See also McVeigh, Timothy; Middle East and
North America; Oklahoma City bombing; Olympic
Park bombing; Unabomber capture; U.S. embassy
bombings in Africa; Waco siege; World Trade Center
bombing.
Texas A&M bonfire collapse
The Event A structure consisting of thousands of
logs falls, killing twelve students and seriously
injuring twenty-seven
Date November 18, 1999
Place College Station, Texas
The deadly disaster that befell students at Texas A&M Uni-
versity informed the world about a tradition of almost a
centur y’s standing in the Lone Star State—and all but
ensured that the tradition would end, at least in its previ-
ous form.
The rivalry between the Texas A&M Aggies and the
University of Texas (UT) Longhorns has long been
one of the most intense and colorful rivalries in col-
lege football history. For over a century, the two
schools had posited themselves as something of the
Sparta and Athens of the Southwest
collegiate world, with A&M famous
for military discipline and conserva-
tive values and curricula and UT re-
nowned as a progressive academic
community that was home to free-
thinking intellectuals. The schools’
football match every November was
the culmination of this rivalry—an
athletic embodiment of their con-
trasting campus cultures. Beginning
in 1909, building an enormous bon-
fire and igniting it during a raucous
pep rally became a part of the tradi-
tional festivities on the A&M cam-
pus just before the game. In the be-
ginning, fuel for the fire usually
consisted of whatever rubbish the
A&M students could find, but as the
tradition evolved, it became custom-
ary to consign to the flames such
anti-UT items as an outdoor toilet
painted white and burnt orange
(UT’s school colors). Eventually,
the bonfire became bigger as large
numbers of Aggies acquired timber by chopping
down trees from nearby woods.
Over the years, whatever worries authorities or
students had about the event involved fire, the effect
of requisite timber-harvesting on the environment,
and alcohol consumption on bonfire night, not the
danger of untrained students amassing thousands of
logs and building the elaborate, tiered bonfire struc-
ture that had become part of the tradition. In 1994,
the enormous pile of wood that was being assembled
for the bonfire collapsed after torrential rains, an
omen of what was to come: On November 18, 1999,
while students were working on construction of the
bonfire, it gave in, crushing to death twelve students
and seriously injuring twenty-seven more. Rescuing
people trapped beneath the debris was a painstaking
and drawn-out process because the least misstep
could result in further collapsing. The event later re-
sumed as an off-campus, unofficial event on a less
elaborate scale.Impact The death and disaster at Texas A&M in
November of 1999 seemed especially shocking be-
cause of the innocent, traditional activities in which
the students were involved. Throughout the twenti-The Nineties in America Texas A&M bonfire collapse 849
Students and rescue workers search for victims of the Texas A&M bonfire collapse on
November 18, 1999.(AP/Wide World Photos)