The Aggie Bonfire leadership is composed of Texas A&M University students who are in charge of the construction of Aggie Bonfire, known as Bonfire. This large bonfire burned on the Texas A&M University campus annually from 1909 until 1999. Since 2003 the Bonfire has been burned unofficially off campus, and is known as Student Bonfire. The Aggie Bonfire leadership is responsible for safely managing the large number of student participants. Leaders are generally identified by the color of their "pots" (combat helmets).
Since 1909, students at Texas A&M University had built an annual bonfire on campus. Freshmen were expected to build the early Bonfires to help prove their worth.[1] For almost two decades, the students constructed Bonfire from debris and wood acquired through various, sometimes illicit, means, including appropriating lumber intended for a dormitory in 1912.[2] In 1935, a farmer reported that students carried off his entire barn as fuel for Bonfire. To prevent future incidents, the university made Aggie Bonfire a school-sanctioned event. The following year, for the first time, the school provided axes, saws, and trucks for the students and pointed them toward a grove of dead trees on the edge of town.[3]
The early Bonfires were constructed under the leadership of the Corps of Cadets. All students were members of the Corps, which had its own leadership structure. When membership in the Corps became voluntary in 1965, this leadership structure was no longer viable; Corps leaders had no authority over the civilian students. A separate Bonfire leadership structure was instituted. The new leaders were designated with colored Vietnam-era combat helmets, or pots, with the overall leaders known as Redpots.[1]
Leaders were chosen by their predecessors. Initiation rites for the upper echelon of leaders were often brutal, at times including beatings with ax handles or bar fights. Sportswriter Scott Eden commented that "these tests of toughness were meant to steel new Redpots for the job ahead."[4] Knowledge was passed down from one leader to another verbally, with little to no official written documentation.[4]
Each generation of Redpots strived to outdo the generation before. The structure became more elaborate, and in 1969, the stack of logs set the world record for the height of a bonfire at 109 ft 10 in (33 m) tall.[3] Out of concern for the safety of participants and the community, the university limited the size to 55 feet (17 m) tall and 45 feet (14 m) in diameter.[2] Despite the new height restrictions, in the 1970s, the Guinness Book of Records listed Aggie Bonfire as the largest Bonfire in the world.[3]
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.[1] Construction began in late October with "Cut", obtaining wood by cutting down trees with axes, which took several weekends.[1][5] 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.[5] In early November, crews began "Stack", a three-week period in which the logs were wired together and Bonfire took shape.[5]
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.[1] Student workers were organized by dormitories or Corps units, with a separate off-campus student crew. Many former students participated with crews they belonged to as students. Each crew had assigned shifts, although individuals were not limited to working only the assigned shifts.[5]
Following the collapse of the 1999 Bonfire, which killed 12 current and former students, Texas A&M officials cancelled the annual event. In 2003, several current and former students founded Student Bonfire, a nonprofit organization which hosts an annual Bonfire, unaffiliated with the university, off-campus. The Bonfire leadership structure has remained in place, although in 2014 only 10 of the 26 dorms were represented by Bonfire crews.[4]