Brett Abrams

UNVR 295

Knight

“Aggie Bonfire”

From its inauguration as a scrap bundle to the more familiar and remarkable stack

of erect logs, the Texas Aggie Bonfire symbolized every Aggie's "burning desire" (1) to

beat the University of Texas in football. Attracting between 30,000 and 70,000 people

each year to watch it burn, Bonfire became a symbol of the profound and exclusive

companionship that is the Aggie Spirit.

In preparation for the much-anticipated yearly football game against "t.u." (2), as

Aggies submit to their foe the student constructed Texas Aggie Bonfire would burn after

Yell Practice. The lighting ritual incorporated the playing of "The Spirit of Aggieland" by

the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band and the customary appraisal of "The Last Corps Trip"

poem. An outhouse, known as the "t.u. tea room" or "t.u. frat house" was built by

sophomores in the Aggie band and sat atop the accomplished Bonfire. Aggie tradition has

it that if the Bonfire stood until after midnight, they would commence victory in the

game.

Since the original Bonfire in 1909, Texas A&M students have banded collectively

each year to build and blaze the Bonfire, and in the progression helped it to grow into the

largest in the world. Bonfire burned each year through 1998, with the exception of 1963.
That year Bonfire was built but torn down in a tribute to President John F. Kennedy who

was assassinated on November 22, 1963. Texas A&M Head Yell Leader Mike Marlowe

said, "It is the most we have and the least we can give."

In 1967, responsibility for Bonfire construction was transferred from the Yell

Leaders to "Red Pots, (4)" students purposely chose to map and construct the stack. The

safety helmets or "pots" worn by Bonfire construction workers were decorated a mixture

of colors to delegate the hierarchy of tasks.

In 1955, Bonfire was moved from Simpson Drill Field in front of the Memorial

Student Center to Duncan Field, behind the Corps of Cadets vicinity, where it was held

for 37 years. The 1992 Bonfire marked the first year Bonfire was built in its final home

on the Polo Fields.

The students of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, burned their

first bonfire on November 18, 1907 to praise the football team on a current win.

Freshmen were expected to build the early Bonfires to help prove their merit. For almost

two decades, the students constructed Bonfire from rubble and wood attained through a

range of unlawful means including appropriating lumber intended for a dormitory in

1912. In 1935, a farmer reported that students carried off his whole barn as fuel for

Bonfire. To prevent future incidents, the university made Bonfire a school-sanctioned

event. The next year, for the first time, the school provided axes, saws, and trucks for the

students and pointed them toward a grove of dead trees on the edge of town.
 On November 18, 1999, the 40-foot mass of logs, consisting of about 5000

collapsed during construction. Of the “58 students and former students working on the

stack, 12 were killed and 27 were injured” (3). Within minutes of the collapse, members

of Texas Task Force 1, the state's elite emergency response team, arrived to begin the

rescue efforts. Rescue operations took over 24 hours; the pace was in an inferior position

by the fact that many of the logs were detached by hand for fear that using heavy

equipment to remove them would cause further collapses, resulting in further injuries to

those still trapped. Students, including the entire Texas A&M football team and many

members of the university's Corps of Cadets, rushed to the site to assist rescue workers

with manually removing the logs. The Texas A&M civil engineering department was also

called on to inspect the site and help the workers decide the order in which the logs could

be safely removed. Due to this horrifying accident the Aggies no longer carry this

tradition at their University. Although a disappointment it is what is best for the safety of

all.

“A memorial was constructed on the university polo fields, the site of the

accident. Construction began in October 2003 and was completed by November 2004. On

November 18, 2004, five years following the event, the Bonfire Memorial was officially

dedicated.(2)” The memorial is composed of three design elements.

These events no longer allowed the University to have bonfires on the site of their

campus, but the faithful students of A&M have continued the tradition through out the

years. They go to an off campus site to burn their own bonfire. Of course this fire is not
as immense as the ones in the past but although small it means a lot to the Aggie

community.

References

www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/33473279.html

www.replayphotos.com/texasamphotos/traditions-print/aggie-bonfire_1048.cfm - 45k

http://aggietraditions.tamu.edu/bonfire.shtml

www.thebatt.com/news/2001/11/16/Opinion/Aggie.Bonfire-516410.shtml - 45k