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The Junction Boys is the name given to the “survivors” of Paul “Bear” Bryant’s 10 day summer football camp in Junction, Texas beginning September 1, 1954. The ordeal has achieved legendary status and has become the subject of a book by Jim Dent and a mini-series produced by ESPN. Texas A&M University hired Bear Bryant as head football coach in 1954 replacing former coach Ray George. Bryant arrived in College Station on February 8, 1954 and began cleaning house. Bryant felt than many of the players on the team were weak and not properly trained or coached. He decided that his players needed a camp away from the distractions of campus. He arranged for the camp to be held at the 411 acre adjunct campus of Texas A&M at the small town of Junction. At the time of the camp, the Texas hill country was experiencing an epic drought and heat wave. The drought, the worst in the recorded history of the region, had lasted four years and would last another two after the camp was over. All ten days of the camp saw temperatures rise over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The oppressive heat combined with the brutal practice schedule caused many players to drop out of the football program from illness or disgust. The situation was compounded by Bryant refusing to allow water breaks. This practice is now widely recognized as dangerous but at the time was commonly employed by athletic coaches in an attempt to toughen up their players. The only relief provided the players were two towels soaked in cold water, one to be shared by the offensive players, one for the defense. One of the Junction Boys, future NFL coach Jack Pardee would later say in an interview that loosing 10% of your body weight in sweat in a day was not unusual. Practices began before dawn and usually lasted all day with meetings in the evening until 11:00 PM. The conditions were too much for many players and each day, there would be fewer and fewer players at practice as men would quit the team. By the end of the 10 day camp, only a fraction of those that started were left. The list of “survivors” varies from 27 to 35. The Junction Boys listed by writer Jim Dent were:
It has often been portrayed that over 100 players made the trip to Junction. In fact, a smaller number actually went to the camp. Although Bryant started out with over 100 players on the roster, many had already quit or been cut by the time of the Junction camp. The exact number that left for Junction varies but all the survivors insist that is was less than 100. Although the "survivors" as they came to be called were mentally tougher after the experience, this new strength did not translate into immediate success on the field. In 1954, Texas A&M won only one game against nine loses. Two years later however, the team went 9-0-1 and won the South Western Conference. Many of the Junction Boys went on to great success in various fields after college. Two of the Junction Boys, Jack Pardee and Gene Stallings, would go on to become head coaches in the NFL. Stallings would also become the head coach of Texas A&M and later took over Bryant's Alabama Crimson Tide and won a national championship in 1992. |
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