Likes and Dislikes of movie

Likes:

• The movie portrayed the players and Paul Bryant very well
• The movie hit the "key" points of the book
• The movie lined up with the book extremely well and really showed the intesity of Junction

Dislikes:

• The movie did not go into detail about Paul Bryant
• Did not show any games that the Aggies had that season.
• They didn't show the college life, they only showed Junction.

Chapters 22-24

Chapter Summary:

A couple of the football players went to visit the Chicken Ranch. Dennis was talking to one of the girls at the chicken about the Texas Longhorn game. While they were talking one of the football players set off a cherry bomb. All of the football players started to run towards the truck when the owner of the ranch came out and started shooting. It talked about one of there star recruits quitting the team. Ken Hall quit after not getting the playing time he wanted. Hall came to talk to coach Bryant to try to get back on the team. He was on the verge of tears. Coach gave him one last chancet o show up to practice but he never came. The SWC wanted to lift their probation period but the NCAA would not let them. Right before there big game against the Longhorns Bear did a speech about all of the survivors of Junction that were still on the team. He told the team what he admired about each of the players. All of the survivors came up to Bear and showed him that they still had the mustard seed that he gave them during his first year of coaching them. He told them to give the seeds to him so he could use the for good luck. The Aggies started off to a good start and kept on to win the game. Right after the game, once the Agies won, for the first time in a long time it rained in Junction and ended the drought.

Group Discussion Summary:

• The Texas game was the most important game to the boys
• Cotton Bowl
• How did Bryan view the original Junction Boys
• Bryant became more than just a coach
• How reputations matter
• The positives and negatives of the book

......Thinking Question......

Bryant was very tough on his boys. He made practice brtutal and was not very nice the boys when they were not at practice. Even though Bryant was like this the boys cared deeply about him and he cared for the boys. Has anyone ever been tough on you but yet you knew it was for the better and you loved them anyway?

Chapters 18-21

Chapter Summary:
In chapter 18, Bryant didn't sleep well because they had been flagged for cheating. He was worried that his players, that he had worked so hard on, would leave him. Telegram after telegram came and revealed that his players were going to come back. Coach has shown a kind heart to the players and let one of them come back after he had left. He had to get ready to let the Seniors go, so they came over to his house and played games, and saw his REAL competitive side. In the next chapter, the boys traveled to a game and played the UCLA. Despite the confidence of Bryant, they lost. For the next game he challenged the boys to look within themselves and do their best. The coach kept looking for the perfect quarterback. The perfect mixture of smarts, speed, throwing, and running. On the teams off-time, the campus hosted a famous singer, Elvis Presley. The boys weren't amazed by him, they were amazed by the crazed girls that were in the area. Bryant wasn't pleased by the looseness of his team. They were on the bus laughing and having a good time, and that very much bothered him. One of the famous quotes that came out of that game was "A tie, is like kissing your sister."-Bear Bryant. During the rest of the chapter Bryant uses many different strategies to play football. Many of the boys, including Dennis, got bored, and started getting into trouble. Even though the Aggies were winning some games, he didn't ease up on practice. John Crow ended up with heatstroke, and Bryant was starting to change. More and more games rolled along, and so did many more strategies. A tornado, about 2 miles away, didn't cancel the Aggie's game agianst the Horned Frogs. Many fans stuck around to watch as they kept playing. They won the game 7-6 and ladies were allowed on campus.

Summary of Group Discussion:

Some of these topics came up in our group discussion that we talked about...

• Attitude changes of Bear
• Why girls weren't allowed on campus
• How to gain/earn respect
• Why Bryant had so much respect from the boys
• The Boys dedication to Bryant and the team
• Even though Bryant was affected by the heatstroke that Billy got, it happened agian
• The town/school had such dedication to football
• Girls being on campus
• Prankesters

..................Thinking Question....................

In the book, the boys were playing a football game during what they called "a minihurricane." They kept going, and the won the game. Have you ever had a time where people quit on you, and u kept going even if you weren't sure if you could?

Chapters 8-17

Chapter Summary:

After the first few practices Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant started to weed out the quitters and the lazy from the dedicated players. For the few that had enough guts to confront the coach about quitting the team was rewarded a free bus ticket back the campus. For the rest of the quitters that were to scared or did not have the courage to tell coach left in the middle of the night and had to pay their own way back to where ever they want to go. Sports reporters came along and watched a little of every SWC practice so they are able to get their preseason rankings and find who would be the top players of the conference. When these sports reporters landed in junction they realized that Texas A&M had the least amount of players and noticed that more and more were quitting during the practice. Towards the end of the fifth practice Billy Schroeder had fainted because of a heat stroke and Coach came over and kicked him to see if he could still practice but Billy just laid there. He was immediately rushed to the hospital and was covered in ice to try and save his life, which did but if he was any later, Billy would have died of a heat stroke. After that incendent happened, Paul made the rest of the team finish practice and when they got back to their barracks it made Bryant think of his childhood and how no one like him cause he was a country boy and everyone else was a city slicker. He realized that he has been a little to hard on the boys and wanted to let up some but still demanded the respect that he has been getting. He decided that his practices would not be any easier but would give them more freedom after practices like letting them go to the river or go to church after the morning practice. After the ten days in Junction of hard and unbearable practices, it was finally time to return home. When the team left the campus they had to take two buses and double up on the bus to fit, but the ride home was completely different. Coach came back to A&M with one bus and that bus that was barely half full. Once they got back to A&M it was time to start the regular season. They opened their season by getting whipped by Texas Tech 41-9. Paul kind of knew that this was coming becasue he noticed his players have been burnt out from the days in Junction but did not think it would have been this bad. So for a punishment Coach made the players come to practice in thier dirty, bloody and sweaty game uniforms and practice in them all day. The Aggies had to have some fun outside of football and to entertain themselves they decided to either go the the strip club or hang out in their dorms. Weasel Watson had a different idea of fun, his idea was to plant some dynomite he stole from his previous job as a joke to scare some the seniors that have been messing with him. after that incendent, in the middle of the night Coach made the all the players get up and go to the lobby for a team meeting. At this meeting Paul gave each team member a seed of mustard to show that no matter what happens this season that if they are thinking about quitting to remember this seed and know that this seed would never stop growing. After the season was over, the NCAA investagated A&M and found out that they have been giving money to recurits which broke the rules and gave the chance to any player that is on a scholarship to be let go or stay with A&M.

Summary of Group Discussion:

During our lit circle meeting we talked about some of the following things...

• coaches being too harsh or too soft
• Whether we would stay at the Junction
• How Coach Bryant felt after Billy almost died from heat stroke
• If his tactics would work in winning a game
• An all Boys college- What they do for entertainment
• Bryants attitudes towards his team- At the beginning of the book he could care less if he hurt them, then during these chapters he started caring more about them
• Making the team practice in un-washed jerseys the day after an unsucsessful game
• How the boys felt finally leaving the Junction and how it changed them
• Bryant had never loss this many games
  

......Thinking Question......

When the boys got back from the Junction, Bryant asked what he could do to better the team and show them some respect. Not swearing was a key point. Bryant tried, but knew he couldn't suceed in not cursing but he said he would do so. Have you ever set limits for yourself, knowing that you couldn't keep loyal to it?

Chapters 5-7

Chapter Summary:

The team was awaken by yelling and whistles. The intense practices to come had not been expected by the boys. Coach Bryant did not allow the players to have breakfast, only orange juie and salt tablets because they would vomit during practice. Bryant's goal was to whip the players into shape and make them become a team. Bryant had shown the players his "Bear" side when he broke a players nose on purpose by head butting him several times. The players practiced on a dry, goathead covered, playing field and they were allowed no water. The whole thought between bringing the football boys to Junction was to weed out the ones that would stay and the ones that would leave. Bryan wanted Elwook Kettler to play QB because he did not want a "facncy" QB. He could barely gain weight and while practicing, he broke his back. Bryan challenged him to play but Kettler refused and that disgusted Bryant. One of the harsher sides of Bryant was that he expected people to play while they were injured. Billy Granberry caught Bryant's eye because he could handle the pain and torture while he was hurt. He shoulder would easily pop out of its socket during practice and he would run over, get it popped back in, and keep practicing. During this time the first vehicle drove into Junction despite the warnings handed out by Bryant. It was an ambulance that came to pick up Elwood because of his back. Though, by that time, he had already began playing.

Summary of Group Discussion:

• How would a team be if we had a coach like Bryant
• How would we handle a practice as brutal as the one's that the boys had to do
• If we could or could not handle the injuries some of the football player endured
• Pro athletes injuries
• The players attitudes towards each other
• Dedication/hardwork
• Standing out amongst others to get noticed

.....Thinking Question.....

In the book the boys were denied water during practice because the coaches thought that it would better their bodies if they did not have water. As Smokey said "You wouldn't pour cold water on a hot radiator.." Have you ever felt like someone denied you something that would benefit you?

Chapters 1-4

Chapter Summary:

In the begining of the book Paul Bryant moves to Texas and starts his career at being the football coach at Texas A&M. When Bryan first arrived at Texas A&M he met some of the players and some of the doctors that would be helping him. Bryant was very firm and "mean" to the men that came to talk to him so that those men would respect Bryant and realize that he was the "boss." In the second chapter some of the boys' lives were told like; Don Watson, Dennis Goerhing, Willis Zapalac, Bebes Stallings, Bobby Drake Keith, and Billy Schroeder. Every boy had a different story that lead them to Texas A&M to play football. Some stories were tragic while others were just an everyday life in Texas. In chapter three the boys returned to Texas A&M to start their football career. When the boys returned Bryant told them to drop everything and just bring a blanket, toothbrush, and pillow with them and pile onto the two buses that were in front of them because they were going to Junction, Texas. He also told the boys not to let anyone know where they were going or what they were doing. The boys were completely confused and disturbed at what was happening but they listened anyway and pilled onto the buses. On the way there Dennis decided to speak up and tell the boys his experience with Junction. He told them his story with one of the girls he dated there and that there were many more than just her. The boys were very excited because they thought that they were going to have a good time and it was going to be like a vaction, but they were wrong. As they continued on their journey they noticed that everything was turning into desert. Bryant became upset because, how were they suppose to play football on dirt? In chapter four the boys arrived in Junction. They could not believe that there was a river that was flowing around the town because everywhere else the river had dried up. They had their fun by going swimming, playing cards, and getting comfortable in their bunks, but once Bryant said lights out they realized what they were really in for.

Summary of Group Discussion:

• Money
• Book took place after the Great Depression - hard tiems
• Bryant created fear in boys for respect
• Being at a same sex school
• Accepting a scholarship that broke the rules
• Risk - choosing to leave your job for a new one
• What the players reaction to the Junction

.....Thinking Question.....

Texas A&M was an all boys school when Junction Boys was written. Could you go to a school that was all the same sex?