White Aggie coveralls were Corps 'Uniform No. 3'

Coming soon: Read about modern Texas A&M Corps of Cadets uniforms from alphas to midnights in the upcoming "Guide to Corps Uniforms" this July from The Association of Former Students online and in Texas Aggie magazine.

Today's Texas A&M University cadets wear their Class C uniforms (camouflage-patterned utility clothing) in situations such as field training and laboratory classes that may involve chemicals or biological matter.

But from the 1930s to the 1950s, the Corps had a type of duty uniform that doesn't look as military to the modern eye.

Officially called "Uniform No. 3" in 1938 college regulations but widely known as "Aggie coveralls," they were typically white with some sort of Aggie logo or seal on the back. 

The Texas A&M designs on the back varied widely, because you could buy your Aggie coveralls from a range of suppliers. 

Photos from Aggie yearbooks and the Texas A&M Cushing Memorial Library and Archives show cadets in these coveralls working on Bonfire and assisting fellow students during move-in and registration.

A 1936 film by The Association of Former Students shows students wearing them in a chemistry lab, and a 1943 Battalion item notes that students working concessions at football games are to wear "white coveralls."

Incidentally, there appears to be no link between these one-piece white coveralls and the Aggie yell leaders' two-piece white uniforms. The yell leaders had begun wearing white at least two decades earlier, by 1915 — and there's also no evidence for the old story that the yell leaders' uniforms originated when freshmen raided a janitor's closet for white coveralls.