Using old photos, schedules, and my memory, I placed my allegiance somewhere in the 1973 season when I was 6 years old. At that point I didn't really understand what was going on so much, but it all seemed to be a big deal, so I got on board. Growing up in Austin, it was pretty much the default.
Where it really hit overdrive was in the fall of 1975. My mom, knowing I was a fan, spotted a six pack display of Pearl Bear ( Could have been another brand, I still have the cans in my attic so I can check later), sporting the 1975 Texas Longhorns schedule on the back. So she bought a six pack, and my twin brother and I were allowed to finish off the dregs of a few. Not my first taste of the magic elixir, but what an association. As someone famous once said..."Ah, how sweet the wine".
Ended up mostly watching on TV, except for a few Arkansas games and a few "band" days over the years.
Ended up in LHB for 85-88 and the team sucked. Enjoyed the "Shock the Nation" tour while it lasted and I guess I technically finished BBA and MPA in fall of '90 so the Miami debacle didn't occur on my watch.
CSB(re football team sucking): We always had tons of extra people that did not make LHB every fall and "those people", as I liked to call them, were usually swept up by the men's basketball band as a fall back. Womens' bball band was voluntary by game with regulars getting to attend playoff etc. When I first made LHB the men's basketball team sucked, but later on in the early Tom Pender's years they were pretty good and entertaining at least.
When LHB tryout results were posted there were lots of long faces with the directors coming up to the people that didn't make it encouraging them with some kind words and a "hey, you know you can always be in the basketball band".
With the reversal of fortunes between football and basketball, some of my friends and I drunkenly mused once that there would tryouts for the basketball band and the directors would swoop in on the unsuccessful with a "hey, you can always join the LHB on the football side and see if that helps for next year's luck on getting in the basketball band." I guess you had to be there.