Maroon Paint

By Bob Balch and Charles Perry

When Gene Stallings came to Texas A & M in December of 1964, there were a lot of players that were just eating their way through school.
Dude McLean Class of 1965

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When we went through spring workouts in 1965 there were a few turds that should not have been out there and we would hit them hard and try to run them off.
John Nilson Class of 1966

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After the first game under Coach Stallings in 1965 against LSU ..

We ran over 100 wind sprints of around 100 yards each and this killed our legs for the rest of the season. Ronnie Lindsey Class of 1967
We ran 100yard dashes for over an hour on Monday and people were falling out and puking on the track and then getting in line to go again. Don Keohn Class of 1967
We ran about 100 or so wind sprints around 100 yards each and my rear end did not catch up with my body for three weeks! Grady Allen Class of 1968

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During the PE 317 wrestling and drills I thought to myself, it is not so much that what we are doing, but what we are accomplishing. Tom Murrah Class of 1966

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If you associate with a quitter, you will develop the attitude of a quitter! The personal theme of Coach Gene Stallings comes from the Bible; There is nothing better for a man to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen is form the hand of God. Ecclesiastes 2:24. Gene Stallings Head Coach

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When Coach Stallings arrived on campus it was the most impressive year of my life because I was just a dumb country boy and it changed my whole personality. Jerry Nichols Class of 1965

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 18, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452080710

Bob Balch

Bob is a native of Seymour, Baylor County, Texas, where he was born in 1947. Being a baby boomer and growing up in the post World War II era, he enjoyed the slow pace of small town America. He spent many leisurely days roaming the areas around his hometown with his friends. This included frequent trips to the Brazos River to hike, swim, seine for minnows, hunt, and trap game. Lake Kemp was another favorite spot for boating, swimming, water skiing, fishing, duck hunting, camping, and for just hanging out with friends. Between Seymour and Lake Kemp he enjoyed outings with his scouting buddies, and two of their favorite spots were the Craddock Ranch and the old George Place. It was on the Craddock Ranch that the famous Permian era bone bed was first discovered in the late 1800s which has attracted much attention from the scientific community down through the years. As a Boy Scout, Bob learned about these discoveries and even did some fossil hunting himself. He earned the Eagle Scout award along side his friends, Bill Whitley and Ken George, the current owners of the Craddock Ranch and the George Place, respectively. Bob graduated from Seymour High School in 1965 and went on to Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he earned a BBA and JD degrees in 1971. He took a geology course as an undergraduate, and the field trips during that course brought back memories of his experiences on the Craddock Ranch and the old George Place. Now over forty years later serving as a director of the Whiteside Museum of Natural History in Seymour, his interest in this bone bed has been renewed. This eighth book, D-Don Lives! is his tribute to his hometown and the people who have made this story come to life. Bob has lived in Wichita Falls, Texas, since 1974 with his wife, Deborah Ann, where they raised two sons, Trey and Josh, both of whom are doctors who practice medicine in both Texas and Alaska in the fields of physiatry (physical medicine and rehabilitation) and interventional pain management. Bob practices law in Wichita Falls but maintains close contacts with his hometown about an hour away where his mother still resides at the age of 97. He hopes the readers of this book learn some history of the area and enjoy this tale of dimetrodons. A lot has transpired since I first started writing this book in 2014 and completing in 2015 with revisions through 2017. Many new specimens have been found and assembled for research, education of the public and study. New dig sites are opening up for study including the Ross Place owned by Joe Clay Ross. We appreciate the opportunities provided by all of the landowners in allowing us access to these sites. The future is bright for the Whiteside Museum of Natural History that has become a world class museum in the City of Seymour, Baylor County, Texas, my hometown which I am proud to say I grew up in and continue to visit regularly.

Book preview

Contents

STEPPING OFF

Stepping off

LEAN AND MEAN—WIN WITH GENE

Jollie Rollie

Mama Called and Papa said go

Henderson Meeting

Standing Around Broken

Tested

TEXAS A&M CULTURE 1964 - 65

Fish Privilege

Medical Company

Rough Stuff

Side Work

HOW HIT’EM HARDER GOT STARTED

Leaving Kentucky

Opponent’s Perspective

Makings of Stallings

A Spiritual Brand

Official Stallings

JOLLIE ROLLIE FOLLOW UP

PE 317

On The Line

Two Forward and One Back

HIT’EM HARDER CADRE

The Bryanted Cadre

Ramrods

DARK AND SEMI-DARK

Hit ‘em Harder NOW

Hole card

Dog House

1965

Opening Night on the Bayou

Georgia Tech and High Plains Drifting

Cougar High and Frogs

Two Skunks

Mustang Roll and Wise Owl

Texas Special

1966

Second Go Round

Rambling Down

Moving Forward

Gig ‘em

Dr. Pepper Time

Hog Tied

Pony Ride

Last Two

1967

Rah Rah— Boys

Purdue

Double Down

Comes Around

Mighty Mo

Follow up

In Gear

Fairytale Finish

Bear Melt Down

Buildup

Cotton Bowl

EPILOGUE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

STEPPING OFF

THEY PUSHED US TO THE point of quitting and some could not go on and we could hear the foot lockers go clunk, clunk, clunk down the stairs.

JOHN NILSON CLASS OF 1966

STEPPING OFF

IN THE WINTER OF 1954 Paul Bear Bryant left the University of Kentucky where he had been the successful head football coach for eight years to resurrect Texas A&M. Paul Bryant brought with him ideas and coaching methods that were strange to some and unique to others. He had perfected most of what he brought from Kentucky. Bryant’s techniques were to have a lasting impact and leave a mark on Gene Stallings and a lot of coaches and players, as well as the game of football itself for many years after Bryant left Texas A&M, and for that matter, after his demise. Many of these coaches and players would be Bryanted forever.

Bryant left Texas A&M for his alma mater in December of 1957. On his return to Tuscaloosa and the University of Alabama as head football coach, he took a young coach with him named Gene Stallings who had recently played for him at Texas A&M. Seven years later, Gene Stallings returned to Texas A&M to revive their broken football fortunes, as head coach. Much has been said and written about what Bryant did to his Texas A&M team in the fall of 1954 at a place called Junction, where he had a heat stroke subjected purge of his first Texas A&M team.

Stallings instituted a second Junction in the spring of 1965 that very well could have been more intense, severe, and harder to endure than the Junction of 1954 that he and several of his Bryanted coaches had endured as players.

This book tells the story of the culture of Texas A&M in late 1964 and the football program that Gene Stallings started in December of 1964 when he was hired and ending in January of 1968 with the Cotton Bowl victory over Bear Bryant and his Alabama Crimson Tide. There is a special emphasis on the spring of 1965 and several seniors, as well as the rest of the team that endured. Much mention is also made of those that did not endure and what the purge they all were subjected to meant to them. The back story reveals the struggle they all endured along with the repercussions for them as human beings, their coaches, Texas A&M, and the football program as a whole.

The story of Gene Stallings and his entry on the scene at Texas A&M with the group of seniors that survived and what he did to them and for them, as well as other players in the classes behind them, is a remarkable human interest story, when coupled with what Paul Bryant had done and did for Gene Stallings as his coach, mentor, and confidant. The great thing about the seniors is that they only had one year left to participate, except for the injured,who had an extra year. These players could have walked off from the hell they had to endure as some did, yet they stayed and faced this drastic endeavor created by Gene Stallings.

The Bryant brand that touched so many people and affected the culture of all these institutions and people is a story of Southern culture that has been told in ways before but perhaps never in a way that meshes all the people and places together.

Texas A&M was a tough place in the early 1960’s. It may not have been as tough as it was earlier in its history, but tough it was, when compared to the way it is today, with time passing 10 years into the next century. This writing endeavor illustrates in words the culture that dominated Texas A&M forty-five years ago. That culture was still dominated by the Corps of Cadets, even though the domination has slipped, as each year has passed.

The Texas Aggie football players were only Corps members for their first two years unless they opted to stay in the Corps for the last two. The football players did not have to live the hard core Corps life in the dorm, wear uniforms each day, march to meals, and endure the drastic mental side of Corps life, but instead were what were termed day ducks. They only wore the uniform at weekly drills or events that required them to be dressed in uniform, which was rare. Starting with the arrival of Stallings and the cadre of Bryanted coaches, the football players more than made up for what they missed in the tough every day Corps existence.

MENTALLY TOUGH PLAYERS

When one is young, time passes at the pace of a turtle, but as a person lives out their life, the time passes faster and faster! It has been over 45 years since Gene Stallings came back to Texas A&M to revive what had become a broken football program. He had been away from Texas A&M for almost seven years while he worked and trained under Bear Bryant at the University of Alabama.

In 1965 the football players in the South were much smaller than they are some 45 years later. Stallings and Bryant were believers in the small quick-type players that have now been long obsolete. There is a law of physics that says the momentum that an object can generate is measured by its mass multiplied by its velocity. With respect to football players, the mass or size today is 15 to 40 percent greater than it was in 1965, and players are faster so the momentum is much greater. All this is said to show that these facts reflect one aspect of how these many years have changed the culture of college football.

In 1965 football players at Texas A&M ate at a dining or mess hall and ate fare that was good by the standards in effect at the time, but now, they have dieticians that are professionally trained, and players have access to the best of foods.

Players now live under conditions that 45 years ago would have been considered a luxury. Today, players are equipped with the best in cardiovascular and weight training equipment and are constantly monitored by a medical staff with respect to every twist and turn they make to insure their health and well being. At Texas A&M in 1965 they only had a couple of trainers and a team doctor who acted on their behalf when confronted with circumstances that were of the most urgent need for medical intervention.

The mindset of the college player today is much different from that of a 60’s era player. A mental and physical toughness was required that would be sadly lacking today. You played even if you were hurt. You took the long workouts and the off season conditioning programs and still managed to find the inner strength to do your studying and go to class. You had the deep desire to please your coaches and not let your teammates down. You learned how to play as a team and not for a personal dream of making the NFL. You stuck it out when things did not go your way because you had nowhere else to go and you certainly didn’t want to disappoint your family. Those that stayed the course learned from Coach Bryant, Stallings, and the assistant coaches about sacrifices, hard work, discipline, and team work which would be invaluable throughout their lifetime. Yes, it was almost inhumanly tough, but most of those who stuck it out would, on reflection, tell you that it made them better men.

Forty-five years ago the players had to survive on their brains and help from each other in the classroom, but today they have tutors as well as the latest in electronic systems to help them progress to their college degree. Every part of their day is now planned and accounted for, while it was somewhat like the Wild West in 1965.

Today they wear the latest in trendy fashions and paint their bodies with ink and wear earrings while years ago these things would have been extremely taboo.

Players have shaved heads or hair sticking out of their helmets and down their back. When being recruited, who would have thought that a college choice would be made on whether there was a fireplace in their luxury apartment, pool hall in the academic center, or having easy access to a street filled with clubs and bars like 6th Street in Austin. An example of how times have changed can be seen by some of the great college players that got too much of the 6th Street disease while living in Austin and playing for Texas University. Vince Young, Cedric Benson, Roy Williams, and Ricky Williams were all great players for the Orange and White in recent years. In fact, they were so great that they were drafted by teams in the National Football league in the first ten picks of the first round in the particular year that they were drafted. Once in the NFL, they all hit a wall and were either traded quickly (Cedric Benson, Ricky Williams and Roy Williams) or benched for emotional problems (Vince Young). The good news is that after getting the 6th Street halo off their head, they all developed, and have become good professional players, with the jury still out on Roy Williams.

The culture that Gene Stallings faced in 1965 was not a lot different from when he was wearing khaki uniforms himself at Texas A&M 10 years before. He was proud to have them as he made his 300 mile trip home easier while he had his thumb in the air asking for a ride!

Coaches have changed, too! Today, many coaches do not know where they are or care, as all they are doing with their job is planning their next move up the perceived coaching ladder, which sometimes is nothing more than a fatter pay check.

This can be illustrated by Dennis Franchione who came to Texas A&M after the 2002 football season from the University of Alabama where he had coached for only two years. Coach Fran, as he was called, walked off from an offer of a 10- year contract extension for 15 million dollars at Alabama to take the head job at Texas A&M for more money.

Coach Fran did not know where he was because not long after he had been at the University of Alabama, he was being interviewed in his office by a reporter from a Texas newspaper. Coach Fran motioned to a box in his office filled with letters from Alabama school children requesting his autograph. His attitude was—Can you believe this?

Coach Fran was a down- the- line successor at the University of Alabama to a twenty- five year coach named Paul Bryant who thrilled in having Alabama school children come into his office and talk to him and try on his famous checkered fedora hat! Coach Bryant knew who and where he was, whereas Coach Fran did not.

This can be seen more clearly in that Coach Fran was fired after the 2007 season at Texas A&M for not only his record but his recruiting shortcomings. One would wonder why!

People that were around in the 1960’s and followed football might find these stories interesting while younger people might find them almost unbelievable. This writing has as a veiled theme an attempt to explain why older people seem to find the more modern ways hard to accept though they are compelled to do so. The message to older people is that the generation before them had the same problem when trying to accept the changes of the 1960’s. Thus, as we all go through life, time and change are hard, but something that we are all lucky to endure!

LEAN AND MEAN—WIN WITH GENE

During the P.E. 317 wrestling and drills I thought to myself, It is not so much what we are doing, but what we are accomplishing.

Tom Murrah Class of 1966

JOLLIE ROLLIE

Dude McLean thought he had seen or experienced it all. He lay on the hardwood floor of the upper gym in the back of G. Rollie White Coliseum smelling the puke. It was one of those moments in life where one wishes they were anywhere but where they were. Dude, being a heavy smoker, was craving a smoke bad as he was up on his feet slipping and sliding in the puke of the team members that had missed the barf buckets.

He had fleeting thoughts of being back over at his dorm at Law Hall being warned by the dorm dad, a portly older student named Jack Skelton. Jack had made Dude eat some humble pie over sneaking girls from town through his window! Dude had been kicked out of the plush, carpeted, and air conditioned athletic dorm known by some as Junction Manor (officially titled Henderson Hall) and banished to Law Hall, the old time sweat box, with the drab walls and concrete floors. Dude was not a favorite of Coach Foldberg and the previous coaching staff that had gone 1 and 9 in the previous year. As much as Dude hated the warning, he hated this crazy workout more.

Dude had been looking forward to the new coaches coming to A&M and a new start, but the insanity of stick fighting along with the intensity of the non-stop drills and the puke and all made Dude look wild eyed at his teammates to see how they were adjusting to this insanity. He knew that if there was not a stopping point soon, he was likely to cave in. Fortunately for Dude and all the others in that first hour of what the coaches had warned was a little conditioning, the hour was soon over. As they stumbled over each other and with sweat, blood and puke covering most of them, they made their way to the exit door as if they were in a drunken stupor.

G. Rollie White Coliseum is a basketball arena that was built in 1953 and came on stream about the time Bear Bryant came to the Brazos River Bottoms in early 1954. Texas Aggies refer to this palace as Jollie Rollie. The building sets just to the northeast of Kyle Field and is a horseshoe with the open end to the south. There really is no open end. The open end is just a big wall that separates the arena from other athletic facilities and offices. The largest athletic facility is on the upper floors where there are three basketball courts side by side, just like triplet children walking hand in hand. This room is large enough to have many activities going at one time on a schedule that runs from early in the morning to late at night. There are exercise rooms and classrooms nearby. This large gym is the location that was chosen by Gene Stallings to start what some called JUNCTION REVISITED. Later, some of the smaller exercise rooms were also used for the hell that the team was about to endure.

Between the large gym on the upper floors of G. Rollie White and the small exercise rooms, the players recruited by the previous staff of Hank Foldberg were put on notice that they were about to sweat and bleed more sweat and blood than they thought was inside them. If they survived and were able to pay the price of what most thought was insane, the results would be overwhelming. They had to believe in the end result somehow or they could not rationalize or find the desperation to exist in this excursion of madness.

Some say that the original Junction, eleven years before was mild compared to this new Junction, if one could call it that. Shock and awe would be an understatement for this endeavor. This Junction was to start on January 4, 1965. Coach Stallings said that the G. Rollie White conditioning was about the same as what he had helped implement at the University of Alabama as a Bear Bryant assistant in the old wooden gym at the Capstone in Tuscaloosa, This was seven years before in the winter of 1958.

According to Brett Jenkins, a team manager,the players did not realize what was coming their way. In fact, Brett believes that the football team did not really know much about football until Coach Stallings and his coaches arrived, and they surely did not know how fast and furious the drills were going to be. Brett believes that there were players on scholarship at A&M that were there strictly on a political basis and that Coach Stallings and his staff were there to separate the ones that wanted to play football from the ones that did not!

At noon on January 4th, Mark Weaver, a tackle, was in Sbisa Dining Hall when he was confronted by one of the new coaches. Jack Pardee asked Mark his name and then said that he had seen him just standing around in the film of the freshman drills. Coach Pardee then asked Mark how much he weighed, and Mark told Coach Pardee that he weighed 227. Coach Pardee just started laughing as he knew what was about to happen.

Tuffy Fletcher remembers seeing Coach Dee Powell at the first meeting in Henderson Hall where to Coach Stallings and the new staff were introduced. However, he did not actually meet Coach Powell. A few days later while on Christmas vacation in his home town of Kerrville, he was in an establishment in Kerrville called the Grove. It seems that Coach Powell was there with a friend that Tuffy also knew! Tuffy was drinking a beer, and Coach Powell told him to enjoy that beer because in a few days it will all be coming out.

Coach Stallings posted a list of the players on the bulletin board at Sbisa Dining Hall on January 4th that divided the team into three groups. The first group was to report to the upper rooms at Jollie Rollie at 3:00 p. m. for the start of what the coaches called a little conditioning. The second group would report at 4:00 and the third group at 5:00. This Texas Aggie football team of 130 players was about to see what reality was all about.

As the first group reported at 3:00, they spread out around the wall of the large room in sneakers, shorts, and T –shirts. At precisely 3:00 p.m. the assistant coaches pranced in the room like a cadre of executioners carrying five gallon buckets partially filled with sand. As the players groped in wonderment, some asked each other, What was this all about? According to Jerry Nichols, the room was like a concentration camp, and Coach Dee Powell said, You will find out what the buckets are for!" The doors to the big room of gyms were locked, and some of the players figured out what the buckets were for while others were soon to find out as they emptied the contents of their digestive tracts not long after the drills commenced.

Ken Caffey, the little brother of Leroy Caffey who was a starting linebacker at the time for the Green Bay Packers and Vince Lombardi, was to find out the hard way. Soon the intensity and drastic nature of the workout brought forward the contents of his stomach at the wrong place and time. As the barf splattered on the oak flooring of the gym, Dee Powell,an assistant coach, was in his face screaming and hollering at a high pitch, You barf on your time and not mine. Another lesser known player threw up on the floor. An assistant coach grabbed him by the neck and stuck his head down into the bucket as if he were feeding a goat and telling him that he should not ever barf on his floor, but in the bucket of sand at all times.

Joe Wellborn was in the second group, and as he waited on the west staircase leading up to the big room of gyms, he could not hear a lot, but then suddenly, he could hear the players in the first group trooping toward the chained doors. Suddenly, the doors unlocked and the first group spilled out in a mad rush screaming and groaning. Barf was on some and others were grasping for air. They were cussing and saying It was hell! Shock was written all over their faces.

As the second group was soon to find out, the drills started slowly but then increased exponentially according to John Nilson, who had been in the first group. Some of the players were spent and afraid.

Dude McLean was doing the stick fighting drill where an 18- inch stick covered in tape was fought over, supposedly to see who really wanted to compete. Dude was thrown into the wall where he broke his nose, and he said Get the shit out of here. However, Dude did not quit. He survived! Coach Stallings remembered the stick fighting as nothing but seeing who wanted to compete by taking the stick away from their opponent and handing it to him. Billy Pickard, the trainer, remembers that a lot of teeth were being knocked out in the stick fighting. Coach Loyd Taylor says that they tried to pad the end of the stick to prevent injuries and even went to a garden hose instead of a stick!

The drills were rope climbing to ring a bell, grass drills which were known as up and downs, pushups, and leg lifts, running around cones, and kicking up on a horizontal ladder with your feet to try to touch a bar, as well as, stick fighting. In the ladder or horizontal ladder drill, Robert Cortez remembers that there was a ladder located in the hallway that led to the dressing room. He said, When we finished our outside session which was running 40 twenties, we would then climb the rope. Next, we would run in the hallway and walk the ladder with our hands as we swung from one rung to the next. It was hard on the linemen. If someone fell before finishing, then the player would have to start over. The coaches thought this made the team mentally tough.

In the set ups and leg lift drills, Robert Cortez remembers laying on his back, and on the whistle, the team would raise their feet with the legs straight to a 45 degree angle and then lower their legs to about six inches from the ground, then spread their feet and bring them back. This drill was done when we were tired and in the 4th quarter of practice, Robert added. Tom Murrah remembers the sight sound reaction drills when Coach Dee Powell would say, Let’s fly. Tom said,on sound we would work our feet, and on movement of the ball, we would pursue aggressively to a certain area. The most dreaded drill was the grass drill. In this drill the team would begin by working their feet on command and then reacting to the movement of the ball by sliding laterally, backwards, forwards, or falling on the ground and quickly getting up. Another drill was to start in a four- point stance and use the same grass drill procedure but move laterally and then roll on the rear end and hit the ground with the chest and get up fast on all fours."

Tom continued, most of these drills were fairly standard, but what set this situation apart was the pace, which some described as break neck and panic. Workout begot workout with no rest or break in between. The coaches were screaming and kicking some players in the ribs and chest and hitting them on the top of the head to spur them on to a greater effort."

Some players got the impression, according to Ken Caffey, that the coaches knew who they wanted to run off and acted accordingly. According to Bubber Collins, We could not put our hands on our knees to rest so we grabbed the bottom of our shorts. Bill Gardner laid on a mat to rest between drills, and Coach Bud Moore grabbed him and threw him off the mat. Moore told the group, If he were my friend, I would kick him and tell him to have some pride by kicking him when he is tired.Gardner had actually passed out and then woke up as Coach Don Watson was kicking him in the side to wake him up. Gardner had passed out in a drill that involved wrestling. Gardner had a boil on his neck. Another player had him by the neck, and to get free, he had to pull himself loose. The pain of the other players arm scraping over the boil was extreme.

It was not long before Gardner decided that he should not be a part of the team. Bill talked to Coach Dee Powell later and told him he thought he would quit. Coach Powell was very professional and told him to not make a decision, but to wait till the weekend and talk to Coach Stallings when he returned from recruiting. Gardner was not the only player to get the boot treatment by the actions of the coaches.

Foldberg, the previous coach, had recruited a big guy from the Keystone State of Pennsylvania named Ronnie Plodinec. He was not exactly the Bryant Hit ‘em Harder type player that Stallings was looking for. It was not long before he could not keep up with the frantic pace that was being set, and he passed out. Jerry Kachtik tells the story that either Ronnie passed out or just could not get up off the floor. Several coaches kicked at him and drug him out into the hall. Plodinec was shortly gone. Harvey Ermis was a big guy and mild mannered. He too was a target for the trash bin.

A lot of the drills were designed for quickness and speed as the coaches preached this constantly. There was a cardinal sin in the drills and that was to fake throwing up to get a quick break from the insanity of it all. A player only dared doing this once, and if caught, the price paid was severe. Joe Wellborn said the rope climbing and up and downs were tough but good for the team. Some players quit silently and just faded away. Joe Wellborn had a roommate that said he was going over to the drills and just left without telling anyone. Don Keohn said, Some guys would talk about quitting and next day they would be gone.

Roy Gunnels was not the most gifted athlete but was tough and determined to stick the situation out. Roy said, The team lost a lot of good athletes and a lot of the ones that stayed were poor and had to stay to get through school. Ronnie Lindsey kept telling himself during the drills in the big room gym that he was going to quit tomorrow and just kept saying that each day, I’ll quit tomorrow. The one player that got Ronnie through the ordeal is the one player that some thought would quit first. Dude McLean was a heavy smoker and the coaches knew it. He was a gifted athlete and everybody was amazed that he was able to endure. When Ronnie Lindsey was feeling down and thinking of quitting, he would look over at Dude and see how he was suffering and think to himself that if Dude can make it, so can I. Eddie McKaughan remembers that after the first drill, he was so spent and out of sort that he could barely see enough to drive his car back to Henderson Hall.

Ed Breding was a big guy who was originally from Montana and who was part Native American. Ed felt that the drills were good, even though they were a little too intense and far more than we were used to. Ed’s nickname was Big Chief, and Ed said, After the drills, we were barely able to walk. Ed remembers that there were some light meals for a few that needed a little motivation. John Liptak remembers that there were beans and wieners for some of the least favored team members. The sounds of all the yelling and pushing and pulling by the coaches were contrasted by interludes of complete silence, but not many interludes surfaced.

The lack of what the coaches deemed to be winning football talent was obvious, and the coaches had to make up for the shortfall of the previous staff by finding those that had the heart and desire they sought. If a description could be had to describe what the theme to the insanity was, it would be to enhance the pain to a high level and couple the pain with fatigue, and then throw in a lot of mental pressure to see who could and who could not endure.

Those that did not have a soft landing spot beyond the present madness were the firm candidates to endure the madness as they had no viable choice but to make the best of what they faced. The experience that those who chose to survive would find themselves in a set of boundaries that challenged their nerve, manhood, and life, as well as their very existence on the planet. The mental limits put before them seemed crazy to most, and a large percentage took the ship out of the madness. Being backed into a canyon with no viable exit was not the option bargained for by many that were on hand.

On some days the drills moved outdoors where the team ran sprints and the stadium steps at Kyle Field. As Dude McLean was running the Kyle Field steps, he was sweating so profusely that the sweat was running down into his eyes. He complained to Coach Jack Pardee that he could not see. Coach Pardee told him to get some glasses.Robert Cortez said, The big guys had a hard time handling all the pushing and movement. John Poss was tall at 6’ 4 and 225 lbs and not the small, compact Hit’ em Harder" type player that Stallings wanted. John was particularly impressed by the sight and sound reaction drills but not by some of the 3- on- 3 drills with no pads or by fighting Mo Moorman in the stick drill.

According to Don Keohn, Coaches Don Watson and Lloyd Taylor said that the drills were another Junction. Don said that the theme of the workouts was no one had enough guts to quit or enough guts to stay.

Tom Murrah and Jim Kaufman had an intermediate accounting lab from 2-5 one afternoon a week. On some occasions they would complete their work early. Tom said, We knew that arriving at ‘conditioning’ on an irregular basis would not help our cause with the coaches. Somehow, I think they knew we could complete our work before 5p.m. on lab day. The essence of their instructions was ‘you two better get those problems done quick as you can and get over here as quick as you can. If you don’t, we will give you some real problems to deal with.’

Jim Singleton emphasized, It was not so much the drill but how you did it that the coaches looked for. After the first day of these conditioning drills in the big room gym, the whole team was in shock. We were not allowed water and were so dehydrated that we were gulping down mouthfuls of shower water after the workout.

According to the players, they were so spent physically and emotionally after the drills that they could not eat when they went to evening chow at the stately and historical old dining hall known as Sbisa. All they could do was drink large volumes of iced tea.

According to Mike Rymkus, after the conditioning at Jollie Rollie, he would lay in his bed at Henderson Hall. His legs would just shake and he could not pee. Mike remembers that at times he would run so much that it seemed as he had no breath, and he could not eat but only lay and shake. Mike and some of the others would have to go out for a hamburger around ten o’ clock.

The attitude of the eventual survivors of this first phase in the Hit’em Harder Bryant type football training was summed up after the first workout back at Henderson Hall. Tuffy Fletcher came over to Jim Singleton’s room and said, What are we going to do? I have no money! Both Tuffy and Jim vowed to make it through. In any endeavor of this sort, there are performers that fall by the wayside, and there were many. However, there was one that the coaches thought was the prototype of what they were looking for. They wanted a small quick player that was tough, but yet very athletic like Paul Crane and Cecil Dowdy who were two great players that they had left at the University of Alabama, both of whom had or would achieve the status of an All-American.

Robert Cortez was the Texas Aggie prototype. Robert went all out on every drill and hated to be touched, kicked, pulled, or pushed by the coaches, and his efforts brought about this desire. When Gene Stallings would talk to the players about the pro’s and con’ s of their efforts and what he was trying to accomplish, he used Robert as an example, which of course, put a lot of pressure on Robert. Stallings said after one talk, I do not care if all of you quit, but I know of one guy who will be here and that is Cortez.

When the team was suffering so much with the intensity and pace of the drills, there was one person that helped get a lot of the players through the ordeal according to Joe Wellborn. Dude Mclean was such a heavy smoker, and the fact that Dude suffered so much, yet was able to keep up with the drills, impressed everyone just as he did Ronnie Lindsey. This spurred all the team to higher efforts.

According to Jim Stabler, Coach Stallings kept preaching that speed and quickness was the name of the game. He said, You can be the toughest guy in the world, but if you can’t get there what good are you.

Coach Loyd Taylor says that a lot of these early drills at G. Rollie White were won by players that were not very gifted football wise, and the real purpose of the drills was to weed out those players that were just there and not there for the right reason but only there eating their way through school.

There was an initial shakeout that started almost immediately. Bill Gardner, as well as Lance Winter, a player who had been recruited from Florida, left after the first workout and headed to Bill’s home in Houston. They had a long talk with Bill’s dad about the situation they found themselves in. Bill’s dad tried to encourage them, but he probably did not fully understand the severity of the situation. Bill and Lance returned to College Station but did not make any of the conditioning drills for the rest of the week.

On Friday they went back to Houston, and when they returned to College Station on Sunday evening, there was a note on their door at Henderson Hall to report to immediately Coach Stallings at his office in G. Rollie White Coliseum. When they reported, there were 17 other players there waiting to see Coach Stallings.

They all went into his office individually. Coach Stallings had his secretary present taking notes of the conversation. When Bill went in to see Coach Stallings, he was gracious and encouraged him to stay on the team. When Bill said that he had decided to give it up, Coach Stallings said, You are just a quitter and if I had done that when I was here as a player, my dad would have kicked my butt all the way back to Paris, Texas.

Coach Stallings then told Bill to get his stuff out of Henderson Hall and to move into Law Hall, which was like going from the Waldorf to Motel Six! Coach Stallings further said he would be off of scholarship after the semester which only had about two weeks left.

The Jollie Rollie drills were the start of what would be a shake out to pare the team down to the ones who wanted to be there and fit the mold that Stallings had learned from Bear Bryant. This next phase would come soon and work in conjunction with this first phase. This