The Junction Boys: How 10 Days in Hell with Bear Bryant Forged A Champion Team at Texas A&M (Hardcover)

by Jim Dent (Author) "A bonfire licked the night sky as the mob surged in waves toward a grove of trees..." (more)
Key Phrases: hell camp, tough sonofabitch, big fullback, College Station, John David, Bobby Drake (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
When Bear Bryant took over the Texas A&M football program in 1954, he inherited a team that had lost its last five games by a combined score of 133-41. That season more than 100 Aggie hopefuls arrived in the small town of Junction for the first practice of a now legendary training camp. The sun bore down. The drills escalated. Trainers doled out water like gold, and meals and accommodations were horribly spartan. Ten hellish days later, only 34 remained to form the 1954 team that would only win one game, but those survivors--and that's what they were--formed the nucleus of the squad that would go undefeated just two years later.

This is the story of that team, that coach, the 10 days that shook their world, and the seasons they played together. "We lost alot (sic) of games," recalls Gene Stallings, who endured those days as a player and eventually followed Bryant as head coach both at A&M and Alabama, "but Coach Bryant knew what he was doing. Out of the yellow dust and the broiling heat of Junction, he forged a team of champions." Jim Dent's evocative recounting is so real and immediate you'll feel your throat getting scratchy as you read. You'll also feel remarkable respect for the players who toughed it out--and for Bryant, who begins as a man possessed, but, day after day, as he breaks the backs of some and helps instill true grit in others, transforms into a human being. --Jeff Silverman

From Publishers Weekly
When Paul "Bear" Bryant left the University of Kentucky to take the reins of the Texas A&M football program in 1954, his legend was already approaching Texas-size proportions (almost 30 years later, Bryant became the winningest Division I coach of all time, with most of his victories coming at the University of Alabama). The problem: he knew he had inherited an awful team. Texas sportswriter Dent (King of the Cowboys) tells how Bryant turned the A&M program around. Over 100 boys rode in three buses out to the remote west Texas town of Junction and began grueling practices on cactus-riddled gravel in 110-degree heat, with no water. Ten days later, all but 34 had quit or simply run off. The team won just one game that season; two years later, however, A&M went undefeated. Dent has produced a richly evocative chronicle of the time and place, filled with bourbon-swilling, money-rolled alumni and every conceivable form of coaching sadism (Bryan deliberately broke one player's nose with his own forehead on the first day of practice). Culled from dozens of interviews with participants, Dent's text follows the players through the training camp, the team's eventual success and Bryan's continuing influence in their lives. Dent is a smooth storyteller, and he writes with a novelistic, often gritty touch. Though he does show Bryan paying for recruits, driven by pride and savagely attacking his players, he excuses Bryan's excesses as part of what it takes to build winning character. In the end, Dent gives readers a whooping celebration of the myth of Texas gridiron machismo. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (September 10, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312192932
• ISBN-13: 978-0312192938
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #858,208 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book Hard To Put Down, January 2, 2000

By A Customer

I heard about this book on sports radio in NY. Mike Francessa claimed it was one of the best books he had read and I second that remark. I am not a avid reader of books but finished this one in 2 days. If you are a sports enthusiast don't miss this epic story of the legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant. How one man created a championship program by running his new team into the ground, seeing who wished to remain standing with him on the sidelines of Texas A&M. The book shows how the strength of a coach and the courage of just a few players can overcome all odds. Jim Dent takes you to Junction, Texas and to the campus of A&M with these brave players. This book will not disappoint and it will open your eyes to what the true meaning of competition and rivalries are all about. There are so many inspiring stories that it will leave you with a lasting impression on what hard work can do for not only a team, but individuals who give their all for that team! From now on I'm rooting for the Aggies!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bear Bryant's Greatest Shame, January 24, 2003

By	Derek Leaberry (Queenstown, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Junction Boys: How Ten Days in Hell with Bear Bryant Forged a Championship Team (Paperback)

Though worshipful of football coach and icon Bear Bryant, the author exposes a vile, shameful side to the well-beloved coach. Inheriting a Texas A & M football program in steep decline, Coach Bryant bussed his 110 players to the west Texas town of Junction for pre-season practice in August,1954 without having scouted the fields and team barracks his team would use for two weeks. When Bryant, his coaches and his players arrived in Junction, they stumbled across playing fields of cactus, essentially desert without grass. Junction, Texas had not received more than a scattering of rain for about five years and the terain looked it. Bryant worked his boys long and hard in the 100+ degree heat and allowed no water breaks. By the time the team embarked back to the university, the Aggies had dwindled to 35 players. Each night of the nightmare saw groups of players turn their backs on their scholarships, and in many cases their futures, escaping the torture camp which was Bryant's Junction. Sadly, many of the boys were in similar straights as Dennis Goehring, who stuck it out. Goehring's family had lost their ranch due to the six year west Texas drought. For Goehring, leaving Junction would have amounted to destitution. Goehring toughed it out. As did Jack Pardee, a future professional star as a player and coach. But even Pardee, tough as nails and an oil roughneck at 15 years of age to support his struggling family, collapsed and fainted on the practice field at Junction. Billy Schoeder collapsed as well and was kicked by Bryant as Schroeder lay helpless and unconcsious. Schroeder was taken to a doctor just in time to save his life from heat stroke and would never be the same physically. This whipped team would win only one game in 1954. But for an opening game trouncing, the Aggies played doggedly throughout the season. A national title would await in 1956 for Jack Pardee, Gene Stallings, Heisman trophy winner John David Crow (who, as a freshman in 1954, did not attend Junction) and the Aggies. Today, in reflection, it is easy to agree that what Bryant did to his players at Junction was appalling. He even agreed. Yet it must be said that Bryant formed a great team at Junction. More importantly, almost every boy who stuck it out at Junction became very successful in later life. Yet, at what cost? It is fascinating that two Junction survivors, Hall and Huddleston, refused to attend a 25th Junction anniversary party that included the legendary Bryant. The two believed that the 75 boys who had staggered away from Junction in dejection in August, 1954 should have been included in any sort of Junction party. The author is weak in several areas. He shows little analytical ability. None of the assistant coaches seem to have been interviewed. Details are filled in by only a small group of players, a great weakness in Dent's research. Also, Dent revels pointlessly in the telling of the joyful experiences of several Aggies at the LaGrange Chicken Ranch, made famous nationally since by musicals and a song by the rock band ZZ Top. Dent also is mistaken if he thinks Bob Wills sang "Faded Love" or any other of his band's songs. Wills was a musician and an arranger, but never sang with his musical outfit. He limited himself to making quirky comments during the songs, sometimes cajoling his singer and band.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book Ever About Coach Bryant, December 13, 1999

By	Fritz Steiner (Huntsville, AL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book, gives a wonderful insight not only into how Coach Bryant forged a championship team, but also into how he forged his own greatest coaching years.

Although the 10 days at Junction were brutal (the squeamish and soft-hearted should find another book to read)the results produced a group of players and men who were and remain both tough and successful.

The 10 days also made Coach Bryant aware that he'd probably gone too far. His practices at Texas A&M and Alabama remained as tough and demanding as any ever were in college football. But "Junction" was never repeated.