November 18, 1999: The annual Aggie Bonfire, under construction at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, collapses, killing 12 people and injuring 27 others.
The Bonfire was a long-standing tradition at A&M, as part of their rivalry with the University of Texas. They started it in 1907, and, since the Texas Longhorns and the Texas A&M Aggies have played each other every year since 1915, they've done it every year since 1915, regardless of whether the game is at home in College Station or away in Austin. The game has been played on Thanksgiving Day in 1901, '02, '04, '07, '09, 1918-21, 1924-27, 1929-32, 1935-38, 1940-43, 1946-49, 1952-55, 1957-73, 1976, 1981-82, 1985-88, 1991-3, and 2008-11.
In the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and in its 1982 film adaptation with Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton, the titular, or so to speak, establishment gives freebies to the players on the game's winning team. This doesn't happen in real life -- as far as I know. In the show, it's A&M that wins, and the results produce the story's main conflict.
In 1942, the Bonfire took on a form similar to a teepee: Logs placed at an angle between 23 and 30 degrees, allowing it to grow to a cone over 50 feet high. It symbolizes their "burning desire to beat the hell outta T.U." It's been said that, in Texas, football is a religion, and 'Horns vs. Aggies is its holy war. So the Bonfire is A&M's ritual sacrifice.
It was never a safe idea. Bonfires have been banned in many places, including some entire States. But not Texas. In 1955, a student carrying one of the logs was killed -- not by getting hit with another log, or by a premature burning of a log, but by getting hit by a car. In 1957, the structure collapsed 2 days before it was supposed to be lit. Fortunately, that time, no one was injured, and they were able to rebuild it in time for its scheduled lighting.
In 1978, the design was changed again, to a "wedding-cake" style: Smaller stacks of logs on top of bigger stacks, with a fortified center pole. The design was intended to collapse on itself in a twisting motion, making it safer to remove.
According to tradition, the bonfire would be lit on the night before the game, which would usually be on Thanksgiving Day (to get a national TV audience), and if it burned without falling past midnight, A&M would win. However, the wedding-cake design ended up reducing the time it burned without falling, sometimes for as little as half an hour. But the tradition turned out to be mere superstition: From 1942 to 1977, with the teepee design, 30-5-1. But from 1978 to 1997, with the wedding-cake design, A&M led, 12-7, including an 11-1 stretch from 1984 to 1994.
It was probably largely about coaching and recruiting: Darrell Royal, who led the Longhorns to the National Championship in 1963, 1969 and 1970, retired after the 1976 season; and Fred Akers kept the winning going for a while, nearly winning the National Championship in 1977 and 1983; but R.C. Slocum led the Aggies to 3 straight Southwest Conference titles in 1991, '92 and '93, and, after the death of the SWC and both schools' 1996 move to the Big Eight, making it the Big Twelve, winning that in 1998.
The 1999 game, with the Longhorns 9-2, ranked Number 7, and already Champions of the Big 12 West Division, and the Aggies 7-3 and ranked Number 24, was set for November 26, the day after Thanksgiving. So the intention was to light the Bonfire on the night of Thanksgiving Day, November 25.
But a week before, on November 18, at 2:42 AM, already 59 feet high, the stack collapsed. Remember: It wasn't yet on fire, it was just a lot of heavy wood. But of the 58 people working on it, students and former students, some with previous Bonfire-building experience, 39 were injured, and 12 of those ultimately died. The fact that A&M is known for its "12th Man" tradition made the number of deaths even more poignant.
Upon learning of the disaster, A&M players rushed to the site, and helped remove the debris to look for survivors. Slocum suspended practice for 2 days. In solidarity, the Longhorn football staff held a blood drive to benefit the victims. UT officials also canceled their own annual pregame tradition, the "Hex Rally," in favor of a unity rally that also included hundreds of A&M students. A&M receiver Greg Porter told a sportswriter, "It was a weird time, you know? You're getting ready to play a football game, and the team on the other side is actually being nice."
And when the game was played at A&M's Kyle Field, it attracted a crowd of 86,128, the largest ever to attend a football game in the State of Texas to that point. (Both Kyle Field and Memorial Stadium, and also the Cotton Bowl, now exceed that capacity by thousands.) Thousands of maroon balloons filled the sky, followed by the pregame release of 12 white doves, one for each of the 12 current and former A&M students who were killed in the bonfire collapse. Four F-16 fighters flew overhead in the "missing man formation," a tribute usually saved for pilots killed in the line of duty.
The Longhorns, quarterbacked by freshman Chris Simms, son of New York Giants legend Phil Simms, because usual starter Marshall Applewhite had a stomach ailment, led 16-6 at the half. In another gesture of unity, both bands played together, and at the end of "Amazing Grace," both bands removed their hats, remained silent for a moment, and then marched off the field in silence.
The show seemed to inspire the Aggie crowd, who seemed to inspire the Aggie players, who mounted a comeback. With 5:02 left in regulation, and the ball on the Longhorn 14-yard-line, Randy McCown threw a pass into the end zone. It was caught by his roommate, Matt Bumgardner, and the Aggies won, 20-16.
A VHS cassette of the game
Both teams used up all their emotion in those days, and lost their bowl games: The Longhorns lost the Big 12 Championship Game to Nebraska, and lost the Cotton Bowl to another of its old rivals, Arkansas; while the Aggies lost the Alamo Bowl to Penn State.
A&M has never held another official Bonfire. But, since 2002, a student-sponsored coalition has constructed an annual unsanctioned, off-campus "Student Bonfire" in the spirit of its predecessor.
After the 2011 season, Texas A&M left the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference, ending the rivalry, at least as far as football is concerned. The Longhorns lead it, 76-37-5. In 2021, Texas, along with their other big rival, Oklahoma, announced it would leave the Big 12, and seek admission to the SEC. The SEC unanimously voted to invite both the Longhorns and the Sooners. This will allow them to become SEC members by the 2025 season, opening the door for a resumption of the Longhorn-Aggie football rivalry. (UPDATE: They made an agreement to join in 2024, restarting the rivalry a year earlier.)
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November 18, 1999 was a Thursday. Baseball season was over. The NFL was in midweek. One college football game was played that day: Colorado State beat the Air Force Academy, 41-21 at Hughes Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado.
There were 5 games played in the NBA:
* The Washington Wizards beat the Toronto Raptors, 92-81 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the San Antonio Spurs, 99-88 at the Bradly Center in Milwaukee.
* The Sacramento Kings beat the Houston Rockets, 128-110 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")
* The Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 93-82 at the new Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver. Shaquille O'Neal scored 36 points in defeat.
* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Vancouver Grizzlies, 110-108 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.
And there were 7 games in the NHL:
* In an "Original Six" matchup, the New York Rangers lost to the Boston Bruins, 5-3 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston.
* The Dallas Stars and the Philadelphia Flyers played to a tie, 1-1 at the First Union Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.
* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 2-1 at the Ice Palace (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.
* The San Jose Sharks beat the Ottawa Senators, 4-1 at the Corel Centre in the Ottawa suburb of Kanata, Ontario. (It's now the Canadian Tire Centre. The town was absorbed into Ottawa proper in 2001.)
* The Nashville Predators beat the Montreal Canadiens, 6-1 at the Gaylord Entertainment Center (now the Bridgestone Arena) in Nashville.
* The St. Louis Blues beat the Florida Panthers, 3-0 at the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.
* And the Phoenix Coyotes beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-2 at the new Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.
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