about what it means to be an Aggie. And why you may not like us, I bet you have a better understanding as to why we love our school so much.

DERRICK ROLAND

Wednesday night, 3 of Aggies finest basketball players played their last game at Reed Arena: Bryan Davis, Donald Sloan, and Derrick Roland. It was the first time Roland (or D-Ro) had suited up in his uniform since he had a career ending injury during a game in Washington on December 22nd. The team was taking on Washington in Seattle when early on in the 2nd half Roland went up for a bucket. It appears as if his legs got entangled with a Washington player’s and he came down awkwardly. The result was one of the most disgusting images I’ve seen. You can even hear the “crack” sound from when Roland’s leg snapped in a horrific video accessible on YouTube. Check out the Derrick Roland injury video if you think you can endure it, keep in mind that you really only live through it via the reaction of Aggies teammate Donald Sloan.  Donald and Derrick have played on the same basketball team since junior high.  One ESPN article stated, "Texas A&M senior Derrick Roland suffered a horrific broken leg during a basketball game against Washington; he broke both his tibia and his fibula after landing awkwardly and the video will probably go down as one of the most gruesome sports injury vids in history."

To make matters worse, with the incident taking place 3 days before Christmas, all flights were booked for Roland's family to make it to Washington to be with him. Coach Turgeon, manager Dustin Clark, and Donald Sloan stayed in the hospital to keep him company. Several people all over were trying to find Derrick's family a ride out to Washington. Even Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks whose wife is an Aggie, offered to rent a private jet for them to get out there! And guess what? With everyone's help, his family was able to get out there :)

As luck would have it, the Harborview Medical Center (where Roland was taken) is one of the best in the world at these types of injuries. They apparently have specialized equipment that is not available in many places. U.S. News World Report’s 2008 America’s Best Hospitals ranked Harborview among the nation’s top 20 in neurology, neurosurgery and orthopaedics. And the hospital offers a way on its Web site to e-mail patients, and received upwards of 700 of them from fans. "They finally had to tell people no to keep from flooding their system," the team spokesman, Collin Killian said. There was such an overwhelming response, and Roland was getting SO many emails, the staff just couldn't keep up! So a "We Love Derrick Roland #3," group was created on Facebook by an A&M student. Within one day, 900 Facebook users had joined the group. 

And it was not only the Aggie community that offered its support for Roland, after his gruesome, Joe Theismannesque compound fracture of his right leg during the game at Washington. Aggies assistant coach Scott Spinelli told reporters that the team's trainer "almost passed out looking at the injury." But Huskies trainers were there to provide assistance along with team doctors that came out of the stands at Bank of American Arena. The Washington athletic department also blogged the address where Huskies fans could send well wishes.

And as it turns out, Roland even had a Washington-area fan in the operating room with him. One of the doctors prior to performing the surgery had something to tell Roland.

Yep, the doctor was an Aggie.

"(Roland's) face lit up," Killian described. "It put him at ease."

Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon stayed with Roland the whole way through, and Washington coach Lorenzo Romar, whose players tweeted their prayers to Roland that night, after the game, also took time the next day to visit with the player.

"I think it’s fantastic that our fans can separate the competition side from the humanity side," Romar said in a statement. "This game is very small when you look at it from the perspective of what happened last night and the overwhelming support and well-wishes from our supporters is amazing.

"I got a chance to meet with Derrick Roland and his buddy from all the way back in the eighth grade Donald Sloan. He is an outstanding young man and is doing about as well as can be expected. Those are two quality guys and it sounds like Derrick will be able to play again.

"I know I will always be pulling for him and rooting for him in whatever he does in the future and am sure Husky fans feel the same way."

Christmas Eve, the Seattle A&M Club cooked a Christmas dinner for the Roland family and brought it to them in the hospital. And D-Ro had a crowd of fans waiting for him at Easterwood Airport when he arrived back in Texas on Christmas Day.

Some schools talk about being a family, the Aggies live it.