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

A quarter of a century after the devastating Texas A&M bonfire collapse, the school's former star quarterback reflected on the tragedy and the desperate attempt to save lives.

On November 18, 1999, the log stack being built in preparation for the annual bonfire ahead of the Texas A&M-Texas rivalry football game in College Station suddenly collapsed, killing 12 people and injuring dozens.

The annual bonfire attracted crowds of up to 70,000 and burned every year through 1998. The only exception was in 1963, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. 

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

The 12 who were killed included five freshmen, four sophomores, a junior, a senior and a recent graduate. Several were members of the Corps of Cadets, Texas A&M's student-led, military-style organization that played a large role in its construction.

Rescuers, including members of the Texas A&M football team, raced to remove the logs that had trapped and crushed some of the victims.

The team's senior quarterback at the time Randy McCown reflected on the tragedy during a recent interview with the Sports Flashback YouTube channel.

'The reason why we were going out there is because we had heard that they're not using any equipment and they're all removing it by hand,' McCown said.

'We started moving logs and I'm just like, wow, this is crazy. I never would have thought 20 or 30 guys could do this. And so we just stayed there and helped them until they told us that that was all we could do.'

'I can remember that week there was a level of pressure, but nobody was talking about it,' he said. 

'And nobody ever came out and said, you know, let's win one for those guys. But everybody just knew. We don't know if this is going to be the cure-all, but we know this will help.' 

McCown said the devastation weighed heavily on the team, but motived them to go on and beat their rival .

'I can remember that week there was a level of pressure, but nobody was talking about it,' he said. 

'And nobody ever came out and said, you know, let's win one for those guys. But everybody just knew. We don't know if this is going to be the cure-all, but we know this will help.'

An investigative report cited multiple causes for the collapse, from flawed construction techniques to a lack of supervision by the university over the students building the bonfire stack. 

The lowest level of the pile did not have proper support wiring, and excessive stress on the bottom level was compounded by wedging logs into gaps. 

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

The annual Aggie bonfire was discontinued as an official school event after the deadly collapse.

The school considered reviving the tradition this year to coincide with the renewal of the Texas-Texas A&M football rivalry on November 30.

The rivalry split in 2012 when Texas A&M left the Big 12 Conference for the Southeastern Conference, but has resumed this year as Texas joined the SEC.

A special committee recommended resuming the bonfire, but only if the log stack was designed and built by professional engineers and contractors. Some members of the public said it should not come back if it was not organized and built by students, according to tradition.

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

'Bonfire, both a wonderful and tragic part of Aggie history, should remain in our treasured past,' the president said in June when he announced his decision.

Students have continued to organize and build unofficial off-campus bonfires over the years and plan to burn this year's edition on Nov. 29, the night before the Texas A&M-Texas football game.