USC held its annual Tiger Burn event on Nov. 19, 2025, at Blatt Field in front of a crowd of students and staff members. Although the 34-foot-tall structure burns within minutes, it takes the American Society of Mechanical Engineers much longer to properly plan and build the structure each year. The USC chapter of ASME, which has been in charge of building the statue for 22 years, met over the course of multiple weeks along with outside volunteers to assemble the statue's sections from wood, paper and mesh wire before stuffing the inside with a concoction of materials and dousing everything with lighter fluid. The Tiger Burn event, dating back to over a century ago, was part of the "rivalry week" lineup of events ahead of South Carolina's football game against Clemson on Nov. 29.
