Aggie Bonfire

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Aggie Bonfire was a long-standing tradition at Texas A&M University as part of a college rivalry connected especially with college football. For ninety years, Texas A&M students built and burned a large bonfire on campus each fall. Known simply as Bonfire, the annual fall event symbolized the students' "burning desire to beat the hell outta t.u.," the Aggies' nickname for the University of Texas at Austin. The last official Bonfire burned in 1998. A Bonfire was constructed in 1999, but collapsed before it was finished, killing eleven students and one former student and injuring 27 others. Although Texas A&M has declared a hiatus on resuming the construction of an official school-sponsored Bonfire, in 2001 a student-sponsored coalition began building an unsanctioned annual Bonfire off-campus that continues to the present.

Bonfire

The structure was built around a "Centerpole", made from two telephone poles spliced together by cutting matching notches, approximately ten feet long, that are then joined with five gallons of glue. Four steel plates were then bolted to the two poles, and a 3/8 inch cable is wrapped around the joint and secured to the pole with steel staples. Four perimeter poles were placed 150 feet away and ropes were stretched between the perimeter poles to center poles and tension placed on them to hold the centerpole together. After the Centerpole was erected, logs were placed vertically around it in a multi-tiered wedding cake design composed of thousands of logs (earlier versions used a smaller "teepee" configuration). Construction was performed voluntarily by Texas A&M students, beginning in early October.[1] Students are organized into teams, usually according to which dormitory or Corps unit they belong (with a special team for Aggies who live off-campus). Former students sometimes also participate, joining the team according to where they lived while in college. Each team is then scheduled to work certain shifts, although a student was not limited to working only his or her team's shifts. Students working on Bonfire wear "grodes," old tshirts, jeans and boots that they do not mind getting filthy. By tradition, grodes are not washed until after Bonfire burns, if ever (some old Ags still have their grodes). To alleviate the smell, the grodes were often hung from dorm windows.[2]

In modern Bonfires, the logs used for construction were donated by local landowners who wanted their land cleared.[1] "Cut", the process of actually cutting down the logs with axes, takes place over several weekends, and then, during "Load", were brought to campus. "Stack", in which the logs are wired together and Bonfire actually construced, takes three weeks. Near the end of stack, known as push, students work around the clock in rotating shifts. The first four of the six stacks were built with the efforts of all interested and safety-trained Bonfire participants. The day before Bonfire was scheduled to burn, junior redpots would build the fifth stack, and then senior redpots would build the sixth. To ensure safety during stack, a perimeter was maintained around the working area, and only students who had been safety-trained were allowed through. Cranes, donated by local construction companies, were used to assist in getting the logs onto the upper tiers, and volunteers from those companies were on-hand at all times to offer advice. Emergency medical technicians were also required to be on site at all times, and no more than 70 students were allowed on the stack at any one time.[1] It is estimated that over 8000 logs were used in each year in the late 1990s, taking about 5000 students a combined 125,000 man-hours to construct.[3]

Once the stack was finished, an orange outhouse painted with derogatory statements about rival University of Texas at Austin (burnt orange being one of UT's school colors) was then placed on top.[4] With this finishing touch, it was doused with 700 pounds of jet fuel, applied by staff members at A&M's Fire Training School, and set on fire on the night before the annual football game against UT. The spiral arrangement of the logs was designed to make Bonfire collapse into itself in a twisting motion, thus protecting the fans watching. This event was very popular amongst current and former students and people would travel from all over the state and even the nation to observe the burning of Bonfire. Crowds were usually estimated at between 30,000 and 70,000 people, depending on the weather and the strength of the Aggie football team.[1]

Leadership structure

To safely manage the large number of participants, a special leadership structure was instituted. Leaders are identified by the color of their "pots" (helmets). The various leadership positions are as follows:

Crew chief: Crew chiefs are in charge of each dorm's crew while at Cut, Stack, and in the case of Walton Hall crew chiefs, Load, serving as both instructors and supervisors. With larger dorms, there will be multiple crew chiefs to ensure that there is adequate supervision of the larger crews.

Yellowpot: Yellowpots are the liaison to higher on-site leadership for crews. Each dorm with an adequate number of volunteers will have a yellowpot designated who serves as spokesman for that dorm, as well as manager to the crew chiefs of his/her dorm.

Greenpot: Greenpots are in charge of administrative and financial aspects. These students, are responsible for things such as checking people in at the beginning of the day, managing finances, and dealing with paperwork, but are rarely involved with the physical labor, unless they volunteer for it.

Brownpot: Brownpots are in charge of machinery at Cut and Stack. They are most often seen operating chainsaws and preparing lights at Stack. There are 5 brownpots, usually three from the Corps of Cadets and two representing the civilian, or non-reg, participants.[1] Unofficially, Brownpots have a reputation for causing mischief for the upper leadership.

Greypot: Phased out of use. Originally, the Greypots were known as "climbers" or "swing monkeys", and would climb Centerpole to secure logs during Stack, and ran axe maintenance stations at Cut. Eventually, they were phased out and combined with the Redpots, but were brought back for a short time as a replacement for the Redpots while the Reds debated passing down their lines.

Redpots: Redpots are the leaders of Bonfire. These nine seniors and nine juniors were in charge of Bonfire as a whole, from the design of the structure to ensuring that all participants were following safety precautions while overseeing both Cut and Stack. There was no official written documentation for Bonfire, and all applicable information was passed orally from one year's redpots to the next. Senior redpots were responsible for training the junior redpots in the proper process and procedures for building the next year's Bonfire. The head redpot, who has ultimate authority over Bonfire, is known as Head Stack.[1]

The leadership roles themselves change each year as they are given, or "passed down", to younger students. The process for determining who gets the responsibility of these roles changes from pot to pot, but ultimately, the candidates are voted on according to who best represents the desired qualities. In the cases of crew chiefs and Yellowpots, the vote is decided within the dorm by the leaders for that year, and candidates are usually chosen from the freshman of that dorm. For the higher positions, such as the Redpots, the candidates are chosen from the pool of crew chiefs and Yellows. The Greenpots are the only non-dorm-specific pots that do not use crew chiefs or Yellowpots as candidates.

Replant

Main article: Aggie Replant

Replant is a one-day environmental service project carried out by student volunteers at Texas A&M University. Each fall semester, thousands of Aggies work together to plant hundreds of trees at public schools, parks and other properties in order to improve the local environment. The event was begun in 1990 by Scott Hantman in response to Bonfire critics who lamented the fact that Aggies cut down many trees but did not compensate the environment. Scott teamed up with Bonfire leaders and, in spring of 1991, they planted 400 trees. Today, Replant has a tree farm at the Texas A&M Riverside campus in Bryan, Texas and has its own Student Government committee. Though it is no longer directly associated with Bonfire, in the spring of 2000 Replant volunteers planted twelve live oak trees at the Texas A&M Polo Grounds in memory of the twelve victims of the 1999 Bonfire collapse.[5]

History

Early years

The first Aggie Bonfire, a heap of trash and debris, was burned on the Texas A&M University campus in 1909 to generate enthusiasm for a variety of sporting events. In 1919 A&M and the University of Texas began scheduling an annual game near Thanksgiving Day, and in 1920 the Bonfire began to be used specifically to fire up the students before that football game.[6] For almost two decades, the Bonfire consisted of debris and pieces of wood that Aggies "found," including lumber intended for a dormitory that students appropriated in 1912.[3] After an angry farmer reported in 1935 that the Corps of Cadets had carried off his entire barn to serve as fuel for the Bonfire, the university made Bonfire a school-sanctioned event so that the administration would have more control. In 1936, for the first time, the school provided axes, saws, and trucks for the students and pointed them towards a grove of dead trees on the edge of town.[6]

Beginning in 1941, fresh-cut logs became the main ingredient of the Bonfire, and within five years the stack had begun to take a more formal shape, as a center pole began to provide a structure that the other logs could rest against.[6] With the additional structure, the Bonfire could grow from 25 feet tall to over 50 feet tall.[3]

The 1943 Bonfire was featured in the movie We've Never Been Licked. In 1955, the Bonfire site was changed from Simpson Drill Field in front of the Memorial Student Center to Duncan Field, near the Corps of Cadets dorms. Two years later, the Bonfire scheduled to be built in 1957 collapsed two days before it was scheduled to be burned. Students worked around-the-clock to rebuild the structure, and were able to finish and burn the Bonfire on time.[1]

During the time period, the students at the University of Texas, unhappy with the premise behind Bonfire, tried multiple times to ignite the stack early. In 1933 and again in 1948, UT students rented an airplane and dropped fire bombs from the air onto the stack. In 1956 they attempted to plant explosives at the Bonfire site and blow up the stack. None of the attempts worked.[1]

1960s

"Non-regs," or civilian students, were allowed to work alongside the Corps of Cadets in building the Bonfire beginning in 1963.[7] Unfortunately, the stack they built that year was willingly dismantled for the first time in Aggie history. The stack was scheduled to burn only days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and students decided to give up their bonfire out of respect.[6] As head yell leader Mike Marlowe explained, "It is the most we have and the least we can give."[7]

In the following years the Bonfire began to be more and more elaborate, until in 1967 the flames could be seen 25 miles away. By 1969 the stack had reached 111 feet tall.[6] Out of safety concerns, the university then limited the size of the Bonfire to 55 tall and 45 feet in diameter.[3] As an added precaution, nearby campus buildings were equipped with rooftop sprinkler systems.[6]

1970s - 1980s

The Guinness Book of Records listed Aggie Bonfire as the largest Bonfire on the planet in the 1970s. Later in the decade, a College Station police officer was fired after trying to ignite Bonfire several days ahead of schedule. Students spotted the officer and chased him across campus before he could succeed in his mission. In 1983, the city of College Station began manufacturing signs saying "Austin City Limits" for students to place at the summit of the Bonfire so that students would stop stealing the real signs from Austin.[6]

In 1978, Bonfire shifted from its previous teepee design to a wedding-cake style, in which upper stacks of logs were wedged on top of lower stacks.[1] The following year, the Women's Bonfire Committee was formed as women were allowed to assist with the construction of Bonfire for the first time. Eight years later students founded the all-female Bonfire Reload Crew to provide refreshments to students working at cut and stack.[8]

1990s

In 1992, Bonfire was moved from Duncan Field to the Polo Fields on the northwest corner of A&M's campus. The Polo Fields are a more isolated site, with a larger area for people to gather, making it a safer location. In an ironic twist, two years after this move, Bonfire fell early for the second time.[1] After heavy rains in 1994, the Bonfire began to slowly lean to the side as the soil underneath shifted. Student officials had enough warning to clear the area and tear down the Bonfire one week before its scheduled burn date before anyone was injured.[8][6] Students and alumni flocked to the Polo Fields, working around the clock, to rebuild the Bonfire in time for the game.[7]

Injuries

For roughly forty-five years, Bonfire was constructed and burned with few serious injuries. As the endeavor became larger, involving more students and requiring longer hours, injuries began to occur. In 1955, a student was struck and killed by a swerving car. Another student died in 1981 when he was crushed by a tractor hauling wood. Other students have been injured, some losing fingers, and others suffering only scrapes and bruises.[6]

Collapse

Bonfire Recovery, November 19, 1999

At 2:40 AM on 18 November 1999, the 40-foot high stack, consisting of about 5000 logs, collapsed during construction.[1] Of the 58 students and former students working on the stack, 12 were killed and 27 others were injured.[1] Within minutes of the collapse, members of the Texas Task Force 1, the state's elite emergency response team, had arrived to begin the rescue efforts.[9] Rescue operations took over twenty-four hours; the pace was hampered by the fact that many of the logs were removed by hand for fear that using heavy equipment to remove the logs 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.[10][1] The Texas A&M civil engineering department was also called on to examine the site and help the workers decide in which order the logs could be safely removed,[9] and, at the request of the Texas Forest Service, Steely Lumber Company in Huntsville, Texas sent log-moving equipment and operators.[1] Bonfire survivor John Comstock was the last living person to be removed from the stack, and spent months in the hospital, following amputation of his left leg and partial paralysis of his right side. Comstock would eventually return to A&M in 2001 and complete his degree.

The Aggie Family unites

Within minutes of the collapse of the stack, word of the accident began to spread amongst the students and the community and before long was the subject of news reports around the nation. Within hours, over 50 satellite trucks were broadcasting from the Texas A&M campus.[1] At noon, students held an impromptu prayer service in the center of campus, at Rudder Fountain.[11] A quickly organized official memorial service was held less than fifteen hours after the collapse. Over 16,000 mourners, including Texas politician Rick Perry packed Reed Arena to pay tribute to those who died and those who had spent all day trying to rescue the injured. At the end of the service, as A&M president Ray Bowen presented roses to the families of the dead and injured students, the crowd spontaneously stood in silence, linking arms with those standing next to them, before quietly singing Amazing Grace. Only after all of the rescue workers and family members had left the facility did the audience depart.[12]

On November 25, 1999, the date that Bonfire would have burned, Aggies instead held a vigil and remembrance ceremony. Over 40,000 people lit candles and observed up to two hours of silence at the site of the Bonfire collapse, before walking to Kyle Field for yell practice. At the stadium, fans spontaneously relit their candles as the Parsons Mounted Calvary fired the Aggie cannon twelve times, once for each victim.[11] Former President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara and then-Texas governor George W. Bush and his wife Laura attended the remembrance ceremony.[11]

The following day, the Aggies upset the Texas Longhorns, winning 20-16 in the annual rivalry game. The game began with a flyover of F-16 jets piloted by A&M former students in the Missing man formation. At halftime, the Texas Longhorn band dedicated their performance to the students lost and injured in the collapse, and ended by playing Amazing Grace, then removing their white hats in a show of respect as they walked off the field. Aggie students, who normally sit only when the opposing band plays, stood throughout the performance before giving their rivals a standing ovation.[13]

The Bonfire Memorial Commission collected the hundreds of thousands of items that were left by grieving visitors at the site of the Bonfire collapse. The most moving tribute to the fallen students was left at the Systems Building, where A&M leaders had erected pictures of the deceased students. There, over a dozen seniors left behind their hard-earned Aggie rings, permanently donating them to the lost students who did not live long enough to earn one of their own.[14] Various organizations also established funds to memorialize the victims and to help them with expenses incurred because of the accident. In total, the funds received over $250,000.[1]

Aftermath and controversy

A commission put together by Texas A&M University discovered that a number of factors led to the Bonfire collapse, including "excessive internal stresses" on the logs and "inadequate containment strength," where the wiring used to tie the logs together was not strong enough. The wiring broke after logs from upper tiers were "wedged" into lower tiers.

Many people further blamed the school for the accident, saying that, in the name of tradition, they turned a blind eye to an unsafe structure being constructed with very minimal engineering and safety protocols followed. Prior to the collapse, some people expressed concerns about the safety of Bonfire, citing a partial collapse that occurred in a previous Bonfire, the fact that Bonfire burn times were progressively shorter in duration (collapse of the stack after been lit from several hours down to less than 20 minutes), and numerous incidents involving alcohol or unsafe horseplay at the Bonfire site. At least two of the students killed in the 1999 Bonfire collapse were beneath the legal drinking age yet their autopsy results showed high blood-alcohol levels, however, inconsistencies in some test results have led to questions about their accuracy.[15]

Texas A&M officials, including President Ray Bowen and Vice President of Student Affairs J. Malon Southerland, the 1999 redpots, and the university itself were the subject of several lawsuits by parents of the students injured or deceased in the 1998 collapse.[13] In one of the six lawsuits filed as a result of the tragedy, plaintiffs alleged that A&M officials violated the Bonfire victims' right of due process by placing those victims in a "state-created danger' by not ensuring Bonfire's structural integrity and by allowing unqualified students to work on the stack.[16] The plaintiffs pointed to a $2 million liability policy the university obtained in 1996 as well as accidental death and dismemberent insurance policies that the university obtained for the student workers as early as 1987 as proof that the administrators knew of the dangers of Bonfire. Texas A&M maintains that the insurance policies were actually purchased by an advisory committee to Bonfire and not the university.[13] On May 21, 2004, Federal Judge Samuel B. Kent dismissed all claims against the Texas A&M officials.[16] In 2005, 36 of the 64 original defendants, including all of the Red Pots, settled their portion of the case for an estimated $4.25 million, paid by their insurance companies.[17][18] A federal appeals court dismissed the remaining lawsuits against Texas A&M and its officials in 2007.[19]

The Texas Board of Professional Engineers announced in 2000 that the Aggie Bonfire meets the requirements to be considered a complex construction project that should be regulated by state engineering laws. If Bonfire is to be resumed by the university in its former state, it would have to be designed and overseen by a professional engineer.[20]

Bonfire was postponed until 2002 in order to restructure it to make it safer. But delays in the development of a safety plan, and a high estimated cost (mainly due to liability insurance), led A&M president Ray Bowen to cancel Bonfire once again. Bowen's successor Robert Gates upheld this decision, stating that a "change in the status quo regarding the future of Bonfire would be inappropriate while litigation is still on-going."

Bonfire Memorial

The Bonfire Memorial.

A memorial was constructed on the university polo fields, the site of the accident. Construction began October 2003 and was completed by November 2004. On November 18, 2004, five years following the incident, the Bonfire Memorial was officially dedicated. The memorial is comprised of three design elements:

  • Tradition Plaza — Marks the entrance to the memorial and reflects on Aggie traditions.
  • History Walk — Comprised of 89 stones representing the 89 previous years of Bonfire. A gap in the time line signifies the 1963 Bonfire, which did not burn due to the Kennedy assassination in 1963. The three previous Bonfire-related deaths are also memorialized on this time line.
  • Spirit Ring — The ring surrounds the site of the collapse and represents the spirit that brought the students together. Twelve portals are placed around the ring, oriented toward each student's hometown. Twenty-seven stones complete the ring, representing the 27 students who were injured in the collapse.[21]
The doorways point towards each student's home town.

The memorial design has been recognized by several organizations as an outstanding architectural design and masonry feat. The American Institute of Architects, San Antonio Chapter, recognized the memorial as a winner of the 2005 AIA San Antonio Design Award.[22] The memorial also was recognized as a winner of the 2005 MCAA International Excellence in Masonry Awards.[23]

Continuation

The 2005 Student Bonfire.

The tradition is still being carried on, though it is no longer sanctioned by Texas A&M. The first bonfire since 1999 was held in 2002, and was called "Unity Project," though it was commonly referred to as "Rebel Bonfire" or "Off-Campus Bonfire." "Greypots" were created to fill in for the Redpots, who were still in court. The 2002 fire consisted of three piles in the shape of varsity's horns sawed off.

Today, the event is referred to as the Student Bonfire. Approximately 1000 current and former students are estimated to participate in building the bonfire each year. Many of the dorms and crews have had their lines passed down from the '70s and '80s.

The Bonfire is back to being a wedding cake style, but every log touches the ground. For added support, four poles known as "Windle sticks" (named in honor of a Walton Hall Crew Chief and Greypot, Levi Garret Windle, who died in 2003) are buried and attached to Centerpole.

See Also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Texas A&M University.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cook, John Lee, Jr. "Bonfire Collapse" (PDF). U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved 2007-03-03. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Stratton, W.K. Backyard Brawl
  3. ^ a b c d "Vanities of the Bonfire". American Scientist. November - December 2000. Retrieved 2007-02-28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  4. ^ "The Eagle". Retrieved 2007-01-05.
  5. ^ "History" (HTML). Texas Aggie Replant. Retrieved 2006-12-24.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bernstein, Alan (November 18, 1999). "Aggie Bonfire holds distinction as Texas symbol". The Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-02-28. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ a b c Creel, Brady (November 19, 2001). "...And they call it ?Aggie Bonfire?". The Battalion. Retrieved 2007-02-28. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ a b Lebas, John (November 19, 1999). "Women Have Increasing Role in Bonfire". The Bryan-College Station Eagle. Retrieved 2007-02-28. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  9. ^ a b Morton, Anissa (November 19, 1999). "Aggie Community Bands Together". The Bryan-College Station Eagle. Retrieved 2007-02-28. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  10. ^ Bowen, Larry (November 19, 1999). "Football Players Assist in Rescue". The Bryan-College Station Eagle. Retrieved 2007-02-28. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  11. ^ a b c Whitmarsch, Geneva (November 26, 1999). "Thousands Mourn Fallen Aggies". The Bryan-College Station Eagle. Retrieved 2007-02-28. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help) Cite error: The named reference "whitmarsch" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  12. ^ Opiela, Eric (November 19, 1999). "Bonfire Memorial Service". Texas A&M University. Retrieved 2007-02-28. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  13. ^ a b c Lebas, John (November 27, 1999). "Aggies Conquer 'Horns and Heartache". The Bryan-College Station Eagle. Retrieved 2007-02-28. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help) Cite error: The named reference "lebas" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  14. ^ Baggett, Donnis (November 28, 1999). "Spirit Obvious in Aggieland". The Bryan-College Station Eagle. Retrieved 2007-02-28. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  15. ^ Brown, Kelly (May 3, 2000). "Alcohol reports on victims released". The Bryan-College Station Eagle. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  16. ^ a b Pierce, Carrie (June 2, 2004). "Court says A&M is not liable in Bonfire lawsuit". The Battalion. Retrieved 2007-03-13. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  17. ^ Kapitan, Craig (September 3, 2006). "Bonfire case under scrutiny by court". The Bryan-College Station Eagle. Retrieved 2007-03-13. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  18. ^ Avison, April (July 27, 2006). "Judge dismisses a Bonfire lawsuit". The Bryan-College Station Eagle. Retrieved 2007-03-13. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  19. ^ Van Der Werf first =Martin (April 25, 2007), "Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal of Lawsuits Over Texas A&M Bonfire Accident", The Chronicle of Higher Education, retrieved 2007-05-24 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing pipe in: |last= (help)
  20. ^ Lee, Christopher (June 15, 2000). "Bonfire supervision mandated". The Bryan-College Station Eagle. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  21. ^ "Bonfire Memorial Design" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-02-17.
  22. ^ "AIA San Antonio Announces 2005 Design Awards". Retrieved 2007-02-17.
  23. ^ "Excellence in Masonry". Retrieved 2007-02-17.
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