At 02:42 CST, the Bonfire collapsed.
Word spread through the community quickly. Within hours, fifty satellite trucks were broadcasting from campus. At noon, a prayer service was held at Rudder Fountain. That evening, over sixteen thousand gathered in Reed Arena, including then-Lieutenant Goveroner Rick Perry ('72) to pay tribute to the injured and the dead. The crowd spontaneously linked arms and sang Amazing Grace as TAMU President Ray Bowen presented roses to the families of the dead and injured students. The crowd remained in place until the families and the rescue workers left the building.
On Thursday the 25th, the day the Bonfire was scheduled to burn, over forty thousand gathered in silence at the site of collapse, before proceeding to Kyle Field for Midnight Yell. Former president George H.W. Bush, his wife Barabra, and then-Governor George W Bush were in attendance. At Yell Practice, fans again held a vigil as the Parson Mounted Cavalry fired the The Spirit of '02 twelve times; once for each student lost.
The next day, the Aggies played the Longhorns.
The game began with a flyover of F-16s in missing man formation, donated by Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX). As a senator, Gramm was entitled to a flyover at his funeral. He requested that the flyover instead be given in honor of those who had died at the bonfire.
At halftime, the Longhorn Band flew Aggie flags and played Amazing Grace and then Taps. They then removed their signature white hats as they walked off the field. [VIDEO] The Aggie band performed similarly, performing their signature block T in silence, and marching off the field in silence. [VIDEO]
The Aggies won 20-16.
When Longhorn coach Mack Brown retired in 2013, he was asked what he would change if he could.
>There would be two things. I would want Cole Pittman back. And I would want the bonfire not to have happened at A&M.
For more on the history of the Aggie Bonfire, cheeck out The Burning Desire, which 12th Man Productions has made available for free on their website [HERE]
Muster
Throughout the day, across various platforms, including this thread, you will no doubt see people replying here or simply .. This is in reference to perhaps the most sacred of Aggie traditions, Muster.
Since 1883, Texas A&M alumni have been called together for an annua
... keep reading on reddit ➡If you know an Aggie and they're acting a little despondent today, go ahead and give them a hug.
It's been 17 years, and this day still sneaks up on me. Some years I am able to acknowledge what happened and go on about my day. Some years it hits me like a ton of bricks, and the sorrow damn near crushes me.
12 students died, 27 injured.
I can still remember hearing the news of the collapse that morning after I woke up, and rushing to the phone to call all of my friends to make sure no one I knew was on Stack. My temporary relief turned to sadness days later when Chris Breen was identified as one of the deceased. When they talk about the collapse, they always say, "11 current students and one former student were killed". Chris was the former student.
He was a 'brown pot', which was a senior leader in charge of equipment. His nickname was 'Beavis', after the cartoon character. His nickname was in red tape on the back of his 'pot' (hard hat).
They were handing down the brown pot leadership positions for the next year, which was why Chris was in town, and why he was on Stack.
Bonfire was a cherished Aggie tradition, and a hell of a lot of fun. To see an activity that thousands of students worked on and enjoyed result in the death of their fellow students was absolutely devastating.
Bonfire was always built and lit to show A&M's "burning desire to beat the hell outta t.u.", but it wasn't really about that. Bonfire was lit the night before home games against Texas and two nights before games in Austin, but the game was really tangential to the project. As I've since pointed out to people, you can't get 10-15k college students to give up their weekends and free time during the week to work on a project based on hate. It was about working together with others from all walks of life and all cultures, where who you are or where you're from doesn't matter, because all anyone cares about is how hard you work. It was about developing a work ethic, and accountability. More than any other project at A&M, Bonfire did a great job of teaching students the 'Aggie Spirit'.
When they show the aftermath and the memorial every year, I'm usually able to hold it together until they show the rings. You work your ass off for 3 years (sometimes longer) to earn the right to wear the Aggie Ring. The 11 current students who perished were too young, they hadn't been there long enough to earn their
... keep reading on reddit ➡I built five of them and it's some of the best times I've ever had.
Edit: Well that's embarrassing. Here is 2016 It actually burned that year.
Howdy Ags!!
Cut Class will be returning to campus for the first time in nearly twenty years tomorrow at 7:30 pm in rudder plaza. Come be a part of an old aggie tradition and meet the crews who still build student bonfire, if you've ever thought about joining to help build bonfire this is a great opportunity to meet your fellow aggies and find a crew that you like.
Feel free to ask me if you have any questions about cut class/bonfire/the different crews.
Howdy! Friendly reminder to all of /r/CFB that aggie bonfire burns at 8:50 Central time. You can live stream this event at texags.com. Come join the aggie spirit. #BTHOB #BTHOlsu
Your experiences with the organization, perceptions of what it does and stands for. I just wanted to get a discussion going.
Coming from a construction management perspective, how could 60-70 students be climbing on the 4 story stack of logs at 2:30 AM at the time of collapse? How could this happen? I'm not trying to be disrespectful in any way. I would like to hear from Aggies involved in the tradition in the years leading up to the disaster.
Video from A&M of the Remembrance Game, including the missing man formation flyover.
