COLLEGE STATION, Texas (U-WIRE) — The centerpole in this year’s Texas A&M University off-campus student bonfire collapsed at 3:13 a.m. Nov. 22, predicting that Texas A&M would beat the University of Texas in next week’s highly anticipated football game.

Traditionally, if the centerpole of the bonfire collapses before midnight, it is predicted that A&M will lose to Texas, but if it collapses after midnight, A&M will win.

This year marks the second year a bonfire has been held off campus. Since the 1999 Aggie Bonfire collapse that resulted in the deaths of 12 Aggies and the injury of 27 more, Aggie Bonfire’s ties with the university have been severed.

Approximately 13,000 people attended the bonfire, which took place on the privately-owned property of Brad Zimmerman, an Aggie supporter, says Mack Lampton, Unity Project director.

Paul Harding, a senior animal science major who helped build the bonfire, says the atmosphere Saturday night was one of anticipation and excitement.

“People weren’t quite sure what to expect because it wasn’t a cake design like [the] old bonfire,” he says.

The event was a success, Harding says, bringing together new and old Aggies. This year’s attendance exceeded last year’s.

“When it lit, there was a moment of silence,” Harding says. “People were in awe at how amazing it looked.”

One minor injury was reported at the bonfire, which was treated on site. None of the “gray pots” — students who were tending the bonfire — were hurt, Lampton says.

Aggie yells were conducted on autopilot in the absence of the yell leaders, as thousands of people waited at the site for about 7,000 others, who were held up en route because of shuttle bus delays.

“We probably should have had more buses,” says Aaron Stagner, spokesman for the Unity Project. “We even had lots of people walking down the road to get there.”

Shuttle bus delays were due to a surge of people heading to the bonfire around 7:30 p.m., Harding says.

“We knew it was going to be a long trip, but the problem was that everyone showed up at the same time,” he says. “We weren’t prepared for all the traffic.”

Will Trevino, a senior psychology major, said seeing the bonfire burn was worth the trouble it took to get there.

“Coming to this university, I had always looked forward to seeing the bonfire,” he says. “I was really disappointed when I learned that I wouldn’t be able to see one here during my time at A&M.”

Trevino says he initially didn’t support Student Bonfire, but changed his mind after attending and giving it a chance.

“I feel that for me, it continues the spirit,” he says.

Stagner says the bonfire always got started later than ever, since it was held off campus. “Back when it was still held on campus, it would be lighted at ‘dark-thirty’ because there was no set time,” he says.

The bonfire took almost a year of planning, including months of cutting trees and stacking logs. During “push week,” the week before bonfire, students helped build the bonfire every day from 6 p.m. until midnight. It is called push week because of the push to get the job done before Saturday, Stagner says.

The students who get to light the fire walk around it three times before it is lighted — as a tradition, Lampton says.

“Three times around the bonfire: one for you, one for your mother and one for your date,” Lampton says.

Because the bonfire is no longer associated with A&M, the Corps of Cadets and yell leaders were not required to attend the event as groups, but could do so if they chose, says Corps public relations officer Justin Woods. Because of a call to quarters, freshmen cadets were not able to attend.

“The yell leaders are their own student organization,” Woods says. “The bonfire was not recognized as a university-related event.”