HOUSTON -- Hurricane Gilbert contributed to Texas A&M's tumultuous football season Friday when No. 14 Alabama postponed this weekend's scheduled game because of the storm.
The game was postponed until Dec. 1 because of uncertainty of the intended path of Hurricane Gilbert, Alabama officials said. There also were reports that parents of Alabama team members expressed concern over the trip to Texas.
For two hours after Alabama made the announcement, Texas A&M Coach and Athletic Director Jackie Sherrill tried to convince the Crimson Tide to make the trip to College Station and try to play the contest.
Texas A&M sports information director John Keith said that Sherrill didn't like the decision.
'He was shocked and unhappy but still respected Coach (Bill) Curry's decision,' said Keith. 'He tried to talk Alabama into coming. We have 40,000 to 50,000 fans in town wanting to see this football game.
'We were looking at skies with the sun coming through and our meteorologist didn't think our weather was going to take a turn for the worst. We wanted Alabama to fly in when the weather was good and make the decision later Saturday.'
The Aggies have had a difficult season so far. The three-time defending Southwest Conference champions lost to Nebraska and LSU in their first two games, and last week, the NCAA announced the Aggies had been placed on two years' probation and banned from postseason play this year because of rules violations.
Several other college games were postponed because of Hurricane Gilbert. Sam Houston State's game at Southwestern Louisiana was rescheduled from Saturday to Sunday afternoon. Officials cited the threat of severe winds in the Lafayette, La., area as the reason for the game's delay.
Texas Southern was scheduled to play Southern University Saturday night in Houston, but that contest was moved to Monday night.
The University of Texas announced it will keep its 7 p.m. kickoff time Saturday in Austin against New Mexico while in baseball, the Houston Astros announced they were going ahead with their weekend series against San Francisco.
Alabama Athletic Director Steve Sloan announced the school's decision about an hour after the Tide's scheduled 1 p.m. departure from Tuscaloosa, Ala.
'We could have gotten in safely,' Curry said later. 'It's getting out.'
He said no one could determine the path of Hurricane Gilbert, which struck Mexico about 400 miles south of College Station several hours after the decision was made.
Officials from the two schools and Delta Airlines established a conference call Friday morning to discuss the flight, officials said.
Included in the conference call were Sherrill, Curry, Sloan, Delta Chairman Ron Allen and Delta flight operations chief Buddy Doll.
'The head of flight operations said the airplane is ready to take them there but coming back tomorrow is different,' Delta spokesman Bill Berry said. 'Nobody can say what a hurricane can do.'
Sherrill disagreed with Alabama's decision.
'Our main concern is also in the safety of everybody -- both teams and the 73,000 fans who would be in attendance,' he said. 'Our experts and our meteorologists have different opinions than Alabama's. I'm sitting here looking at blue skies, and I tried to take steps to bring Alabama's team into College Station today, and then if the weather should take a turn for the worse -- if the situation should become dangerous -- we would cancel the game.'
Hurricane Gilbert was about 100 miles southeast of Brownsville at the time the decision was made to postpone the game between Alabama, 1-0, and the unranked Aggies, 0-2.
Alabama interim President Roger Sayers and William Mobley, president of Texas A&M, agreed it was in the best interest of both schools to play the game at a later date.
