First time an off campus Centerpole hasn't lasted the night.

As long as no one got hurt we are just discussing superstitions, right?

What is the significance of center pole not making it the night?

Centerpole hates us too!

Nombre said:

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What is the significance of center pole not making it the night?

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we're all banging sip ****s before, during, and after the blowout win.

It's all about the outhouse not making it by midnight.....new army. If the outhouse falls before midnight we are screwed. That's the OG tradition

The outhouse was gone long before 11:40 last night. The tradition is that if the centerpole falls before midnight, Ags get outscored.

But that is some old army BS. 'cause we're gonna beat the ever living hell out of Archie and the sips!

I'm just saying that back in the day....the outhouse was more of the focus than centerpole

Trust the team, not the center pole.

Slyfox07 said:

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Yeah...well maybe the centerpole was just nervous...or tired

This almost never happens

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The centerpole went 8&4

The tradition is that if the tradition doesn't fade before midnight, we can expect the zebras to swing the game 7-21 points against us.

Sumlin lost control of centerpole…

NormanEH said:

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Game over.

Play the JV against tu.

Rest a couple weeks and go win the whole damn thing.

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I tried to tell y'all.

They obviously poured too much diesel on the stack...went up like candlestick. Not to worry....Ags will prevail. This is a team of destiny!

Fatboy Thaddeus said:

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The tradition is that if the tradition doesn't fade before midnight, we can expect the zebras to swing the game 7-21 points against us.

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Okay but what does the tradition say about the tradition of the tradition? And how does that impact the tradition?

Even bonfire wants to hurry up and beat the sips.

I wanna see the players come out of the tunnel like they are running pisshead wrap

Nombre said:

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What is the significance of center pole not making it the night?

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You've got an Ag Tag and don't know the answer to this?

Must be new army. SMH.

Meh.

Rec said:

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It did not follow the true course of rectitude

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RECtitude??? I can't tell whether username checks out…without a report on your personal choices…

JPK89 said:

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Nombre said:

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What is the significance of center pole not making it the night?

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You've got an Ag Tag and don't know the answer to this?

Must be new army. SMH.

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The last real bonfire was 1998... that's 27 years ago. Lighten up Francis

This is the truth, if you posess the attention span to read it. Cut it, stacked it, and helped burn it. Animal Eight 1979-1983.

Stages of bonfire construction (1970s1999)
Stage Description Length Approx. start
Cut / load Trees cut down, logs loaded by hand onto trucks and unloaded on campus 4 weeks October
Stack Logs wired into place against the center pole 3 weeks Early November
Push 24/7 effort to finish the first four levels 10 days Last 10 days of Stack
Finish Redpots build the final two levels. 1 day Day before Burn
Burn The stack is doused with jet fuel and lit on fire. 1 day 1 or 2 nights before the football game versus Texas
In 1978, Bonfire shifted from its previous teepee design to a wedding cake style, in which upper stacks of logs were wedged on top of lower stacks. The structure was built around a fortified center pole, made from two telephone poles spliced together by cutting matching notches, approximately 10 feet (3 m) long, and with 5 US gallons (19 L) of glue. Four steel plates were bolted to the two poles, and a 38 inch (9.5 mm) cable wrapped around the joint and secured to the pole with steel staples. Four perimeter poles were placed 150 feet (46 m) away and ropes were stretched between the perimeter poles to center poles and tension placed on them to hold the center pole together. After the center pole was erected, logs were placed vertically around it in a multi-tiered wedding cake design composed of thousands of logs.[8] By 1984, the logs were sloping only 14 degrees.[7] The spiral arrangement of the logs was designed to make Bonfire collapse into itself in a twisting motion, thus protecting spectators.[8] Although the tradition stated that if Bonfire burned through midnight then A&M would win the following day's football game, the introduction of the wedding cake design drastically reduced the time it took for Bonfire to fall, sometimes burning for only 30 or 45 minutes.[7]
Despite the complexity of the design, there were no formal written instructions or architectural blueprints for the construction of Bonfire. Knowledge on how to build the structure was passed verbally from one redpot to the next. By 1999, the only written documentation on the building of Bonfire was the rough schematic printed on the back of the official Bonfire T-shirt worn by participants from the freshman honors dormitory, Lechner.[13]
While the Bonfires of the 1960s were constructed in five to ten days, working primarily in daylight, by the late 1970s, changes in the school led to a more elaborate and lengthy construction schedule.[3] Construction began in late October with "Cut", obtaining wood by cutting down trees with axes, which took several weekends.[3][8] After Cut, students brought the logs to campus during "Load", a process by which the logs were loaded by hand onto flatbed trucks and brought to campus.[8] In early November, crews began "Stack", a three-week period in which the logs were wired together and Bonfire took shape. Near the end of stack, known as "Push", students worked around the clock in rotating shifts. The first four of the six stacks were built with the efforts of all safety-trained participants. The day before Bonfire was scheduled to burn, junior redpots would build the fifth stack, and then senior redpots would build the sixth.[8]

Yell Leaders and the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band follow the Redpots around the bonfire prior to Burn in 1992.
During Cut, all logs were felled by hand, with students working in teams to chop down each tree with their axes. The manual labor ensured that participants were invested in each log that went into the Bonfire. Once the trees had fallen, brownpots, the "executive lumberjacks", used chainsaws to cut limbs and prepare the logs.[13]
To ensure safety during the Stack period, the organizers maintained a perimeter around the working area, and allowed only safety-trained students through. Cranes, donated by local construction companies, assisted in getting logs onto the upper tiers, and volunteers from those companies were on-hand at all times to offer advice. Emergency medical technicians were also required to be on site at all times and no more than 70 students at a time were allowed on the stack.[8] Once the stack was finished, a burnt-orange outhouse with "t.u frat house" painted on the front was placed on top of the stack.[14][15][16]
Although between two and five thousand students participated in the construction of Bonfire each year, most worked only part-time, and many worked only one or two shifts.[3] Student workers were organized by dormitories or Corps units, with a separate off-campus student team. Many former students participated with teams they belonged to as students. Each team had assigned shifts, although individuals were not limited to working only the assigned shifts.[8] Students working on Bonfire wore "grodes"old T-shirts, jeans, and boots. By tradition, grodes were either not washed until after Bonfire burned or not washed at all.[17]
In 1983, the city of College Station began manufacturing Austin city limits signs for students to place at the summit of the Bonfire so that students would stop stealing signs from Austin.[5] The Fightin' Texas Aggie Band began building the outhouse, ending the tradition of stealing Bonfire's components.[18]

We had a very dry late Oct and November. Watching the video from last night, after the fuel burned out, the entire stack was fully engulfed in flames. My recollection from past bonfires I attended, is that after the fuel burned out it took a while for the stack to become fully engulfed. Not this year.

You must've watched '05

That sucker was FR. Stood through December after being lit.

TexasRebel said:

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You must've watched '05

That sucker was FR. Stood through December after being lit.

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I've not personally attended any bonfires post '98. Attended all while a student - '81-'86. Went to a couple more between '92 and '98, but don't remember exact years.

I've watched quite a few on the live stream as well. I don't remember '05, but didn't they have one year that the thing just wouldn't start and they didn't burn it? I think it may have been the first or second year of the off campus bonfire and it was built with mostly pine instead of hard woods.

It was the 4th year.

The saw-'em-off burn was in '02.
Then the two mud bowls.
Then the pine.
Then Franklin twice.