Even before the invention of color television, savvy businesspeople were using the Texas versus Texas A&M football rivalry to bring patrons through the door. 

Back in 1940, movie theaters made front-page news by offering Texans an opportunity to relive that year’s Lone Star Showdown. 

“UT To Beat A&M All Over Again,” read a small headline on the Nov. 29 edition of the Austin Statesman. The brief news story called the Longhorns’ victory “better drama than the fictional screen ever unfolded,” and declared that movie-goers would be treated to supplemental scenes from Texas’ 7-0 win over the Aggies on Nov. 28. 

The unlikely nature of Texas’ victory helped fuel that over-the-top public response. Scoring the only points of the game on their first drive, the Longhorns snapped a 19-game Texas A&M winning streak, unseated the defending national champions and denied the Aggies a place in the Rose Bowl. 

For just the second time since that Thanksgiving day in 1940, Texas A&M is coming to Austin in 2025 with a perfect record. A place in the SEC championship game, which the Aggies have never participated in since joining the conference in 2012, is at stake. 

The Longhorns are underdogs, the bookmakers say. Most popular sportsbooks made Texas A&M a 2.5-point favorite heading into Friday’s clash at Royal-Memorial Stadium. Texas’ players aren’t exactly in a rush to adopt that narrative, though.

“I think we know what we’re capable of,” Texas defensive end Ethan Burke said. “Who does the sportsbooks? Have they ever played college football? Probably not.” 

Burke won’t be the only Longhorn unaccustomed to viewing the Aggies as the favorites in this longstanding rivalry. Texas holds a 77-37-5 all-time advantage over Texas A&M in the series, which dates all the way back to 1894. Texas has won 10 of the 13 matchups played this century, including last year’s tilt in College Station. 

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But, throughout history, the Longhorns have occasionally shown up to the Lone Star Showdown looking to spoil Texas A&M’s fun, as they did back in 1940.

On 28 occasions, the Aggies have entered rivalry week with at least two more victories on their ledger than Texas. When that is the case, Texas holds a 10-16-2 record. Its most recent victory under those circumstances came in 1998, when Ricky Williams broke the NCAA’s all-time rushing yards record with a 60-yard touchdown in the first quarter. 

That year, the 7-3 Longhorns built a 23-7 lead over the 10-1 Aggies, but saw A&M break off 17 unanswered points to take a one-point lead with 2:20 remaining. That necessitated some heroics from quarterback Major Applewhite and kicker Kris Stockton, who booted through a 24-yard field goal with five seconds remaining for the win. 

In recent history, that’s just about the only upset success the Longhorns have managed over the Aggies. Since 1960, Texas A&M is 11-1 against Texas when entering Thanksgiving week with two or more victories than Texas. Coaches Jackie Sherrill and RC Slocum routinely bested some bad Texas teams. Between 1986 and Mack Brown’s hiring before the 1998 season, the Longhorns lost five or more games nine times. 

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Before 1960, though, Texas often upset A&M teams with records that looked better on paper, holding a 9-5-2 mark against Aggies teams that held at least a two-game advantage in the win column. In 1938, a winless Texas team turned up at Memorial Stadium and beat the middling Aggies 7-6. 

“Not a handful of fans, huddled against the autumn chill inside the huge horseshoe where an Aggie team had never won, dreamed it could happen,” the Austin American’s Weldon Hart wrote in the next day’s edition. 

This year’s Longhorns don’t face the same odds. Texas, at 8-3, was the preseason’s No. 1-ranked team and has already beaten two top-10 foes on the year. 

Upsetting the unbeaten Aggies won’t require a miracle, but it would certainly make a lasting memory. 

“We’ve got to prepare really well so we can play our best football,” Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian said. “Because our best football will be needed next Friday night.”