As the cold night and bitter loss settled on the Cotton Bowl almost three years ago, Bob Davie walked toward the famed ramp of the old stadium in a daze that probably only the executioner sees when leading the condemned to their final fate.

Davie was a dead man walking.

He and the Aggies had just lost a heartbreaker to Notre Dame, 24-21, in the 1994 Cotton Bowl. The Wrecking Crew had left everything on the field, and so had Davie.

Little did Davie know that the very school that would deliver such a devastating defeat would be the school that lifted him to such glory just a few years later.

Even though Texas A&M had lost two straight Cotton Bowls to Notre Dame, coach Lou Holtz had seen enough of Davie’s defenses to know the Texas A&M defensive coordinator would be the answer to Notre Dame’s antiquated attack.

Just days after the loss, Davie was back in College Station when Holtz gave him the call that would ultimately change his life forever.

Holtz had offered Davie the defensive coordinator’s job at the nation’s most prestigious football program. But Davie loved Texas A&M. He admired R.C. Slocum. He thrived on what he called the "shark-like" fans at Kyle Field, whose sense of the kill when the Aggies were on defense mesmerized him.

I called Davie at home when he had been offered the job at Notre Dame. He didn’t know at the time what he was going to do, calling it the most agonizing decision of his life.

He asked me my opinion of the situation. I gave it and naturally told him it would be a great move to enhance his chances for a head coaching job. I even told him I could see him coaching at Notre Dame, moving on to a head coaching job somewhere else and ultimately returning to A&M as the Aggies’ head coach when a satisfied R.C. Slocum had decided to retire in College Station.

Davie said leading the Aggies one day had been his goal all along.

Bob Davie is now the head coach at Notre Dame. I doubt he’ll ever return to A&M. But for a coach who waited patiently for the right job, the right time, the right place, Davie deserves exactly what he got.

As for Notre Dame’s ability to land such a quality head coach? Now that’s truly the luck of the Irish.

R.C. Slocum, Davie’s friend and mentor, knew the time would come when Davie would land a head coaching job. A real job, not just a five-year prison term of trying to resuscitate a Purdue or Baylor from innate mediocrity.

And when the news finally became official from South Bend, Slocum was probably the first to know. After all, Davie had called Slocum every day for two weeks during the rumor-filled days leading up to Holtz’s departure.

"He was excited," said Slocum, who made Davie his defensive coordinator in 1989 and assistant head coach in 1993. "We’ve talked for the last couple of weeks. You get in that situation, and you need someone to talk to. I’m really honored that he felt confident with me. He could trust me with some sensitive information, and I didn’t tell a soul what was going on."

While Davie spoke at his first press conference after the announcement, he told the throng of reporters how there was a lot of Lou Holtz in Bob Davie. I suspect the makeup of Davie also includes a few parts R.C. Slocum.

For it was at A&M that Davie really began to devise his aggressive, blitzing defenses that he learned under Slocum. It was at A&M where the Wrecking Crew began to gain national acclaim and where Davie’s multiple-page resume began to take shape.

It was at A&M where schools would flock to the campus during the spring for tutelage on Davie’s defenses. If they couldn’t make the trip to College Station, at least eight schools took the initiative to fly Davie to their place.

And it was at A&M where Davie first became accustomed to heavy media pressure, although nothing like he is about to experience.

Holtz told me in an interview two years ago that the Notre Dame head coaching job was the most visible and demanding job in all of sports. The defensive coordinator position at Notre Dame, Holtz said, was a close second.

Davie, after two years on the job, agreed.

"You’re in an awfully big fish bowl," Davie said back then. "You were in a fish bowl at A&M, but you might be in an aquarium here."

And now Davie’s the big fish.

What makes Davie’s rise intriguing is to remember how Davie used to sweat out games against SMU and Rice. The ultimate stickler for details, Davie used to worry that the undermanned Mustangs would come out in a completely different formation than what he had prepared for. Davie called his affliction "chasing ghosts."

And at his afternoon meetings at A&M — just like at most college programs — Davie would spend his time with magic markers in hand, drawing up plays for the scout team to use to prepare his defense for the Rice Wishbone.

It was not glorified work, to say the least. Now Davie has the eyes of Touchdown Jesus and Regis Philbin looking down upon him.

"He was at home Saturday night (just hours before his announcement), and I told him he better enjoy it," Slocum said with the tone of experience. "It really gets to be an awesome responsibility. And all of a sudden, your life changes dramatically."

The two talked about the good old days in College Station. And how, just eight years ago, a similar situation had unfolded.

Slocum was waiting to be announced as the head coach at A&M after Jackie Sherrill resigned under fire in December of 1988.

"I talked to him about how much has happened in the last eight years," Slocum said. "I was kind of in a similar situation."

Slocum remembered the chaotic days following his promotion to head coach.

"People wouldn’t believe how many phone calls you get," Slocum said, noting that well-wishers, media and coaches looking for jobs would jam his fax and answering machines. "Just the volume of it gets astronomical. Then you’ve got tons of mail."

Slocum is proud of the fact that several assistants, including three coordinators in the last three years, have landed big-time jobs in the college ranks and in the NFL. But he may be most proud of Davie’s chance at Notre Dame.

"I’m really excited for him," Slocum added. "I’m really happy that it worked out for him."

Davie may not succeed under the unbelievable pressures at Notre Dame. But don’t count on it. He will be able to recruit Texas, many times going head to head with Slocum on the state’s top recruits.

Yet, don’t expect any negative recruiting by Davie, especially against Texas A&M. He may be married to Notre Dame now, but you never forget your first love.

In fact, Davie actually thought about returning to A&M after defensive coordinator Tommy Tuberville left for Ole Miss following the 1994 season.

"I knew that I would miss A&M, that I would miss R.C.," Davie said two years ago. "And I knew that I would miss the players and the fans. A&M was special and is special to me.

"To say one (school) is better than the other, I couldn’t say that. I’m fortunate that I’ve been at both places."

And now he’s the head coach at Notre Dame.

Finally. Fittingly.

The man many people considered the greatest coach in college football history had taken his last breath, leaving much of the country with a heavy heart and without one of its most storied and stoic gridiron heroes.

During his incredible coaching career, Paul "Bear" Bryant often appeared to be larger than life. But in January 1983 — just a month after he had coached his last game — it became apparent that even the legendary Bryant was susceptible to the ultimate, inevitable reality of real life —death.

In the hospital room following his father’s massive heart attack, Paul Bryant Jr. was dealing with that reality when he began to remove a ring from his father’s hand.

The elder Bryant had won six national championships at Alabama, earning diamond-filled rings for every one. He also owned enough Southeastern Conference championship rings and bowl game jewelry to fill a display case that Zale’s would envy.

But in terms of jewelry — and most everything else — Bryant was Mr. Conservative, not Mr. T. And at the time of his death , Bryant wore only one ring.

Ironically, it had nothing to do with Alabama, where he had become the state’s icon in his hound’s tooth fedora. Instead, the ring he wore was given to him by his former players at Texas A&M, commemorating the 25th anniversary of Bryant’s first season with the Aggies and the memorable preseason trip to Junction, Texas.

"When we lost Papa, I thought it was very significant that the ring he wore was the Texas A&M ring that had been given to him by members of that Junction group," Bryant Jr. said. "Of course, he tried to stay close to a lot of his former players, but Papa always had a special affinity for Texas A&M.

"Maybe that was because he had worked that group so hard or that Texas A&M was a place he really had a hard time leaving. Whatever the reason, he was especially caught up with the Aggies. They had a very special place in his heart."

The feeling was and is definitely mutual. Bryant coached only four seasons at Texas A&M (1954-57), before returning to his alma mater in 1958. But before he left College Station, Bryant turned A&M’s football fortunes around and turned a group of naive boys into triumphant and tenacious young men.

In fact, his 25-14-2 record, the 1956 Southwest Conference championship and his team’s No. 1 national ranking late in the ’57 season only begin to tell the story of what Bear Bryant did for Texas A&M.

The real success stories are what he did for the players he coached, and how they obviously touched his life.

"If you looked back at the guys who played for him and then followed their careers after college, you would see some pretty amazing stories of success," said Dennis Goehring, an All-American lineman on Bryant’s 1956 team. "I know for a fact that I gained a grain of tenacity from him that was invaluable for me in my business and personal life.

"He was a tough you know what. He worked our butts off, and we went through hell. But to endure that and to learn from him, well, you couldn’t help but develop a belief that you could do anything within reason. Just look at that Junction group. All the guys who went all the way through that — or maybe I should say ‘survived that’ — went on to become very successful."

The Junction trip of 1954 is one of the most highly-publicized and frequently-recited stories in Texas A&M football history. It has been told, re-told and probably revised so many times that many younger Aggie fans likely think it is only slightly more than fictitious folklore.

But to those fans, former NFL star and longtime coach Jack Pardee has a simple message: Think again.

"It was real, all right. Real hard," said Pardee, who was a sophomore running back and linebacker in ’54. "There was one heat stroke, and we were real fortunate that no one died. But Coach Bryant believed one of the keys to winning was to be in better condition than your opponents and to be tougher than they were. Those of us who came back from Junction were certainly toughened.

"The funny thing now is that I actually thought it was going to be a fun trip. There was a little river there, and I had envisioned us camping out, enjoying the river and practicing a little bit."

Pardee and his teammates received a rude awakening during the first practice of the first day. The team hit the field (which was actually nothing more than mowed grass burrs and sun-dried dirt) at 5 a.m. and practiced for four grueling hours, as Bryant worked them like a Marine Corps drill sergeant.

No whiners. No wimps. No water breaks.

"If you had that kind of environment today, you would probably end up with 40 or 50 law suits against the coach," Goehring said. "But for those of us who felt the pains of Junction and made it through, there was an unbelievable camaraderie. No words could even describe it."

More than 100 players went to Junction for Bryant’s 10-day "mini camp." Less than 40 came back as members of the team.

Those players who did come back had more misery ahead of them. The depleted Aggies went just 1-9 in 1954.

Nevertheless, a foundation had been laid and an incredible work ethic had been established. And in 1955, the Aggies began to reap the rewards of Bryant’s hard-nosed, no-nonsense philosophy.

After winning just one game the year before, the ’55 team finished 7-2-1 and in second place in the SWC. Suddenly, the A&M players discovered, there was a method to Bryant’s madness.

"Coach Bryant was an ultra conservative disciplinarian, who demanded that you pay attention to all the little details," Pardee said. "I think most everybody knew that even before he first came to Texas A&M. His reputation had preceded him from the years he had spent at Maryland and Kentucky.

"It may have been hard for all of the (A&M) players to understand his toughness and his philosophies when we were struggling. But as we started to win, it became much easier to understand, accept and embrace his style."

Bryant continued to demand more and push his players further in the next two seasons, and the Aggies continued to respond favorably. A&M finished 9-0-1 in 1956, winning the SWC with a perfect 6-0 conference record.

Then in 1957, the Aggies began the season 8-0 and were ranked No. 1 in the country heading into the final two regular season games against Rice and Texas. At that point, A&M was the talk of the state and the toast of the town.

The Aggies had an 18-game unbeaten streak heading into the Rice game. They had a Heisman Trophy candidate in John David Crow. They had incredible momentum. They seemed to have it all in place.

Then news broke that they would not have the same head coach the following year. To his chagrin, Bryant was unable to keep the news of his pending move to Alabama out of the newspapers.

He had actually been offered the job the year before, but had declined it because he wanted to see at least one class go through the full four years at A&M. Bryant loved Texas A&M, and there was probably no other job he would have left College Station for other than Alabama.

But Alabama was like home to Bryant, who was raised in Arkansas but played his college football for the Crimson Tide. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up again.

Unfortunately for A&M, the news of Bryant’s move couldn’t have come at a worse time. The distraction may have played some role in the Aggies’ one-point upset loss to Rice or the two-point loss to Texas or the three-point loss to Tennessee in the Gator Bowl.

"I think (Bryant) sort of blamed himself for the way the ’57 season ended because he couldn’t keep it out of the press that he was going back to Alabama," Crow said. "I’m really not sure what kind of impact it actually had. For myself and the other seniors on that team, it really wasn’t that significant because we were going to be gone the next year anyway. But it may have had an impact on the sophomores and juniors.

"I know it was tough for him to leave A&M, even though it was to go back to his alma mater. A&M’s military background, its discipline and its overall makeup went hand-in-hand with his philosophies. He really loved this place. And Mrs. Bryant, who had cried for a week when they first got here, cried for a month after they left. Texas A&M definitely had a special place in their hearts."

Before he left for Alabama, Bryant played a special role in helping Crow become the only Texas A&M player to ever win the Heisman Trophy. Bryant wasn’t known for praising or complimenting individual players. So when he told a reporter, "if they don’t give it to John David, they should stop giving the Heisman Trophy," the country took notice.

"When that hit the wire services, it attracted a lot of attention," Crow said. "Without a doubt, he played as much a role in me winning the Heisman as anything I did on the field."

Bryant left A&M at the conclusion of the ’57 season and won his first national championship at Alabama in 1961. But he certainly didn’t cut off his connections to A&M or any of his former players.

He kept in contact with many of the players through the years, and he employed several of them, including Crow, as assistant coaches on the Alabama staff. And he was always there if any of his former players needed him.

"In the mid-1960s, I got the opportunity to start my own bank in College Station," Goehring said. "But I needed more stock in the bank, and I called Coach Bryant to ask him if he could buy some shares. He kind of grumbled a little bit and asked me how many shares I wanted him to buy. I told him a couple hundred.

"He said, ‘Dammit Dennis, I have more faith in you than that. Give me 1,000 shares.’ That cost him about $32,000. I’ll never forget how willing he was to help. That was a side of him a lot of people never saw. They just saw the tough image on the sideline. But he was much more than that. He really cared about people."

Bryant used the money he made on his investment to set up a $100,000 scholarship fund for children and grandchildren of his former A&M players. The only two requirements for eligibility are: The prospective student must be in the bloodlines of the men who played for Bryant at A&M and they must attend Texas A&M.

"I’ve had three daughters who were on that scholarship," said Goehring, who is one of the men in charge of granting the scholarships. "Overall, we’ve probably provided scholarships for 30 or 40 kids from the fund Coach Bryant left. I don’t think he would have left that if he didn’t really love and appreciate Texas A&M."

There’s no doubt about that. Bryant, his son says, always maintained fond memories and thoughts of A&M, even while he was leading the Crimson Tide to one SEC championship after another.

"He kept the Aggies in his heart and on his hand until the end," Paul Jr. said, referring to the ring Bryant wore. "He was really proud of his association with Texas A&M and all those players he coached there. It was a big part of his life, although he only spent a few years there."

Likewise, his former players say Bear Bryant played a major role lives. He may have been the greatest coach in college football history, but he was even more to the men who played for him.

"He meant a great deal to me," Crow said. "I lost a big part of my life when he died. I lost him before my father, but I had a similar empty feeling.

"What he did for me was part of the springboard that helped me to whatever success I may have had in my career. Some people said that he touched the lives of his players. Well, he got inside of me and made a major impact on my life. I just consider it an honor to have been a part of his career and his life."

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