Texas Longhorns men's basketball coach Rodney Terry slammed UCF Knights players who celebrated with the infamous “horns down” gesture in front of the team Wednesday night.
Terry's Longhorns trailed by 15 points in the second half and lost 77-71 as Knights players huddled around each other and began taunting Texas fans in the celebrating crowd.
Terry, upset by the gesture, could be heard calling out to his opponents as he lined up to shake hands.
“That's classless!” Terry yelled as he made his way through the handshake line. “That's classless! Don't do that! That's classless!”
terry He spoke in detail at the post-match press conference. On why he was upset about a practice that has been frowned upon in college sports.
“I'm a big believer in winning the right way and losing the right way…. You're on the right path,” Terry said. “There's not going to be six or seven people putting their horns down before they go through the handshake line or get to the handshake line. We don't do that.”
“When you do something like that, it makes you look very classless and it makes you look like you just want to win,” Terry continued. “We never go into a game hoping to win. We go into a game expecting to win, so we don't act like that. We expect to win. We're not jumping up and down, we're acting as if we've won a national championship. We're not going to trample on someone's home court deal or do something crazy or try to make it look like they're going to show up in some way. We would never do that.”
In 2019, the Big 12 Conference banned teams from using the “horns down” symbol as unsportsmanlike conduct.
Although the imposed ban on this gesture has since been enforced, it is clear that many fans and players today do not care about this ruling.
The “Horns Down” symbol was first used by Baylor students in 1963, and the now-infamous gesture received much attention. According to the Daily Texan.
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Fans on social media had a field day after coach Terry went viral for allegedly barking at a Knights player.
“Adults who abuse children from the other team in the handshake line after a loss may also be considered lacking in dignity.'' X user replied.
Another fan commented under the video: “Yeah, it's so 'classy' to bark at the other team when you just got stomped at home.”
“That's not class…hahaha they let you down…so lower your horn, hahahaha,” joked a fan Video posted by Bleacher Report.
