Let Bonfire burn bright in memories only
From 1909 to 1999, the building and burning of the Aggie Bonfire was synonymous with Texas A&M’S Thanksgiving-weekend rivalry football game with the University of Texas.
Over the decades, it grew to a fivestory stack with up to 8,000 logs, requiring more than 100,000 hours of work and drawing 70,000 fans to its big pregame ceremonies.
Aggie myth decreed that if the stack survived until midnight, the Aggies would beat the Longhorns the following day.
Only the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963 prevented Texas A&M from going forward with a Bonfire burning.
All that ended with the tragic November 1999 Bonfire collapse, which killed 12 students and seriously injured 27 others.
Even before 1999, however, there were internal debates within the Texas A&M community about whether the Aggie Bonfire tradition should continue.
Injuries were common among Bonfire crews. In
1981, student Wiley Joplin died at the cutting site after falling off a tractor and being crushed under its rear wheels. Joplin’s student adviser responded by writing an anti-bonfire poem, which was published by the student newspaper, the Battalion.
In addition to safety concerns, there also were environmental objections. In the early 1990s, a group called Aggies Against Bonfire complained about the thousands of trees being killed every year for the purpose of preserving a questionable tradition.
Some warned that if embers got loose, the fire could spread to nearby residential areas. And those who remembered that Texas A&M is a place of education pointed out that all that Bonfire work took students away from class and did their grades no favors.
But tradition is at the core of Texas A&M’S identity and many Aggies insist on reviving the Bonfire tradition.
Every year, a small group of students
builds an unsanctioned bonfire off campus. Now, with A&M on the verge of renewing its football rivalry with the University of Texas, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents is considering the return of the Bonfire as an official university event.
That would be a mistake. The environmental damage and safety risks connected with the Bonfire are good enough reasons for Texas A&M to leave this tradition in the past and focus on creating new traditions.
We understand the meaning that the Bonfire carries for some former students. The late Texas A&M historian Henry Dethloff once said that for graduates and students, Bonfire was “the centerpiece of their affection for A&M.”
There has been some suggestion that if Bonfire returns as a universitysanctioned event, a professional construction company could be hired to build it.
That wouldn’t address the environmental impact of the event, and it wouldn’t satisfy traditionalists who believe that the essence of the Aggie Bonfire is that it is a student project.
One Bonfire crew member put it this way in 1981: “I can’t play football because I’m too small, but I can be out there busting my butt cutting wood while the team is practicing and help them win.”
Aggie traditionalists have fought change many times over the years, whether that meant forsaking the school’s compulsory military requirement, allowing women to enroll or enabling women to join the Aggie band.
In each case, Texas A&M emerged better for the change.
This past generation of Aggie students have grown accustomed to the idea that Bonfire is no longer an official university event. Texas A&M should leave this tradition in the past.
For many reasons, leave the tradition in the past