Texas A&M quarterback remembers team's desperate attempt to save 12 students from horror 1999 bonfire collapse

A 4th of a period aft the devastating Texas A&M bonfire collapse, the school's erstwhile prima backmost reflected connected the calamity and the hopeless effort to prevention lives.

On November 18, 1999, the log stack being built successful mentation for the yearly bonfire up of the Texas A&M-Texas rivalry shot crippled successful College Station abruptly collapsed, sidesplitting 12 radical and injuring dozens.

The yearly bonfire attracted crowds of up to 70,000 and burned each twelvemonth done 1998. The lone objection was successful 1963, aft the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. 

The stack of much than 5,000, 18-foot logs toppled a week earlier it was scheduled to burn. 

The 12 who were killed included 5 freshmen, 4 sophomores, a junior, a elder and a caller graduate. Several were members of the Corps of Cadets, Texas A&M's student-led, military-style enactment that played a ample relation successful its construction.

Rescuers, including members of the Texas A&M shot team, raced to region the logs that had trapped and crushed immoderate of the victims.

The team's elder backmost astatine the clip Randy McCown reflected connected the calamity during a recent interview with the Sports Flashback YouTube channel.

'The crushed wherefore we were going retired determination is due to the fact that we had heard that they're not utilizing immoderate instrumentality and they're each removing it by hand,' McCown said.

'We started moving logs and I'm conscionable like, wow, this is crazy. I ne'er would person thought 20 oregon 30 guys could bash this. And truthful we conscionable stayed determination and helped them until they told america that that was each we could do.'

'I tin retrieve that week determination was a level of pressure, but cipher was talking astir it,' helium said. 

'And cipher ever came retired and said, you know, let's triumph 1 for those guys. But everybody conscionable knew. We don't cognize if this is going to beryllium the cure-all, but we cognize this volition help.' 

McCown said the devastation weighed heavy connected the team, but motived them to spell connected and bushed their rival .

'I tin retrieve that week determination was a level of pressure, but cipher was talking astir it,' helium said. 

'And cipher ever came retired and said, you know, let's triumph 1 for those guys. But everybody conscionable knew. We don't cognize if this is going to beryllium the cure-all, but we cognize this volition help.'

An investigative study cited aggregate causes for the collapse, from flawed operation techniques to a deficiency of supervision by the assemblage implicit the students gathering the bonfire stack. 

The lowest level of the heap did not person due enactment wiring, and excessive accent connected the bottommost level was compounded by wedging logs into gaps. 

In 2003, the schoolhouse dedicated a memorial connected the spot wherever the stack fell. It includes a 'Spirit Ring' with 12 portals representing those who were killed. 

The yearly Aggie bonfire was discontinued arsenic an authoritative schoolhouse lawsuit aft the deadly collapse.

The schoolhouse considered reviving the contented this twelvemonth to coincide with the renewal of the Texas-Texas A&M shot rivalry connected November 30.

The rivalry divided successful 2012 erstwhile Texas A&M left the Big 12 Conference for the Southeastern Conference, but has resumed this twelvemonth arsenic Texas joined the SEC.

A peculiar committee recommended resuming the bonfire, but lone if the log stack was designed and built by nonrecreational engineers and contractors. Some members of the nationalist said it should not travel backmost if it was not organized and built by students, according to tradition.

School President Mark Welsh III ultimately decided the bonfire would not instrumentality to campus.

'Bonfire, some a fantastic and tragic portion of Aggie history, should stay successful our treasured past,' the president said successful June erstwhile helium announced his decision.

Students person continued to signifier and physique unofficial off-campus bonfires implicit the years and program to pain this year's variation connected Nov. 29, the nighttime earlier the Texas A&M-Texas shot game.