Ten years ago, Texas A&M University and UT set aside their rivalry when 12 students were killed after the collapse of A&M’s annual bonfire.
The long-lived tradition ended abruptly when the 59-foot tower of 5,000 logs collapsed, injuring 27 people, including several students.
A&M will hold a memorial this evening followed by a candlelight vigil at 2:42 a.m., the time at which the bonfire collapsed. School spokesman Tom Hughes said it’s important to remember the tragedy and the Aggies lost, as well as those who helped to save the lives of their fellow students.
He said he remembers football players desperately trying to move logs off the pile to free students trapped underneath.
“It was a very, very trying day,” Hughes said.
Ruth Wetherington was a freshman in 1999 when the bonfire collapsed. She said she was excited to attend her first bonfire as a student because it was one of the reasons she chose to attend A&M.
Fifteen minutes after the bonfire collapsed, Wetherington and some friends arrived on campus and heard the news. Wetherington’s older friends wanted to go help, but some thought it wasn’t a big deal as the bonfire had collapsed a few years ago, and no one was hurt.
When they arrived, they could immediately tell something terrible had happened, she said.
“When we pulled up it kind of hit me how sad they were,” Wetherington said. “We heard people crying and screaming.”
Wetherington said her male friends immediately ran to wake up friends who could help move the logs off the students.
Mark Gold, Wetherington’s brother and the former student body president, said the bonfire collapse has affected the University more than anything else in its history.
Gold said he received the opportunity of a lifetime when he was able to meet the families of those who died in the collapse, including the family of Tim Kerlee Jr., who was trapped near the top of the stack. Kerlee chose to stay there to guide rescue workers to other people trapped beneath him but later died in the hospital.
Gold said such students are heroes not only because they worked to uphold the school’s favorite tradition but because some of them gave their lives to help their friends when that tradition turned fatal.
Parisa Fatehi, UT’s Student Government president in 1999, said she and then-President Larry Faulkner had traveled to College Station that night to attend the ceremony as representatives of UT.
“It was heartbreaking and also strengthening in that there were so many students and members of the community who came out to support each other,” Fatehi said. “It was a time when it just felt like suddenly there were no boundaries between UT and A&M students. We just felt like you needed to comfort your friends and be there for them in a very vulnerable time.”
That year’s annual Hex Rally became a memorial service for those who died, said Jim Boon, executive director and CEO of the Texas Exes.
“This was a time when we needed to stand shoulder to shoulder with our colleagues at A&M,” he said.
Boon said Texas Exes has been in contact with members of the The Association of Former Students at A&M to let them know the organization is thinking of them, but there is no plan to commemorate the event at UT this year. The Hex Rally will take place as scheduled with no planned mention of the tragedy.
Some Aggies have mixed feelings about reinstating the bonfire tradition.
“We are so big on tradition, and we want to keep that tradition alive,” said architecture senior Lisa Bradley. “What happened 10 years ago is something that will never be forgotten.”
Wetherington said the bonfire is a symbol of unity at A&M, and she would love to see it reinstated as long as it is done safely.
“That’s what the bonfire was created to do was to bring everybody together and create a sense of unity,” she said.
9 comments
I went incognito to a Bonfire a year or 2 before the accident. I can understand the loss of the tradition, kind of like what happened with Texas/OU weekend when they ended the controlled riot on Commerce St in the 90's. It would seem to me a constructive (pardon the pun) replacement would be for Aggies to rush to build 12 homes for Habitat for Humanity each fall before the Texas game. It would give the builders a sense of accomplishment and result in a permanent memorial to the lost students on an annual basis. I can not fathom returning to a Bonfire tradition unless it is massively scaled back and supervised by an engineering firm and funded by former students, including with insurance ( if you can find someone to sell it). The risk to life of the previous Bonfire is too evident to bring back the previous endeavor.Be assured that any comments like that below are a minority opinion by juveniles who do not fully appreciate the loss felt by most of us who treasure out rivalry. Despite what Lombardi once said, winning is NOT the only thing.