Coach Bear Bryant and the Junction Boys

Paul “Bear” Bryant, former coach at Maryland and Kentucky, became head football coach at Texas A&M in 1954. To evaluate his new players, Bryant sought a preseason camp far from the main campus. The Texas A&M adjunct opened in Junction in 1951, on 411 acres purchased by citizens of Kimble County. It was here that a grueling ten-day training camp thinned the roster while laying a foundation for future champions. Nearly 100 players filled two buses for the 250-mile drive to Junction on Sep. 1. Although the site was normally well-watered near the South Llano River, the region was in the grip of a long-term drought in 1954. There was hardly any grass, and one player recalled “any time you got knocked down you had to avoid the prickly sandspurs.” With high heat, rough ground and long practices, players slipped out by night. By the end of the camp, only 35 men remained to board buses returning to College Station.

That fall, the team won a single game, the only losing record in Bryant’s 38-year career. Two years later, the 1956 team went undefeated, won the Southwest Conference, boasted seven all-conference players, and finished ranked fifth in the nation. Many of the camp survivors were successful in their chosen careers, including two with long coaching careers in college and the National Football League. Bryant left Texas A&M for Alabama, winning six National Championships and retiring as college football’s winningest coach in 1982. Bryant and the Junction Boys met here again in 1979, reunited at a place which became legendary in Texas and American sports history.