Aggies Still in State of Shock, but Texas Game Will Go On

Football was far from the players’ minds as Texas A&M; approached its most emotional game this season.

The deaths of 12 Aggies in the collapse of logs stacked for the traditional bonfire had many players focusing on the tragedy, rather than their Nov. 26 meeting with No. 6 Texas.

“They are still in a state of shock,” Coach R.C. Slocum said after a meeting Friday.

“Young people tend to consider that it’s old people who die. It’s hard for them to realize their fellow students died working on a project to recognize the spirit that comes with the game,” he said.

The bonfire, the torching of a 55-foot stack of logs that annually precedes the Aggies’ battle with archrival Texas, is one of the most visible traditions at a school that prides itself on togetherness and school spirit.

The team canceled practice Thursday and Friday, some of them helping remove logs at the accident site. But the players will return to practice today. Quarterback Randy McCown said those who died would have wanted the game to go on.

“They gave so much effort and they gave their lives to support us,” he said. “The least we could give back to them would be to go and beat Texas.”

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Leading Kentucky to bowl eligibility for a second consecutive season earned Coach Hal Mumme a two-year contract extension. The board of directors of the school’s athletic association voted to extend Mumme’s $800,000-a-year contract through the end of 2005, replacing a deal that paid Mumme the same salary but would have expired at the end of 2003.

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Northern Colorado quarterback Corte McGuffey, the 1998 runner-up, is one of eight finalists for the Harlon Hill Trophy for the best player in NCAA Division II. Other finalists are Shepherd College running back Damian Beane, Virginia State receiver Damon Thompson, American International running back Kavin Gailliard, Presbyterian College quarterback Todd Cunningham, South Dakota State running back Josh Ranek, Northeastern State running back Carlton Booe and Nebraska Kearney quarterback Justin Coleman. . . . Claude Gilbert, 67, a former head coach at San Diego State and San Jose State, will retire from his job as San Diego State’s defensive coordinator at the end of the season.