ESPN does an excellent job in their E 30 for 30 productions.

To those who are not aware of the range of admiration the Bonfire had --- it was consistently voted as the best college tradition of all US colleges.

We lost way too many future superstars that night. It would really hurt to watch a replay. But I definitely would.

I am just so proud of the students who have kept the Bonfire Tradition alive. From an old Ag, please let it never die. Please!

ChiliBeans said:

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It amazes me that people who clearly never had anything to do with Bonfire insist on clinging to the drunk kids line.

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I loved bonfire. And I went to stack pretty lit. A lot.

But yeah, I'm sure it was just me. I was the only one. Ok sure let's go with that.

Raptor said:

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Dallas82 said:

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Eventually they lit it and the band was standing where that log was aimed. They played and I crossed my fingers. About 20 minutes after they had quit and moved away, that log shifted and pulled the entire stack down onto the spot where the bann had been a few minutes earlier. If the band had still been there, we would have lost as many as 100 people.

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Let's say the stack is 35 feet tall. No one should ever be allowed closer than 70 feet.

Let's say the stack is 75 feet tall. No one should ever be allowed closer than 150 feet.

Let's say the stack is 125 feet tall. No one should ever be allowed closer than 250 feet.


I'm not a math major, but allowing anyone close enough that a falling stack could crush them should be grounds for a lawsuit.

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back in 'the day' it was not uncommon for red pots and assorted hard a$$ CTs to light their cigars on the stack once it was lit. There was never a barrier between the attack and the crowd. The only thing that kept you back was common sense and the fact that it was hot as hell. Yeah, stupidity ran rampant when it came to that tradition.

The highest I ever got was a third stack swing. It was a pretty surreal experience to be up there wiring in logs as fast as you can while the crane slings another one up your way. Whole weekends devoted to cutting down trees, then 12 hour shifts at stack wiring in logs... Kids these days don't even know what a huge undertaking bonfire was and what it meant to be a part of something so big. To this day, I can't think of anything else when a song from the Pulp fiction soundtrack comes on. They played that thing relentlessly on the loudspeakers during push!

Yes, there was a lot of drinking and assery going on, but that wasn't why the stack fell. There are far more intelligent people than myself that can tell you why it fell. I think it's a good idea to get the story out though. Aggie Bonfire is and always was a big deal. It's important that we don't lose the memories. Even if the "story" leaves us in a bad light, it's part of our history and should be remembered as such. Shining a light on the past has a funny way of teaching us about ourselves.

Bonfire was the greatest tradition TAMU ever had. If they gave us Editorial control over much or most of the production, it would be outstanding.

It would very likely also get more current students to participate in Student Bonfire. Which is still pretty redass.

Gig 'em.

rnrchemnerd said:

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Yes, there was a lot of drinking and assery going on, but that wasn't why the stack fell. There are far more intelligent people than myself that can tell you why it fell.

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I am sure there are several reasons. I thought what the report stated was that it came down to using 3/8" cables instead of 1/2" (as been used for many years) to contain each stack level and one of those 3/8" cable snapped.

Quote:

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ESPN does an excellent job in their E 30 for 30 productions.

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ESPN does an excellent job by getting out of the way. They basically pay a talented director to own each project.

Bone6 said:

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The problem is for it to be a great doc, that 1999 team needed to have had a better season.

8-4 and getting blanked by Penn State 24-0 in the bowl game isn't that inspirational (despite how cool the win of t.u. was).

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What bowl game?

Alamo.