I don't disagree that the building culture was central. But there were so many other benefits that are lost. We came to see it burn as kids, and that helped fuel interest in A&M without any knowledge of how it was built. It can be something different and still bring Aggies together. Nothing ever stays the same, get it started on campus again and let's evolves.

Mostly is disdain for the idiots that came out to help clear the field while they were drunk.

El Gallo Blanco said:

---

Can you imagine the nationwide cries of "racism" from the media nowadays if we brought it back?

"The Dark Racist History of Bonfires"

"How Fire was Born as a White Tool for Oppression"

"Fire, and the Ku Klux Klan...and Texas A&M...All You Need to Know"

etc etc

So f'ing stupid...liberals

---

All the more reason for us to do it.

If you were around campus in the fall, Cut & Stack were part of your life even if you didn't go out there. (That's a part that's been decimated since it left campus).

You knew people who did attend, and it shaped them into the people they are today. Burn is just a chore.

El Gallo Blanco said:

---

Can you imagine the nationwide cries of "racism" from the media nowadays if we brought it back?

"The Dark Racist History of Bonfires"

"How Fire was Born as a White Tool for Oppression"

"Fire, and the Ku Klux Klan...and Texas A&M...All You Need to Know"

etc etc

So f'ing stupid...liberals

---

Didn't the campus leftist newspaper (not the Battalion, but the "Touchstone" IIRC) already make such statements at the time?

JW said:

---

I don't disagree that the building culture was central. But there were so many other benefits that are lost. We came to see it burn as kids, and that helped fuel interest in A&M without any knowledge of how it was built. It can be something different and still bring Aggies together. Nothing ever stays the same, get it started on campus again and let's evolves.

---

Is there something stopping you from taking your kids to it even while it's off campus down the road a ways with the other thousands of Aggies?

P.H. Dexippus said:

---

aggie93 said:

---

P.H. Dexippus said:

---

Ag_0112358132134 said:

---

CDUB98 said:

---

Hell will freeze over first.

---

Not really. There's no reason they can't bring it back and just take additional precautions, which is what they should have done in the first place.

---

Completely false. As someone involved with leadership Student Bonfire/Unity Project 2002, it was recognized from Day 1 that if Bonfire were to ever return to campus, it would only be a hollow shell of its former self due to the liability concerns.

It would not be student cut, student load, student stack, student lead. Which is the whole point of the endeavor. The pep rally at the end, Burn, is not what builds the comradery, leadership skills and memories. I would rather it stay off campus forever than come back just as another over-produced tradition exploited by powers that be (see our football gameday experience).

FYI- if all you care about is the Burn, you can still see it each year just a short drive from campus.

---

Sorry but that says more about you and those who are well intentioned but have actually lost what Bonfire is all about.

Thanks for the attempted lecture and condescending tone.

What is it about?

Bonfire was about bringing all Aggies together to share their love of Texas A&M and their burning desire to Beat the Hell Outta tu. No where in there does it say it should only be built by students.

"No where in there does it say..."? Are you seriously quoting the university's website as the exclusive authority on the meaning of Bonfire? By that definition, you don't need a bonfire at all. Just have the football game. Or a yell practice. Regardless, there's nothing - beyond laziness and calls to quarters - that prevent you or any other Aggies from attending the off campus Burn. It is apparent that you have not attended.

Even among the fallen were Former Students. Professors and outside contractors have also been heavily involved providing guidance and equipment in the past. The only question is how much and where the line is drawn.

Sure. The line is drawn when its not longer student cut, student load, student stack and student lead.

I admire the work that those who have kept the tradition alive with Student Bonfire but it is at best a pale shadow of what it once was. It's more of a service project combined with a nostalgia event.

Tell me you have no idea what you are talking about without telling me you have no idea what you are talking about. It is apparent that you have not attended cut as a part of father/son or family cut, or otherwise to pass down knowledge to the next generation.

I have been and honestly just walked away sad though I know many feel differently. You simply can't overstate the importance of having the school involved. That means the football team and Yell Leaders are there.

And guess who has been standing in the way of that happening. Sure, some have snuck out to Burn to participate in a n unofficial capacity, lest they get sanctioned by the school. Former players, coaches, and yell leaders have all participated in off campus Burn.

It means it's on campus and you have far, far more attendance. It means the school will push it and publicize it and people will come from all over to see it.

Where on campus would that be exactly?

I get it. The cool part about Bonfire is how it is student run and all the things we did when building it but that has evolved over time.

Your lip service aside, no, you don't.

I worked on Bonfire all 4 years. My Dad was in charge of Bonfire as a Yell Leader in the '50s. There is a limit to how much it can be sanitized before it loses its meaning.

Bingo.

That said I think the current Bonfire is more about just the people who build it and it isn't about the school or the original meaning.

No offense, but again, you don't know WTF you speak of, especially not the motivations of those involved. The original meaning? Bonfire consisted of cadets borrowing part of a neighbor's barn and lighting it on fire off campus after the game. Bonfire later moved on campus, but twenty years later, Bonfire was still just a pile of scrap wood, often times borrowed from the owner. It was made a school-sanctioned event to prevent future thefts 30 years after it started.

Like I said, it's a service project (a very cool one) with a lot of nostalgia.

I think you are confusing off campus Bonfire with Big Event.

It just amazes me how the people who seem most resistant to Bonfire coming back on campus are those who are building it now because they will lose control of it.

It has jack to do with control, and everything to do with preserving the tradition. I haven't been directly involved in building it nearly 20 years but it doesn't take a genius to see that for it to come back on campus, it will be so radically different from what it was and still is, that it will be empty. You might as well just have a Farmer's Fight Festival or any of the other replacements that have been proposed along the years.

They have this idea of purity around it that while I do understand it as someone who did it I think also has lost the real point of Bonfire to begin with. It's about bringing all Aggies together not about the nuts and bolts of how that happens.

If it is just about brining everyone together, then any event can be a substitute. A yell practice. A football game. A George Strait concert. Jeff Foxworthy doing a comedy routine. What makes Bonfire unique isn't that it brings everyone together. It is the student input a sweat equity, and the tradition of seeing something you worked on get worked on by the next generation. A university paid production has none of that.

There seems to be very little compromise with the folks doing it now, they want it to be exactly the way they are doing it or not at all. I also understand why they feel that way based around how things went down 25 years ago after the collapse be but that's the whole point, time has passed and we have a chance at a new beginning if people are willing to compromise.

You write as if you have some involvement. But its apparent you don't.

Or it can just stay a small event off campus that 80-90% of current students are barely aware of and won't ever attend.

Again, that's a function of having swelled the student population to 75k, destroying dorm culture, and suppressing the event by the University. They have had 10,000-15,000 people at Burn off campus. If you're going to be a "purist" that insists it's not real Bonfire if it's not burned on campus, then get out of the way of the students who are getting it done.

---

---

I love that you think I don't know what I am talking about because reasons.

As I said I worked on Bonfire all 4 years. My Dad was Head Yell in the 50s and was in charge of Bonfire at the time. I attended them before and after I was a student. I have attended Student Bonfire and even other Bonfires put on by Former Students in the time prior to Student Bonfire getting off the ground between that and Campus Bonfire. I do have some knowledge and experience on the topic.

I also said I have respect for what they have done with Student Bonfire in keeping the tradition alive. No doubt those who organize it and work on it now deserve credit. Where you lose me is when you are unwilling to make compromises to get it back on campus.

I don't know how anyone who attended an On Campus Bonfire can think Student Bonfire is remotely the same though. It's nice a few Yell Leaders and maybe a football player or two sneaks over but once again that is a pale shadow of what it was. For me I loved seeing the guy or girl from class who knew nothing about Bonfire and never went to cut come out to Burn on campus and be blown away by the experience. That tied them to those of us who grew up with it and helped to instill that love of A&M. Some of those may have even helped out the next year. All of them walked away with a sense of pride in being an Aggie. That was what was so valuable to me.

Yes, technically you had off campus Bonfires when they started. They moved it On Campus for a reason. They wanted it to be part of the school and to have everyone have a chance to experience it. Can people go drive out to Student Bonfire and volunteer or pay to watch it burn? Sure, but it's apples and oranges in experience and especially to that 90% who will never do that. If Bonfire is On Campus you probably have 75% attendance of the student body, the real problem there is logistics from too many people that want to be there which is a great problem to have.

Hey but if you just really want to have Bonfire as an Off Campus thing that most Aggies will never experience so that it can be done the way you want it that's your choice. You are only proving my point though that the people who don't want it back on Campus are those who want it to be a service project combined with a nostalgia event. Nothing wrong with that I guess but it is a wasted opportunity compared to what having it back on campus could be.

Oh, and I sure as hell didn't look at the University website. The Bonfire Campo was burned into my brain 35 years ago.

TexasRebel said:

---

If you were around campus in the fall, Cut & Stack were part of your life even if you didn't go out there. (That's a part that's been decimated since it left campus).

You knew people who did attend, and it shaped them into the people they are today. Burn is just a chore.

---

Bonfire was certainly part of my life when I was in school but it certainly wasn't part of everyone's life. Having it on campus definitely made it impact a LOT more people than it does now though so that is kind of the point. You couldn't miss it. I know kids that are fish Camp counselors now who didn't even know we had a Student Bonfire.

PA24 said:

---

Agthatbuilds said:

---

It appears it would be a contractor built stack, not student.

---

I don't think that is how it is suppose to work.

---

Where might a contractor source labor?

I wanted the bonfire memorial to be the annual burn site. 10"+ reinforced concrete pad with an integral center pole boss as tall as the first tier should provide a stable build foundation unaffected by the elements (see 1994 collapse).

agwrestler said:

---

PA24 said:

---

Agthatbuilds said:

---

It appears it would be a contractor built stack, not student.

---

I don't think that is how it is suppose to work.

---

Where might a contractor source labor?

---

It'd take a whole semester to get through OSHA training.

agwrestler said:

---

I wanted the bonfire memorial to be the annual burn site. 10"+ reinforced concrete pad with an integral center pole boss as tall as the first tier should provide a stable build foundation unaffected by the elements (see 1994 collapse).

---

Concrete wouldn't survive one burn.

Obviously not an Aggie, though I do remember being glued to the news that night in '99 and my wife is a student now. I can't imagine a scenario where bonfire is brought back to campus. I'm sure losing the tradition that was bonfire hurt, but the way you Ags honor those 12 souls tells me that losing them hurt far worse.

There needs to be a student cut. The bonfire should then be built by a contractor with some student interaction. The old days ain't coming back but we need this for the school. It will be a much larger event now than it ever was with the game coming back and just how much exposure it will get.

P.H. Dexippus said:

---

Ag_0112358132134 said:

---

CDUB98 said:

---

Hell will freeze over first.

---

Not really. There's no reason they can't bring it back and just take additional precautions, which is what they should have done in the first place.

---

Completely false. As someone involved with leadership of Student Bonfire/Unity Project 2002, it was recognized from Day 1 that if Bonfire were to ever return to campus, it would only be a hollow shell of its former self due to the liability concerns.

It would not be student cut, student load, student stack, student lead. Which is the whole point of the endeavor. The pep rally at the end, Burn, is not what builds the comradery, leadership skills and memories. I would rather it stay off campus forever than come back just as another over-produced tradition exploited by the powers that be (see our football gameday experience).

FYI- if all you care about is the Burn, you can still see it each year just a short drive from campus. And it is worth the drive.

---

Word. Agree

I just read through all the financial settlements related to 1999.

Student led on campus bonfire is never coming back.

CorpsTerd04 said:

---

There needs to be a student cut. The bonfire should then be built by a contractor with some student interaction. The old days ain't coming back but we need this for the school. It will be a much larger event now than it ever was with the game coming back and just how much exposure it will get.

---

Bonfire was shown on a regional sports channel as filler. The game was never a big even outside of Texas, but the attention that it got dwarfed bonfire.

It's not the 90s anymore.

TexasRebel said:

---

aggie93 said:

---

All of them walked away with a sense of pride in being an Aggie. That was what was so valuable to me.

---

Which will be lost when it's just another off-limits construction site that everyone avoids on campus.

They didn't get that sense of pride because Skanska built it with a tower crane.

---

You are assuming the extreme is the only possibility. Plenty of ways to have heavy student involvement in Bonfire On Campus even if it is led by an outside group (most likely one owned by an Aggie btw). It just see ms a lot of the folks who like Student Bonfire have no interest in even listening or trying unless it is exactly the way they want it. Everything must be done by the students or else don't do it. Trees have to be cut a certain way, logs must be stacked a certain way, etc. If it isn't that vision of what they think of Bonfire then better not to have it.

Ok, I just disagree. I'd rather make compromises and have it be back On Campus and have 100k Aggies come out to be a part of something special even if it isn't perfect. I know it will never be what it was when I was in school but I'd rather it be something more than what it is now for my son who will likely soon be an Aggie.

Build the Hell Outta Contractor Bonfire!!! AAAAAAA

Doesn't have the right ring to it.

As the meetings went on, more and more of the 80's and 90's anti-off campus diehards saw the hard truth. The Linbeck report was a death knell.

Some gave up, some helped keep the tradition ablaze. I still call many of them good friends.

The University did everything they could to quell us "renegades".

Don't worry. There will still be plenty of student involvement. They will get to stand around the perimeter and take pictures with their cell phones. And the opportunities to send lots of text messages should not be overlooked. And selfies with the contractors. The possibilities are endless.

Student Bonfire figured out the solution to keep the tradition alive. It's easy to come on here and criticize their version, without ever having to propose a real (not fanciful) solution to the problems of bringing it back to campus. I have yet to see a workable solution to:

• where, centrally located for student access, on campus it would be built and burnt. If you have to drive to the location, then it's off campus.
• how you get the university general counsel to signoff on being involved in the first place with it being anything close to student involvement. The litigation around '99 lasted for decades.
• And even then, how to get them to agree if the University is not indemnified and made additional insured on 9-figure GL insurance policy tower.
• And you aren't getting that kind of insurance on young adults in the woods with axes, chain saws, felling trees, hoisting trees on shoulders, operating heavy machinery, unloading trees, building a structure, dispensing flammable liquids onto a structure unless they are employees with a dizzying amount of training, certifications, PPE, HSE oversight, disciplinary review and all the headaches that come with that before they ever get to set foot on the project.
• And you are not getting the insurance policies for anything less than a king's ransom.
• That's if you could even find a contractor to place themselves in those corporate and individual liability crosshairs for any amount of compensation, loyalty to the school included.

If I hear rational answers to these problems, then maybe it is worth questioning if Student Bonfire is the best outcome, all things considered. But I am not holding my breath.

The only way they bring back campus bonfire is if it's essentially a natural gas fireplace with an ignition switch in the shape of a bonfire. It will be a very corny and sterilized experience which will probably be right up most people's alley these days.

Quote:

---

I really don't understand the almost resentful attitude of folks who worked on Bonfire towards those who didn't. I'm all for recognizing those who do more but Bonfire was never supposed to be about just those folks who worked on it the most. It was supposed to be about bringing Aggies together. That is what made it great, not whether or not trees were cut with a saw or an axe or if it was X feet tall or if outside faculty and contractors supplied help or were more intimately involved in how it was built.

It saddens me how those who spent so much time building Bonfire don't seem to have understood the actual purpose.

---

Not looking to get into an Aggie on Aggie p**sing match, but as someone who also worked on bonfire and was passed a crew-chief pot, I don't know what to say about your posts. What more shows your burning desire to beat t.u. than getting up at the crack of dawn every weekend of cut, working your but off cutting down trees, topping them, and ****ing them to the skids. Then loading them on trucks, unloading them at the site, and stacking them through the night.

Did I resent folks that didn't participate? No. Was I disappointed that able-bodied friends didn't because they would rather sleep in, absolutely. Like it or not, the day of the burn damn sure meant more to me than to someone who never picked up an axe or sat in a swing freezing their butt off. The only people I despised were those trying to get bonfire shutdown for the rest of us.

What saddens me is that someone who spent so much time actually building bonfire could think burning the bonfire was somehow the only "actual prupose." Again, to each their own, but I got so much more out of bonfire than a night of drinking watching the world's largest regularly set fire. I would also say, that my burning desire to beat tu is why I got up those mornings, or worked through the night. Take from this what you will, but those folks doing all of this off-campus, with far less support, shows that spirit and desire is alive and well, even if the numbers are not what they used to be.

I won't add my comments because they'd be redundant. But, I would hate to see a sterilized version come back to campus. If the regents want to honor what Bonfire stood for they could start by allowing the Band and athletes to attend Student Bonfire.

Leave it alone. It won't be the same. Let it stay off campus

TexasRebel said:

---

As the meetings went on, more and more of the 80's and 90's anti-off campus diehards saw the hard truth. The Linbeck report was a death knell.

Some gave up, some helped keep the tradition ablaze. I still call many of them good friends.

The University did everything they could to quell us "renegades".

---

It's a different time now than it was in the aftermath of the collapse. I can understand if they came back with a proposal for On Campus that was completely ridiculous but instead the attitude seems to be to not even try. The Student Bonfire folks should be working with the Admin to bring it back to campus but instead they seem to be the loudest opponents.

We fixed the keg said:

---

Quote:

---

I really don't understand the almost resentful attitude of folks who worked on Bonfire towards those who didn't. I'm all for recognizing those who do more but Bonfire was never supposed to be about just those folks who worked on it the most. It was supposed to be about bringing Aggies together. That is what made it great, not whether or not trees were cut with a saw or an axe or if it was X feet tall or if outside faculty and contractors supplied help or were more intimately involved in how it was built.

It saddens me how those who spent so much time building Bonfire don't seem to have understood the actual purpose.

---

Not looking to get into an Aggie on Aggie p**sing match, but as someone who also worked on bonfire and was passed a crew-chief pot, I don't know what to say about your posts. What more shows your burning desire to beat t.u. than getting up at the crack of dawn every weekend of cut, working your but off cutting down trees, topping them, and ****ing them to the skids. Then loading them on trucks, unloading them at the site, and stacking them through the night.

Did I resent folks that didn't participate? No. Was I disappointed that able-bodied friends didn't because they would rather sleep in, absolutely. Like it or not, the day of the burn damn sure meant more to me than to someone who never picked up an axe or sat in a swing freezing their butt off. The only people I despised were those trying to get bonfire shutdown for the rest of us.

What saddens me is that someone who spent so much time actually building bonfire could think burning the bonfire was somehow the only "actual prupose." Again, to each their own, but I got so much more out of bonfire than a night of drinking watching the world's largest regularly set fire. I would also say, that my burning desire to beat tu is why I got up those mornings, or worked through the night. Take from this what you will, but those folks doing all of this off-campus, with far less support, shows that spirit and desire is alive and well, even if the numbers are not what they used to be.

---

You act as if I don't want students involved as much as possible when I absolutely do. I just think it is worth compromises to get it back on campus and sanctioned by the University so that it is something that is more than just a small portion of the school having any involvement with and to be a representation of A&M. Should we just let it be a construction site with zero student involvement? No, but there is a LOT of room between having a 100% Student run operation and that which would still accomplish many of the same goals.

I also never said that burning of Bonfire was the actual purpose. I said bringing Aggies together was the actual purpose. Obviously the Burn is a part of that but I do agree it can't be all about that. Students have to be involved. Students have to be working on it. Where we disagree is you seem to think if it isn't 100% Student run in every area then it shouldn't be done at all and that makes no sense to me and I think it runs counter to what should be the goal. As it is now Bonfire might as well not exist for the overwhelming majority of students at A&M.

If they bring it back, it will be so crappy and sanitized you'll barely begin to recognize it. Let the student Bonfire kids continue to handle it off campus. They're doing a good job.

aggie93 said:

---

I don't know how anyone who attended an On Campus Bonfire can think Student Bonfire is remotely the same though. It's nice a few Yell Leaders and maybe a football player or two sneaks over but once again that is a pale shadow of what it was. For me I loved seeing the guy or girl from class who knew nothing about Bonfire and never went to cut come out to Burn on campus and be blown away by the experience. That tied them to those of us who grew up with it and helped to instill that love of A&M. Some of those may have even helped out the next year. All of them walked away with a sense of pride in being an Aggie. That was what was so valuable to me.

---

With all due respect, I think that you fail to appreciate that "anyone who attended an On Campus Bonfire" is a dwindling minority of the Aggie community. For the classes of 2004 (Whoop!) through 2027 -- that's 24 years, "Bonfire" has only existed as a renegade off-campus organization.

I would have liked to have seen an on-campus Burn. I actually did get to see Stack under construction during a weekend visit to campus in my last year of high school. I had contemplated coming to Burn, but...well, you know.