NTXCoog

We whooped their women's basketball LAST year. And the only soccer team in town is Brian Ching's Dynamo. I had forgtten about the women's victory last year, and who would figure that neither Rice nor UH would have men's soccer programs? Thanks for the information.I was looking at the UH athletic site and they have a picture of Mack and his wife giving some sort of three fingered gesture that I presume is a Cougar tradition. It looks like a combination of "Hook 'em Horns" and the middle finger. Seeing as how much UT and the other "old school" Southwestern Conference teams used to look down upon UH, perhaps it is A quick wikipedia search said it was the Cougar Paw.Yeah doesn't look like any cougar paw I've ever seenWhile many do like the thought that it's basically giving UT the middle finger, that's not the official story. The official story does involve UT though (from the UH athletics site)..."In Texas, all of the major universities have adopted a hand sign which signifies to all other Texans where your loyalties lie. The Cougar Hand Sign is no different. Although the original hand sign was the "V" for Victory until 1965, events conspired and a new hand sign was adopted. The inaugural football game between University of Houston and University of Texas during the 1953 campaign witnessed the birth of a blood rivalry between the state's two largest universities at that time. However, it also led to the adoption of another Cougar Hand Sign. During her transport from Houston to Austin, one of the fingers on Shasta's paw was severed when the cage door was closed. As the University of Texas partisans and players caught wind of the accident, they mimicked the animal by bending their thumb over the ring finger against their palm. This gesture implied that the Cougars were invalids. The Cougars would go on to lose the game 28-7. The cougar faithful, still mindful of the stinging defeat suffered 15 years earlier, never forgot the taunting that they received. The next time the two teams faced off (1968... a whole 15 years later), UH tied UT 20-20. At that point, the students thought there might be a bit of magic in that sign, and the hand sign was adopted replacing the "V". In 1976, the Cougars first football season in the Southwest Conference, the Coogs & Horns met for the third time ever. The Coogs put a beating on the Longhorns that they have yet to forget 30-0 (a.k.a.the "Dad's Day Massacre") in front of the largest crowd to assemble in Memorial Stadium at that time. That victory ended the Longhorns famed winning streak, and the embarrassment also signaled the end of legendary UT Coach Darryl K. Royal's career. After that victory, the Cougar Hand Sign became firmly entrenched. "So yes it is a paw, it's just missing a toe.