Annual bonfire kindles excitement for football season

Students crowded near the base of the Cathedral Sunday evening, pumping their arms and chanting to cheers that the Pitt band led as they waited for the annual bonfire to begin.

The first 1,200 students who arrived at the Pitt Program Council’s Annual Bonfire and Pep Rally received free T-shirts. From 8:30 until after 10 p.m., students cheered for the Panthers to kick off the upcoming season. 

The total of 3,500 students who gathered around a towering bonfire lit on the Cathedral Lawn while Bubba Snider, a DJ for local FM radio station Star 100.7, served as the bonfire’s master of ceremonies. The school band provided music and encouraged the crowd while student leaders from several organizations, including the Student Government Board, the Black Action Society and the Blue and Gold Society, taught chants or told Florida State jokes to rally the students for the Monday night game. The event also included a small fireworks display to further build the excitement of those in attendance.

Taylor Steffey, a senior majoring in applied developmental psychology who also works as the Pitt Program Council’s special events director, oversaw planning for the rally.

She said that each year, the event requires a lot of coordination between different departments.

“We have to talk to facilities management, the fire chief, the police, the athletics department,” she said. “So it’s a lot of coordination of multiple organizations and facets of the university.”

A permit must also be obtained for the bonfire.Steffey expected a high turnout.

“Attendance is usually good — it’s in the thousands,” she said before the bonfire. “We give out 1,200 T-shirts, so that’s enticing. This year, I’m hoping it will be in the thousands again.”

Pitt Program Council handed out all of its shirts Sunday night, a sign that at least that many students attended the pep rally.

Pitt Police Chief Tim Delaney said in an email that his department provides security for the annual event.

“We have been covering this detail for years,” he said. “With nothing out of the usual, we assign several officers to the actual event and cycle officers to the perimeter.” 

He said that Pitt’s Environmental Health and Safety office and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire handled the pyrotechnic aspects of the event. 

The bonfire was one of the first events Kelly Jenniches, a pre-pharmacy major, attended as a freshman.

“It’s an experience of the whole student body coming together. It’s pretty nice,” she said.