So I'm Theresa Woodard.
I am a reporter here at W FAA.
But more importantly, today I
am a member of the Fighting
Texas Aggie class of 1997.
Back in the day,
the biggest rivalry in all of sports,
if you ask me, was between Texas A&M
and the University of Texas at Austin.
And Bonfire was just this epic pep
rally that we would hold every year
right before we played what we call TCU.
So I remember being at every bonfire.
When I was a student from 1993 until 1997,
and then even after that,
because after I graduated from Texas,
A&MI stayed in College Station and
I was a reporter to be a part of it,
the night when those burns would happen.
Wow. You could see people for miles.
It felt like crowding around
the field out there,
and you could feel the heat from the bonfire.
You would watch that flame go up
and up and up and when the moment
would hit the the very top of it,
which was that outhouse that signified
the University of Texas at Austin,
when that thing would go, ohh man,
you could just hear the screams
forever and it just echoed.
Bonfire meant so much to me.
But when I was moving away
from College Station,
which just so happened to be about
a week before the bonfire fell,
one of the last things I did on my
way out of town was drive past Stack
one more time and just marveled at it.
And I thought,
I vividly remember this.
I thought,
it's not the last time I'll ever see it.
I'm going to make sure that
I move back to Texas someday
and I go back to a bonfire.
I started a new job in Tennessee
on November 17th, 1999.
On November 18th, 1999, I woke up in
our little apartment in Knoxville,
TN to news on the radio.
It was the 2nd day on the job for me at a
new television station in Knoxville, TN.
I just moved there and I woke up to my
radio on the alarm clock and the first
thing I heard was that the bonfire
stack had collapsed at Texas A&M.
Before I even got out of bed.
Tears started flowing.
I remember the day when it happened,
and I remember trying to explain to
outsiders what that tradition was all about.
And I remember trying to explain
what the Aggie tradition was all
about and people just didn't get it.
And there is a saying something like from
the outside looking in you can't understand
it and from the inside you can't explain it.
Looking back on it, I do realize now,
man, that was dangerous.
But until this moment happened,
we didn't think about it that way.
It's painful.
I know it's painful for Aggies like me.
It's more painful for the young men and
women who were students at the time.
I had just graduated a couple
of years before.
There's people who have more
vivid memories than me, I know.
But it hurts. 12.
And that's significant.
And Texas A&M is known
for being the 12th man.
And the fact that we lost
12 Aggies that day.
There's something to that.
What if the person who could have gone
on to cure cancer was killed that day?
Or what if the person who could
bridge these deep political divides
that we have in our nation right now?
What if that person was killed that day?
We'll never know. But as Aggies,
it's up to us, and this Texans.
It's up to the rest of us to just
live on in their spirit and believe
that we'll go forth every day and
make a difference in their name.