![\"Baylor](\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/lariat-imm10-jan22.jpg\")
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Each January, the Baylor Family pauses to remember the legacy of the Immortal Ten<\/a>, a forever-remembered group of 10 students who lost their lives in a tragic bus accident on Jan. 22, 1927. (A memorial in their honor<\/a> stands in the heart of campus.)<\/p>\n Nearly a century has passed since that day — this year marks the 95th anniversary — and yet their legacy still resonates among the Baylor Family. Every Bear knows the basics of the story<\/a>: The Baylor basketball team was headed to Austin to play Texas. In Round Rock, heavy rain obscured the bus driver\u2019s vision of an oncoming train. Unable to stop or swerve in time, the bus and train collided, killing 10 of the 21 student-athletes, coaches and fans on the bus.<\/p>\n Ninety-five years is a long time for a story to continue to be felt by different generations, by diverse people in divergent eras. One reason it still resonates: The story is told each year<\/a> at Freshman Mass Meeting, keeping the Immortal Ten\u2019s flame burning across the decades.<\/p>\n \u201cThe story of the Immortal Ten embodies the Baylor spirit, both as it was in 1927 and today,\u201d says Todd Copeland (BA ’90), Baylor’s director of advancement marketing and the man who literally wrote the book<\/a> on the Immortal Ten. \u201cSharing this tradition at Freshman Mass Meeting during Homecoming and having the presence of the statues on campus demonstrates the compassion and sense of community that flows through the Baylor family. The story also serves as a reminder to make the most of every day that God gives us in this life.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s another layer as well that provides connective tissue to the present day. In Copeland’s book, Neil Knighton (BSED ’75, MA ’78) — who for years has had the honor of telling the Immortal Ten story at Mass Meeting —\u00a0says that, while their memory as the \u201cImmortal Ten\u201d is elevated, they were normal people who played roles that relate to us all.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things I try to bring out… is that we don\u2019t make heroes out of these young men,\u201d Knighton told Copeland. \u201cThey are your roommates, or the friend across the hall… They were kids just like the ones you’re sitting next to tonight… Tradition is bound up in our relationships that we carry on for a lifetime. The stories help us enhance those relationships. That is the Baylor tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n Sic \u2019em forever, Immortal Ten!<\/p>\n [Want to learn more? Check out Copeland’s book, <\/em>The Immortal Ten: The Definitive Account of the 1927 Tragedy and its Legacy at Baylor University — available at the Baylor Bookstore<\/a>, on Amazon<\/a> and elsewhere.]<\/em><\/p>\n