PROFILE
Continued from page 16 its burning desire to beat the University of Texas football team . Through the years , the bonfire grew in terms of both symbolism and sheer size . By the late 1990s , the bonfire was a complex , wedding-cake-style construction consisting of more than 8,000 logs upon completion that took more than 100,000 man-hours to complete ( often with as many as 5,000 students taking part in some aspect of the project ).
But in the early hours of November 18 , 1999 , while McKenna was still en route to College Station , 58 Texas A & M students and former students were working on the construction of that year ’ s bonfire . Shortly after 2:30 a . m ., the nearly 60-foot-tall stack , consisting of nearly 5,000 logs , collapsed . The collapse left 12 dead and 27 injured . “ As an outsider , I had no understanding of what that meant and how important it was to the university and community ,” said McKenna . “ But by being there that week , I got to experience that , and quickly learned what a special and unique place Texas A & M is . How the community and the university came together around that tragedy . So , from that point , it was hard not to realize
how special A & M was , and fall in love with it .”
In the years that followed , McKenna ’ s girlfriend ( now wife ), Holly , made the journey to Texas A & M with him . She , too , fell in love with the university , and decided to pursue her master ’ s degree there .
McKenna told Mike Andresen that Holly was looking to get her master ’ s degree from Texas A & M , and asked Andresen if he knew of any career opportunities in Texas .
Andresen had longtime friendships with Leo Goertz ( at that time head athletic field maintenance manager ) and Craig Potts , CSFM , ( then assistant athletic field maintenance manager ) at Texas A & M . Andresen put in a call to Goertz .
“ The timing worked out perfectly , because Leo had a job that was coming open ,” said McKenna . “ He asked Mike if he would vouch for me . Mike said he would recommend me . Leo said , ‘ He ’ s hired .’ I didn ’ t have to interview . He just hired me off the word of Mike Andresen .”
So McKenna moved to College Station , Texas , straight out of college , and started working for Goertz and Potts .
“ I had no warm-season grass experience , no baseball experience , and limited softball experience ,” said
18 SportsField Management | February 2021 sportsfieldmanagementonline . com