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

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Please, for us mortals who are not as all-knowing, what did he accomplish?

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Warning: very long response ahead. I’m fully aware you aren’t interested in this scope of detail, but I can’t answer your question any other way. And while I’m not sure I get the “mortals”/“not all-knowing” jab, Slocum is revered for all he’s done off the field as much as he’s known for his football accomplishments. He still plays a very active role in our Athletic Department and recently served as interim AD when Scott Woodward left for LSU. Here’s his College Football Hall of Fame profile, if you’re interested.

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From a personal standpoint, Coach Slocum’s role in helping us begin the healing process after Bonfire stack collapsed in ‘99 will always be a huge part of his legacy.

Obviously none of us had ever experienced tragedy on such a personal and massive level. We were zombies afterwards; it was a waking nightmare, attending funerals daily and just reminding each other to breathe.

Looking back, Slocum is one of a handful of people I recall as being pivotal in lifting us up when we were at our lowest. No one was thinking about football. But Slocum rallied. Playing the game suddenly became everything. That sounds so incredibly shallow, but sometimes people just need something from their “normal” to provide distraction and focus.

An article describing how Slocum responded:

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Football players assist in rescue
By LARRY BOWEN Eagle Staff Writer Nov 19, 1999


Texas A&M wide receiver Chris Cole (second from left) helps A&M students move wood away from the fallen stack Thursday.


Most of the Aggie football players helped move huge logs away from the accident site as rescue workers continued to search for survivors after the towering, 40-foot pyramid of logs came roaring down early Thursday, crushing some students to death and injuring dozens of others.

"We heard a bunch of our fellow students were down," junior guard Chris Valletta said. "We all just jetted out here as soon as we could because we heard they needed help moving all these logs.

"It's the least we could do. These people gave their lives in that thing out there, all in support of a game we're about to play and to show their school spirit," he said.

The football team's preparations for next week's nationally televised game against the University of Texas were suspended for the day. A&M head coach RC Slocum canceled the afternoon practice and scheduled a team meeting Friday, which was to be an off day for the players.

Few players, if any, would have attended practice anyway, had it been held.

"We pulled the whole team together and asked the guys what they wanted to do," senior quarterback Randy McCown said. "It was a unanimous decision to stay out here and help these guys out.

"We're not even thinking about the game. There's lives at stake here, and this is the most important thing," he said.

While most of the players did not personally know any of the students killed in the accident, sophomore linebacker Christian Rodriguez was a friend of one victim.

"Christian is very upset," Slocum said. "He lost one of his best friends. He was on his way to the [Memorial Student Center] to meet the young man's parents."

By 4 p.m. the players were covered in dirt and indistinguishable from other students, except for their size and practice tshirts and the gloves worn by linemen during games.

Junior linebacker Jason Glenn looked like he had been dipped in a mud bath, with only his face wiped clean, as he and three other players took a brief break to talk to the media.

"We were supposed to be practicing right now, but we're not worried about football," he said. "It's about A&M students right now.

"They support us, we’ll support them back. When it's fourth-and-1, they're rooting us on. Right now, we're rooting them on and doing whatever we can to help," Glenn said.

A&M players worked with fellow students to move logs away from the stack. Some of the huge logs took 30 or more workers to carry, making burly linemen like 300-pound senior guard Semisi Heimuli very useful.

"We really needed their help on the big logs," A&M student Kyle Bigelow said. "It would take about 50 of us, but only 15 of them."

Several football players found out about the accident the same way other students did: when they began receiving frantic, early morning calls from parents. Others woke up and turned on the news. The word then spread quickly through the team.

At first discouraged from going to the site for safety concerns, the players began arriving around noon and volunteering to help.

"We figured we could help out with some of the heavier logs," McCown said. "We're just trying to chip in and help.

"These people come out and build this thing for us every year, and they come out and support us every game. Other than performing on the field, we don't have a chance to give back to them. This is our opportunity to show them that we care about them as much as they care about us," he said.

The game against Texas, the reason for Bonfire, was not on the players' minds as they watched emergency crews continue to search the stack for victims.

"What we're doing and what these students are doing is 100 million times more important than any football practice," Valletta said. "This was too important.

"I completely underestimated the power of what happened today. Not one single guy even thought about the game of football. What was on our minds was getting these logs moved so they could get the equipment in here and save some lives if they could," he said.

UT athletic director DeLoss Dodds called A&M AD, Wally Groff, on Thursday to offer help.

Longhorns head coach Mack Brown issued a statement that said, "I drove to the office with a tear in my eye this morning. It makes you want to cry."

"I can promise you nobody here is thinking about football. Our thoughts and prayers are with those kids and their families, and all of the people at Texas A&M," he said.

Members of the Longhorn football team who will not be on the travel squad to next week's game are planning a blood drive on campus Friday to benefit the injured, Brown said.


Coach RC Slocum decided the Aggies would still play in the Thanksgiving Day football game against UT following the collapse.

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