ETAMU and the Mystery Above: A History of UFOs on Campus and Beyond
By East Texas A&M Marketing and Communications
From campus legends to congressional hearings, East Texas A&M's fascination with UFOs spans decades of wonder, debate and discovery.
This feature is part of East Texas A&M's annual October Spooky Stories Series. Stay tuned for more eerie tales and campus curiosities throughout the month.
“These flying saucer stories are getting bigger and better all the time,” proclaimed an article in the March 31, 1950, issue of East Texas A&M’s student newspaper. Indeed, whether it's 1950 or 2025, or somewhere in between, students, faculty and the community have long been curious about mysteries hidden in the night sky.
East Texas A&M hasn't shied away from the topic of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) over the years. The university has hosted scientific experts, offered astronomy and chemistry courses that explore life beyond Earth, and provided a platform for speculation about what might be out there.
UFOs and Students
In March 1950, before the term “UFO” was widely used, The East Texan published the article referenced above called, “Students Offer Explanations for Flying Saucers.” In it, students shared their theories about UFOs. Some thought they were government experiments, while others speculated they were visitors from another solar system. One student’s reply was simply, “They’re watching us.”
Less than a month later, in April 1950, The East Texan published another article on the subject. Titled “Saucer Theories Include ‘The Impossible,’” the article theorized that perhaps Hollywood was to blame for flying saucers, or carefully thrown hubcaps, or “Texas mosquitos fitted with neon lights and radar screens,” or simply hallucinatory tricks of the mind.
The article even mentioned a Texas farmer who claimed flying saucers sprayed his land with kerosene to help keep the bugs away. How kind of the aliens to turn the man’s farm into a blazing inferno waiting to happen!
These varied—and often wild—explanations continue in 2025. Conversations on campus reveal that modern students hold various opinions about what UFOs might be—from aliens and government projects to natural phenomena.
UFOs and Education
It’s not just students who have speculated about UFOs over the years at East Texas A&M. There have also been educational pursuits with links to UFOs and alien life.
- In 1967, an ETAMU first-year sociology class taught by Ross Henderson conducted a “seek the truth” experiment in which they interviewed a woman who claimed the peculiar and rather gruesome death of her horse was related to UFO sightings around her farm in Colorado.
- In 1972, a chemistry course taught by Dr. Denis J. Quane sought to find the probability of intelligent life outside of Earth by combining the disciplines of astronomy, geology, biology, physics and chemistry.
- In 1978 and ‘79, the university employed a physics professor named Dr. Arlen R. Zander, who gave several public lectures about UFOs. His thoughts varied on the topic, but judging from The East Texan articles that covered the events, he was open to the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors.
- Even today, East Texas A&M offers Astronomy 120 – Life in the Universe, a course taught by Assistant Professor Billy Quarles. “We start by studying the scientific and philosophical background of life existing elsewhere,” said Quarles about the class. “We study how our views of the universe have changed over time. We study biology—how cells work and how life evolved here on Earth. We cover the search for habitable environments elsewhere, including in our own Solar System.”
UFOs and Experts
Like any field of study, ufology (the study of UFOs) has its share of experts. In this age of easy media, when documentaries and clickbait videos about UFOs are as common as hot days in a Texas summer, the experts can be hard to differentiate from the charlatans. But East Texas A&M has, in fact, been visited by a few prominent figures from the world of ufology.
- In 1972, Stanton Friedman, a nuclear physicist turned UFO researcher, gave a presentation on the subject to the Forum Arts Assembly on campus. Friedman was one of the first scientists to publicly advocate that some UFOs could be extraterrestrial. He was a leading proponent of the Roswell incident investigation.
- In 1973, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a noted astronomer and professor who worked several years with the U.S. Air Force on Project Blue Book, spoke with East Texas physics students about UFOs. Dr. Hynek began his career as a skeptic but later concluded that some UFO reports merited serious scientific study. He founded the Center of UFO Studies (CUFOS) and coined the classification system of close encounters.
- In 1990 and again in 2005, Robert Hastings, a researcher and author best known for documenting UFO activity near nuclear weapons facilities, gave lectures on campus. His work, particularly through witness testimony from military personnel, argues that UFOs have shown sustained interest in nuclear programs.
UFOs and Texas
Though Roswell, New Mexico, has long been the site of the most well-known UFO incident, the Lone Star State is no stranger to happenings of a similar nature.
In fact, according to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), there are 6,583 UFO report entries for Texas alone. Four of those reports come from Commerce, the most recent in 2013, when someone lounging by their swimming pool one night claimed to have seen two stars flying side by side across the sky.
Here are some of the more prominent UFO cases in Texas:
- Aurora UFO Incident (1897) – A cigar-shaped flying craft reportedly crashed on a farm in Aurora. The wreckage was said to contain a small humanoid body, which was buried in the local cemetery. Some say the incident was a hoax, but it remains a cornerstone of Texas UFO lore.
- Lubbock Lights (1951) – Dozens of witnesses, including Texas Tech professors, reported seeing strange V-shaped formations of lights moving silently across the sky. Photographs were taken, and though skeptics suggested birds reflecting light, the incident remains unexplained to this day.
- Cash-Landrum Incident (1980) – Near Huffman, three witnesses (Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum and Vickie’s grandson) reported encountering a diamond-shaped UFO emitting flames. Soon after, they all suffered radiation-like symptoms, like burns, nausea and even hair loss. Dozens of helicopters were allegedly escorting the craft, leading the women to believe the Air Force was involved. Cash and Landrum even brought a lawsuit against the U.S. government for damages relating to their health, but the case was eventually dropped.
- Stephenville Lights (2008) – Hundreds of Stephenville residents reported massive, silent objects with bright lights moving quickly across the sky. Radar later confirmed the unknown objects. The story was widely covered by the media, even making its way into The East Texan in an article written by Cody Giles. Dr. Kent Montgomery, who is still with the university, now as department head for the Department of Mathematics, commented in the article, “There’s no doubt they saw something, but the chances of it actually being something that cannot be explained are very slim.”
UFOs and Reality
At East Texas A&M and beyond, people often see things in the sky they do not understand. Even today, there is regular testimony in front of Congress from former military personnel about unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP)—the latest hot term in this field of study, which is meant to be a broader term that encompasses more than just objects in the sky.
Dr. Curt Carlson, professor in the Department of Psychology and Special Education at ETAMU, who has conducted research into eyewitness memory for over 20 years, feels that unreliable memories may be to blame for some reports.
“The fundamental principles of memory that apply to eyewitnesses of crimes would also apply to eyewitnesses of UFOs,” Carlson said. “For example, if reporting a UFO sighting from many years ago, memory has become too contaminated since the original event to be trustworthy.”
Taking into account more recent sightings, Carlson continued, “As for an eyewitness reporting a UFO sighting from just a day ago, false memory is not as significant an issue. But misperception of common objects as UFOs certainly is.”
Indeed, many of the reports on the NUFORC website come in mere days, if not hours, after the alleged events occurred. So, is it possible that so many people are just misinterpreting what they see in the sky?
Quarles thinks there may be another explanation besides misidentification.
“Sure, some of the sightings are probably misidentified natural phenomena,” he said. “And some are going to be satellites and drones. But I suspect much of it is secret military projects. Obviously, for something secret, the military can’t just come out and say it’s us.”
If some, maybe even all, UFO sightings can be explained by misinterpretation, the fog of memory and secret government projects, does that mean aliens don’t exist?
Not necessarily.
“Microbes of some kind probably exist elsewhere in the universe,” Quarles said. “But aliens up and around talking like us…who knows. It’s possible, but communication across vast distances would be so difficult, we’re not even sure it can be done. The closest star outside of our Sun is four light-years away. We’d be better served, for now, looking for evidence of life on Mars.”
UFOs and You
So, what do we do with this information?
The question of UFOs and aliens has been something people have wrestled with for many years. Even at East Texas A&M, the topic has occasionally arisen for at least three-quarters of a century, likely longer.
And the discussion will most assuredly continue for many more years—at least until flying saucers land on the White House lawn—or maybe the Great Lawn at East Texas A&M—in grand Hollywood fashion.