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