25 years after fatal bonfire, Texas A&M considers bringing student tradition back

Building the Aggie bonfire was once among the most prized student traditions at Texas A&M University. That changed when the 60-foot stack of logs fell and killed 12 people in 1999, becoming one of the most painful chapters in the university’s history. Now, 25 years after the tragedy, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents is considering bringing the tradition back ahead of the school’s first football match against the University of Texas at Austin in years. Texas A&M President Mark Welsh formed a committee in November to explore how to commemorate the renewed football rivalry with UT-Austin, as the Longhorns join the Southeastern Conference this year. In a January letter obtained by The Texas Tribune, regent and rivalry committee member John Bellinger wrote to families of the 1999 bonfire victims asking for input on the possibility of resuming the bonfire with oversight from the university’s administration.

“The members of the committee and I are extremely sensitive to your loss. I do not want to reopen the many wounds that you have but it is important to me to have your opinion,” Bellinger wrote in the letter, asking to meet with the families. Sources close to the discussions told the Tribune that Bellinger has proposed that a construction company come in to build the bonfire. Resuming bonfires, they said, appeared to be in the interest of older alumni who had previously been involved in the tradition, rather than current students. Bellinger did not respond to a request for comment Monday. The first bonfire in 1909 was little more than a pile of wood and trash. It, in time, grew in size and complexity, even hitting a world record in 1969. A 1947 campus handbook read: “Bonfire symbolizes two things: a burning desire to beat the team from the University of Texas, and the undying flame of love that every loyal Aggie carries in his heart for the school.”