It was the embodiment of the Aggie tradition, preparing to beat the Texas Longhorns in (what was then) an annual football game, often played over the Thanksgiving Weekend. Tragedy changed the course of history.
There was a long-standing tradition at Texas A&M University known as the Aggie Bonfire. For 90 years, Texas A&M students built a yearly bonfire to celebrate the football rivalry between their beloved Aggies and the Texas Longhorns. The bonfire was usually lit around Thanksgiving as part of the football game’s festivities.
The Aggies burned their first-ever bonfire on November 18th, 1907, to congratulate the football team on a recent victory. It wasn’t until a decade later that it focused on the cross-state rivals, the Texas Longhorns. At one point, the freshman class built a bonfire to prove their worth.
What started from gathering trash and making a bonfire grew, by 1969, to set a world record for bonfires. The tradition migrated to Hollywood as well. The 1942 movie We’ve Never Been Licked included a bonfire and was filmed on the Texas A&M campus. (Watch it here.).
Then, tragedy struck. I was a high school football player when I heard the news. The year was 1999, and the bonfire collapsed during construction, killing 12 students and injuring 27 others. In response, the university declared a hiatus from the festival and tradition.
In 2002, a student-sponsored coalition constructed an unsanctioned off-campus student bonfire off campus to keep the spirit going. Over the past few years, there have been rumors that the university would bring back the tradition. It would make sense now that A&M and Texas have been reunited in the Southeastern Conference, but Texas A&M has no plans to do so.
