re: If you’re someone who prays, a special Aggie could use your faith right now

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In the days following the collapse of Aggie Bonfire—described as the hardest times in A&M history—Aggieland turned to almost anything to escape the tragedy, and sports was one of those escapes.

It was A&M tradition to burn Stack the night before the Aggies played the Longhorns for the annual Thanksgiving Day game. But in the wake of tragedy following the collapse, it was up to A&M head coach RC Slocum to decide whether or not the game would go on.

“It was my position that I thought we should have the game,” Slocum said. “The reason for doing that—it wasn’t because the game was so important to me. But I thought the game—with our students and with what had happened—it would all be better as an Aggie family and stick together. I thought there would be some healing for everybody and some consolation.”

This week, Slocum said the game had to be one of the most stressful games he’d ever had to coach, but he had no regrets about the decision he made to play the game.

“I’m thankful that we went ahead and played,” Slocum said. “We did it for all the right reasons. It went way beyond football and the game — it was something.

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