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Rivalry takes backseat A&M, UT students both affected by bonfire tragedy
Posted: Monday November 22, 1999 01:43 PM
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) -- This is when the collective focus of the Texas A&M campus is supposed to be on the revelry and rivalry surrounding a football game. For generations of Aggies taught to hate the University of Texas, this week is about the traditions leading up to the regular-season finale against the Longhorns. In the wake of the bonfire-building accident that killed 11 A&M students and a recent graduate, the tone has changed. "Say what you will about bonfire and say what you will about the Aggie tradition, but the campus really pulled together this week," said Todd Wood, a student who attended a packed memorial service Sunday at Texas A&M United Methodist Church. "We have been rivals for a long time," Wood said. "If we go at it with the same 'Beat the hell out of UT' attitude, it will just be the same." The game and many of the decades-old traditions surrounding it will go on this week, but much of the attention will be on healing and continuing the search for answers to why the tragedy happened. "Right now, Aggies are more concerned for Aggies than they are for a rivalry," said A&M junior Rob Clarke. "That attention they would focus has been turned." Local, state and federal officials planned to meet today to plan an investigation strategy. This year's bonfire, set for Thanksgiving night, has been canceled and university leaders will decide the future of the tradition at a later time. "I think that's in the heart of everybody that we want it to continue," said Texas A&M President Ray Bowen. "But I think at this point in time, not understanding exactly what happened, it would be best if we left out on the table the possibility upon analysis that we would have to make a hard decision and that this would be the last bonfire. "None of us want that happen. I wouldn't want to speculate about what is going to happen, but our hearts are with the students that made that observation" that the bonfire should continue, Bowen said. The deaths profoundly affected a University of Texas student leader who attended a memorial service in College Station Thursday night, hours after the thousands of logs being used to make the bonfire came crashing down. "For all of us Longhorns who discount A&M in our never-ending rivalry, we needed to realize that Aggieland is a special place," Eric Opiela, the student body vice president at Texas, wrote on CNN's Web site. "It is a family. It is a family that cares for its own, a family that reaches out, a family that is unified in the face of adversity, a family that moved this Longhorn to tears." Texas A&M officials canceled classes Wednesday to give students extra time with their families. "Thanksgiving couldn't have come at a better time," said Amanda Arriaga, a student leader at the Memorial Student Center on campus. "Half of the students are going home with their families, the rest have family coming up for the most part. "I know the next few days are going to be kind of strange, but the next few days are part of the healing." The mourning has prompted postponement of Tuesday's Elephant Walk to Nov. 29. The Elephant Walk is an A&M tradition in which graduating seniors turn their responsibilities as the school's storied "12th Man" over to the junior class. At sunset Thursday, the day the bonfire was to be set, a vigil is planned at the accident site. The annual yell practice will be held at the stadium afterward. "Usually yell practice is a rowdy and fun event," Ms. Arriaga said. "It will be more of a modified yell practice and pretty solemn this year." Among the modifications: no student-led renditions of the chant to 'Beat the Hell out of TU.' "Because they've done so much for us this past week, we are not going to do that to them, that's our respect to them," Ms. Arriaga said. Sunday was filled with tears, songs and prayers at memorial services and funerals across the state. Six injured students remained hospitalized, two of them in critical condition. "I'm here to help the Aggie family from what has been a tragic situation in the state of Texas," a somber Gov. George W. Bush said before an evening memorial service at Central Baptist Church in Bryan. "It is a time to pray and a time to hear the word." Bush, who did not speak during the service, signed the guest books of all 12 victims, three of whom were buried Sunday. The leaders of their congregations and others tried to comfort mourners and addressed the survivors of Thursday's tragedy. "The reason you are here this morning is not luck," said Dwight Edwards, senior pastor of Grace Bible Church. "God is not through using you for his purpose."
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