SAN ANTONIO — It was 20 years ago when 12 Aggies lost their lives and 27 more students were hurt; the bonfire collapse sent shockwaves of grief through the tight-knit campus, the state and the nation.
Two San Antonio men were students at Texas A&M when tragedy struck. They say the experience changed their lives.
“It was totally surreal,” said Clinton Haby. “Arriving at the collapse itself, [there was] dust in the air and people running around and trying to get organized. This is before cell phones.”
Word spread fast on campus.
Haby was a sophomore at Texas A&M when the words “bonfire fell” reached his ears.
“It's one of those things that messes with your head and makes you think. I totally could have been there, that could have been me,” said Haby. “After the collapse, even I think a lot of students ended up having survivor's guilt.”
Students gathered in groups to share hugs, tears and prayers.
A campus of tens of thousands joined as one and tried to make sense of it all.
“I ended up writing a poem about bonfire,” said Haby. “The closing line of it was, ‘why them and why not me?’”
His poem also named each of the 12 Aggies who took their final breaths atop bonfire.
“I actually knew Bryan McClain. He was also from San Antonio,” said Haby.
He is not the only one reflecting on the past this week. Michael Rey was a senior when the bonfire fell, killing one of his friends.
“Michael Ebanks, who was a freshman in my math class,” said Rey. “He was brilliant and a fighter. He flew planes. His parents were amazing people.”
Rey remembers standing dazed at the yellow tape.
“I prayed for those who were there and challenged by that moment,” said Rey. “There are people that were stuck in the pile.”
He would go on to become an architect. Rey’s skill shined through when he and a team were selected to create the bonfire memorial that stands on campus today.
“Knowing that you could impact and design something that not only memorializes those 12 souls and the 27 that were injured but the history of such a strong tradition for the university... to be just a very small part of that was huge for me.”
Bonfire was a tradition on campus since the early 1900s.
Aggies would light up the November sky ahead of their rivalry football game with the University of Texas.
The woodpile was elaborate and took weeks to assemble.
Students formed groups, visited nearby farmland to collect the logs and then assembled the massive pile.
The collapse meant an end to the nearly century-old tradition.
Students started an off-campus, unsanctioned version in 2002.
“Who knows what the 12 Aggies who we lost would say,” said Haby. “I feel like the best way to pay tribute to those people is to continue something that they put so much of their lives into and something they were so passionate about.”
Passion is precisely what Haby says he learned from heartbreak.
“Experiencing bonfire collapse, [now] I have a full appreciation for how fleeting life is and I know that these moments are precious,” said Haby. “I have found purpose with my life as a result of having the perspective that I have.”
A remembrance gathering took place at the bonfire memorial in College Station at 2:42 a.m. on Monday. The ceremony paid tribute to the lives lost in the collapse tragedy.
...
Bonfire ’99 Catharsis
Oh, beloved bonfire
Our child of spirit
Nurtured 90 years
Snatched away from home
Gone before its time
Walking the path, walked before
Familiar to foot, eyes don’t recognize
Reaching the leveled site, dead, in my tracks
Gusts from the sky
Tears from our eyes
Flood the Polo Fields
Pot deflecting wind
Coat delaying cold
Candles, care passed about
This pool of Aggie faith
Spark begins the flame
A rippling wave of pain
Torching vessels all the way
To the shore of the Aggie sea
Walking a path, we’d never walked
A wounded, moving mass of hurt
To a yell practice like none before
“Last Corps Trip” from Head Yell’s lips
Arctic chills consume Kyle Field
The Spirit of ’02 cannon cries out
BOOM!
Miranda Adams
BOOM!
Christopher Breen
BOOM!
Michael Ebanks
BOOM!
Jeremy Frampton
BOOM!
Jamie Hand
BOOM!
Christopher Heard
BOOM!
Timothy Kerlee, Jr.
BOOM!
Lucas Kimmel
BOOM!
Bryan McClain
BOOM!
Chad Powell
BOOM!
Jerry Self
BOOM!
Nathan West
Twelve shots, twelve times
Twelve pots, twelve lives
No longer in morning rise
Each exclaim the end
Nothing making sense again
Questioning eternally
Why them, why not me?