Rating: 
Summary: guts, courage, discipline, passion...
Review: Guts, courarge, discipine, passion, the 30 some
FOOTBALL players who made it through Coach Bryant's trip to Junction, Texas displayed all of these characteristics and more. As an athlete there are many times I don't want to run that extra lap or do one more set, but after reading this book one more lap is nothing, if not a vacation. The painstaking practices Bear Bryant put his players through takes a very special individual to survive. It is no secret that Coach Bryant was a tough, tough man, but what really intrigued me was the respect and high esteem his former players felt for him. After putting them through pure hell, many of the players will say that they would do it all over again if Coach Bryant was telling them to do it. What a coach that takes! Without a doubt this was one of the best books I have read.
Rating:
Summary: Review on The Junction Boys
Review: I read the book entitled The Junction Boys by Jim Dent. The author did a great job at describing all of the characters. One of the characters that comes to mind is Coach Paul Bear Bryant. Bear Bryant really comes to life in this true story of a football team. The way Jim Dent made Bear Bryant out to be was felt so real and so exact, it was just amazing. With the realness of the book, and the great word choice, it made me stay with the book, I wanted to find out what happened next and next. This quote is one that got me realizing just how tough Bear Bryant was to some of his football players. "You, you, you, you, you, you, and you! Get your butts dressed for practice. Be on the field in ten minutes. I want no more excuses out of you candy asses!" Page 87. The theme of the book is if you practice anything long and hard enough, you will become a winner at that. I totally agree with every word of that because of the quote that I hear all the time about how practice makes perfect. Many players quit this football camp in Junction, Texas throughout the book and in real ife, they probably didnt believe that going through this hell camp that they would become winners. Fred Broussard was an all-american center for the Texas A&M Aggies and he quit. I realized that this football camp was hell when i read about all of the quiters. I started leaning against the practice the players had to go through until i read about the next year when the Texas A&M aggies football team became champions. I would definitly recommend this book to others, not to everyone though. People who like any part of football will love this book. The Junction Boys was a great book with a tremendous story and I believe once you start, you won't want to put it down.
Rating: 
Summary: OK...
Review: I thought that this book was better than the movie. I saw the movie and was very disappointed. If you guys want a good SEC Book try "A Tailgater's Guide To SEC Football". I liked it. Junction Boys is okay, I just thought it would be much better.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing but Disappointing
Review: "The Junction Boys" by Jim Dent is a good read for the sports history fan. I am a senior in high school and have gone through four years of football. I have gone through sizzling two-a-day practices in the summer heat and have tasted the likes of both victory and defeat. I am happy to claim that all of my football related experiences in the last four years were positive. Personally, football was fun and not life and death. It was a time to bond with new friends and learn many considerable life lessons such as hard work, commitment, and sacrifice. I will always have fond memories of my football playing days and many of the relationships I have formed competing in this great game. However, I have never experienced anything quite like Junction, Texas in the 1950's. The conditions were brutal, players were fatigued, and Paul "Bear" Bryant believed that water was a privilege and not a necessity. Even the near death of a young man didn't stop Coach Bryant from the grueling and inexplicable practices in the soaring heat.
Furthermore, "The Junction Boys" is the story of how Bear Bryant received the head coaching position at Texas A&M university and was assigned to revitalize a struggling program. The previous coach was supposedly "soft" on the players and football was nothing more than a social get-together. Bear Bryant set out to solve this problem by putting the team through ten days of hell in Junction, Texas. The team arrived in Junction with 110 excited and energetic football players anticipating their upcoming season with a new head coach. Ten days later, the team returned home with 35 players suffering from injuries ranging from a bruised spinal disc to a broken arm to heat stroke. The team won one game en route to a miserable season where only about 25 people suited up for each game.
Moreover, "The Junction Boys" is repetitious and does not flow logically at points. Each character is introduced and then Dent does not follow up on the progressions the characters make and focuses on the team as a whole. However, I did enjoy the character of Smokey and also Dennis Goehring. Dent paints a well-designed picture of the near fatal heat stroke incident, and of the glaring and stern Bear Bryant. It was unnecessary to include every single game in to the novel as it kind of takes away from the essence and moments that occurred in Junction. I felt intrigued and interested at what the players went through in Junction, but after that, the story goes off on a tangent.
Moreover, "The Junction Boys" is an entertaining and different story that journeys in to the lives of many college boys during the 1950's. Many of these characters were in school solely on football scholarships and that was all they knew their entire lives. "The Junction Boys" is a story of hard work and perseverance. No matter what obstacles were thrown at these young men, they fought them off with all their might just for the chance to one-day win a national championship. Most importantly, these players learned how to work as a team and function as one unit. All in all, "The Junction Boys" is a quick and interesting story however falls short of its legendary and renowned status in sports history.
Rating:
Summary: A story and lesson in determination
Review: If you've played, are playing or are a fan of the game of American Football...this is a must HAVE not just a must read. I grew up watching Alabama football under Bear, and stuck with them through everything. When Gene Stallings took over, the old timers talked about "the Junction boys" and I never knew what they were talking about. Now I do. This is the story of a group of players...becoming a team, and along the way, becoming all the man they could be. The self-discipline learned under the hand of "The Bear", a man who himself played a winning game against Tennessee WITH A BROKEN LEG, would serve the men that earned the title "Junction boy", very well in life. To quote a man who is almost a diety in college football circles..."You never know how a horse is going to pull until you hook him to a heavy load." - Coach Paul William "Bear" Bryant
Rating:
Summary: OK...
Review: I thought that this book was better than the movie. I saw the movie and was very disappointed. If you guys want a good SEC Book try "A Tailgater's Guide To SEC Football". I liked it. Junction Boys is okay, I just thought it would be much better.
Rating:
Summary: Ok, but not really my style
Review: The Junction Boys is the story of Coach Paul Brayant, and his first years at Texas A&M, and the ten hard days at Camp Junction that he put his new team through. The coach drove most of the players to quick doing camp, less than half that made the trip to Junction remained. I read the book to learn more about Coach Brayant, the only thing I really knew about him was that at one time he had the most wins of any college football coach. My thing is that I don't really like autobiographies written in the novel form, so I'll have to read another book on the coach to learn more about him, I think I would like the movie version of this book better, but it was ok.
Rating:
Summary: Wishing The Author Well
Review: Jim Dent has become a guest of the State of Texas for the next eight years. Let's all wish him a rapid recovery, a generous parole board, and perhaps a new book emerging from the experience.
Rating:
Summary: The Junction Boys is a GREAT book!
Review: I loved every page of this book. I couldn't put it down; I couldn't wait to get home from school and read it. I learned so much about Texas A&M and Bear Bryant from this book. I definatley reccomend this book to any football fan that enjoys reading. Jim Dent really scored a touchdown with this book!
Rating:
Summary: The Junction Boys is a GREAT book!
Review: I loved every page of this book. I couldn't put it down; I couldn't wait to get home from school and read it. I learned so much about Texas A&M and Bear Bryant from this book. I definatley reccomend this book to any football fan that enjoys reading. Jim Dent really scored a touchdown with this book!
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