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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 9, 2002)
Allard said, 0{ Wains neaiij e si drinks cjii>i Tories a dni 0 be out day for m Innk for { S too m< an add an ^ dories toyouj One small put ual abouifij 'age person. 18-19 mss, r hour io >ries that i wsume.sfej neals ritchen tkrj Ballard once on i hips," holiday] ling extra i Rahn, >r. ter or eat: j ■ fruits, \® i in fiber ty," Rahtis: at buffets, rather ttei ae in com t The The Battalion *8 « MRS nction Page 3 • Monday, December 9, 2002 9 , Made-for- television movie to debut Dec. 14 By Michael Crow THE BATTALION I In the summer of 1954, legendary coach Paul ‘Bear” Bryant took his struggling Texas A&M ■ootball team to Junction, Texas for its pre-season |amp. The drought-plagued town of Junction was ideal backdrop for the infamous “Bryant hell iweek” that preceded the A&M football program’s etum to national prominence in the mid 1950s. Of the 111 players that initially made the trip, only 35 remained after 10 days of grueling prac tices, according to the book. The Junction Boys. nose men who did return as members of Bryant’s bam led the Aggies to an undefeated season and the fouthwest Conference title two years later in 1956. The torturous week the team spent in Junction udthe success that followed are depicted in Jim Dent’s book. The Junction Boys. On Dec. 14 the fSPN cable network will retell Dent’s story in a Kature film that shares the book’s title. The mmction Boys is the network’s second venture into leature films and its second look at a legendary dis- fiplinarian. ESPN’s first made-for-television movie, < Season on the Brink, explored the 1986 season of e buffet Uijjonner Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight. I The Junction Boys, filmed during a four-week Span in Australia, pulls no punches regarding the joaching practices of “The Bear,” played by Tom Berenger of Platoon and Major League. I Berenger said he has long been a sports fan and jcas eager to take on the role of the legendary coach. “(Bryant) was just so interesting. He seemed to uatcf - ; eally be colorful, with his country way about him, during ttid exercise]! lamed t" Margaret CS; m coorfci Health C® must remd e the Reef ith said, tive non; m't have ti ) regain yos”; i that the hi lard said,' with extra k mdhe was just Mr. Football,” Berenger said. “I oyed the story, and when I got the role, my wife’s nother who lives in Alabama probably called veryone in the state.” To prepare for the part, Berenger said he stud- ed Dent’s book and consulted some of Bryant’s iOrmer colleagues at the University of Alabama. Oi Berenger and the film’s cast and crew worked 12 nd 13-hour days to complete filming within the ]iven time constraints they were given. Still, he laid the experience was well worth the long hours nd hectic schedule. “I don’t care how exhausting it was,” Berenger said, “I had a great time, and the script was so . I thought “you’d have to be an idiot to screw up something this interesting.’” Much of the intrigue surrounding the story of The Junction Boys centers on Coach Bryant’s no- holds-barred methods and his relentless coaching style. According to Dent, “The Bear” earned his nickname by once agreeing to wrestle a carnival bear for a dollar. Bryant was ruthless toward his players during the pre-season camp, intending to discover who the leaders on his team were. The coach’s controversial techniques included denying his players water during their workouts in Junction’s 100-plus degree temperatures. According to sportsjones.com, Bryant head butted tackle Henry Clark after a blown assign ment, leaving the player on the ground, dazed and holding a broken nose. Dr. Arnold LeUnes, A&M professor of sports psychology, attended the University during Bryant’s stay and has studied some of the coach’s practices. He described Bryant as an authoritarian figure, reminiscent of a entirely different era in coaching. “He was strict, enforcing iron discipline,” LeUnes said. “At the time, a coach could get away with pretty much anything. You wouldn’t find something like that today.” According to espn.com, players who elected to leave the ‘boot camp’ could collect bus fare from Coach Bryant for their return. Still, most of those who left were too afraid to ask for their free ticket home, finding other means of transportation. Some players ran off during the night, hitchhiking back to College Station to avoid the wrath of “The Bear.” Rob Roy Spiller, who worked for the bus station in Junction at the time, recalls regularly arriving to groups of Aggie football players seeking their free dom from Bryant’s camp. “Where would y’all like to go this morning?” Spiller would ask the players. Most often, he said one of the players would respond, “We don’t care. First bus out.” Still, while Bryant ran off most of his team using various coaching methods, the success of the 1956 team and later achievements by team mem bers offer some support for his having either creat ed or identified leaders. Two players from the team. Jack Pardee and Gene Stallings, went on to become coaching leg ends themselves, with Pardee twice named NFL Coach of the Year and Stallings winning a national i mmm ~mmm wmm, 1 PHOTO COURTESY OF ESPN.COM Tom Berenger stars as former Aggie coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant, in ESPN’s made-for-television version of The Junction Boys. The movie, which follows the legendary Junction practices, will air Dec. 14 at 8:00 p.m. CST. collegiate championship with the University of Alabama. Dennis Goehring, one of the players Bryant tried hardest to run off, became an All- American and later established a prosperous busi ness career in the College Station area. “Bryant used Junction as a weeding out process,” LeUnes said. “I think, somehow or anoth er, that character that Bryant was looking for won out, because he selected some awfully good human beings with that group.” Billy Pickard, associate athletic director for the Aggie football team, was employed as a trainer dur ing the Junction practices. Pickard said he has heard several different renditions of the Junction experience, but remembers 72 players leaving College Station for Junction and 27 returning at the end of the week. “The number one thing to impress on people is this occurred 48 years ago,” Pickard said. “We didn't have tape recorders and you didn't have video to go back and dig it out. You’ll hear several different stories.” Pickard said Bryant was no-nonsense, but fair — especially when it came to players who wanted lion Editm Opinion EiSi ■Chief tor o Editor lies Editor roducer (igthesu^ ,&M UnW# Send adt® ■ge Statiw’' at less Atf otjoumaW 45-3313;® om 345-2696'f* ■edMcDoa* ■2678. &M stt* 11 ? 25(. Mails* 517.50(01* or to quit. “(The team’s center) went to climb the fence to leave, and Coach Bryant hollered ‘don't go,’ but he did,” Pickard said. “Later, he wanted to get back on the team, but Coach wouldn't let him. He told him, ‘once you quit there, you’re going quit on the goal line.’” True to legend, surviving the Junction practices was not an easy feat. For Pickard, caring for players on limited sleep was the most difficult part of the practice week. “I think the thing that stood out most was our living conditions,” he said. “In the 10 days we (trainers) were there, we seldom slept more than two or three hours a day, either from taking care of hurt players or running around doing something. The players slept a little more than that, but we were always working.” In addition to enduring “Bryant hell week,” the remaining players garnered achievement in their personal lives as well, Pickard said. “Of all the things you have to remember is the fact that those (players) that came back have all been successful at whatever they chose.” :n Graduates i you're invited to Block Party UJed-n Dec- Ifl 5 : 3 □ - 7 : 3 □ Pd The Clayton U- Williams Jr- Alumni Center www - AggisNetwork - com A Reminder... 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