Interesting piece, that is, from everything I recall (I was back in Grad school during the collapse), correct, except for one important thing, that I believe is true, but folks can fact check me on it.

Prior to the early 60s, TAMC was a military school with a Corps divided into Regiments, Battalions and Air Force units. Those units were according to military specialties (Air Force, Armor, Artillery, Cavalry (ending in the late 40s), Chemical Warfare, Coast Artillery (also phased out in the 40s), Engineering, Ordinance, Signal Corps, etc.). In the early 60s the Corps changed and military branch became the driving force for unit affiliation, not unit specialization.

This is important, because at that time the Bonfire shifted from an Engineering company run event (My Dad class of 54 told me that in his day the Engineering outfits ran Bonfire and no one did anything on it that they didn't oversee.) to a pass down Redpot run event. Engineering companies were no longer running it, because they didn't officially exist anymore. It was folks who put in the effort to get to a Redpot position that ran it with pass down knowledge, but not necessarily engineering knowledge.

That key loss of engineering oversight, I believe, played a huge part in the eventual collapse. It wasn't that it lasted as long as it did with a pass down approach, but that there was a key loss of engineering oversight.

That, along with the Southside neighborhoods forcing a relocation to the Pollo Fields which is a field with a noticeable slope vs Duncan field both were major factors in the collapse, in my opinion.