Aggie Bonfire
Early bonfires were little more than piles of trash, but the event gradually became more organized and eventually grew to an immense size, setting the world record in 1969.
The students of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, known as Aggies, burned their first bonfire on November 18, 1907, to congratulate the football team on a recent win.
[4] The first on-campus Aggie Bonfire, a heap of trash and debris, was burned in 1909 to generate enthusiasm for a variety of sporting events.
[3] For almost two decades, the students constructed Bonfire from debris and wood acquired through various, sometimes illicit, means, including appropriating lumber intended for a dormitory in 1912.
The following 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.
[5] In 1999, a Longhorn fan hired someone to build a six-foot model airplane designed to carry a bomb into the wood stack to ignite it prematurely.
[7] The spiral arrangement of the logs was designed to make Bonfire collapse into itself in a twisting motion, thus protecting spectators.
[8] In early November, crews began "Stack", a three-week period in which the logs were wired together and Bonfire took shape.
[13] To ensure safety during the Stack period, the organizers maintained a perimeter around the working area, and allowed only safety-trained students through.
[5] The Fightin' Texas Aggie Band began building the outhouse, ending the tradition of stealing Bonfire's components.
[18] Although women were allowed to serve coffee and provide first aid in the late 1960s, in 1974 they were officially banned from both Cut and Stack.
Few women participated in the early years, as female volunteers were subject to verbal abuse from their male counterparts.
[3] In 1987, two female photographers from the school yearbook alleged that male workers shouted obscenities and threw dirt on them as they tried to take pictures of the raising of the center pole.
The redpots responded that women were always welcome to participate as long as they did their share of the work, and that the photographers were standing dangerously close to the stack.
The following year, the local police department brought a paddywagon to the site for the first time, as they anticipated mass arrests for alcohol violations.
[23] In 1989, the Campus Ministry Association, representing 17 religious denominations, unanimously approved a resolution asking the university to change Bonfire because of concerns about safety, participant academic performance, humanitarian considerations, and the environment.
Shortly afterwards, the Faculty Senate's Committee of the Whole approved a resolution asking for a panel to explore alternatives to Bonfire.
[26] After heavy rains in 1994, the partially completed 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.
[5][20] Nine tractors, two bulldozers, and two forklifts dismantled the stack on October 26, 1994 (three weeks earlier than usual; the Aggies' game vs. Texas was moved from Thanksgiving weekend to the first weekend of November due to the NCAA's ban against Texas A&M from appearing on television that season), which, at 70% completed, stood 40 feet (12 m) tall and 45 feet (14 m) wide.
[27] Students and alumni flocked to the Polo Fields, working around the clock, to rebuild the Bonfire in time for the game.
[30] In its later years, students building Bonfire used logs donated by local landowners who wanted their land cleared for construction or farming.
[6] After being doused in 700 lb (318 kg) of jet fuel, applied by staff members at A&M's Fire Training School, the Redpots and Yell Leaders then lit the stack with torches the night before the annual football game against the University of Texas when at home and two nights before the game when it was played in Austin.
[8] This event was popular among current and former students and people traveled from all over the state and the nation to observe the burning of Bonfire.
Hotel rooms within 65 miles (105 km) of College Station were booked weeks or months in advance of the date Bonfire burned.
[39] To further honor the victims, in 2000, the Aggie Replant Committee planted 12 live oak trees at the Polo Grounds.
This design, based on the recommendation of the 2002 university task force and approved by a structural engineer, results in a Bonfire less than half the size of those from the 1960s.
To maintain the traditional wedding-cake design, the logs are cut to different heights, with the tallest set reaching 32 feet (9.8 m) high.
These poles are known as Windle-sticks, after Levi Windle, a staunch supporter of Student Bonfire who died in an unrelated accident in 2003.
[41][42][43] The Board changed or eliminated many of the minor traditions that had proliferated during Aggie Bonfire, primarily for safety reasons.
