Frantzen caught bits and pieces of the telephone conversation between his wife, Rita, and his son, Chad, then a freshman student at Texas A&M.   But instead of drifting away into his dreams, Frantzen was instantly jolted by the thought of a real-life nightmare. An anxious, dreadful feeling shot through his body and settled in his suddenly churning stomach when his wife's vocal tone and facial expression dramatically changed to reveal her shock.

"I remember my wife going silent for a moment and then saying, "You did what?'" the elder Frantzen said, duplicating his wife's alarming tone." As a parent, I can tell you that the first things that go through your mind when you hear something like that aren't good. I was thinking, car wreck, injury, hospital and all kinds of other bad things. What a relief it was when I found out what he had actually done."

What Chad Frantzen had actually done was hardly a nightmare. In fact, it was a dream come true for a kid who had attended a tiny high school named New Diana, but had long been educated in the traditions of Old Army.

Frantzen had just tried out for the Texas A&M football team, an endeavor he had previously failed to mention to his parents. But now, it seemed liked a good time to let mom and dad in on the secret. After all, not only had he tried out for the team, but he had also made it.

"They were pretty surprised at first," the younger Frantzen said of his parents. "But after the initial surprise, they were thrilled. My Dad went to A&M (class of '68), so did my sister (Lisa, class of '97) and my Mom is a real big A&M fan, too. All my life, I've been going to A&M games and watching them on TV. It's been a pretty big part of our family."

Three years later, Chad Frantzen is a pretty big part of the Texas A&M football team. The 6-2, 228-pound junior, who was yelling for the Aggies from the third deck of Kyle Field in 1995, now calls the defensive signals when senior All-American candidate Dat Nguyen takes a break.

And in an effort to keep Nguyen fresh in the fourth quarter, the A&M coaches have awarded Frantzen with considerable playing time at inside linebacker, as well as on special teams. Against Southern Mississippi, for example, Frantzen played 27 snaps while Nguyen caught his breath.

While his current backup status probably won't raise many eyebrows nationally, it's big news at Texas A&M. After all, Frantzen is now serving as a role player behind perhaps the best linebacker in A&M history and taking on a similar -- but even more significant -- role as perhaps the most legendary athlete in Texas A&M history: E. King Gill.

Gill, the Aggies' original 12th Man, once came out of the stands to put on a uniform at the coach's request. Now, some 77 years later, Frantzen has come out of the stands and been awarded a uniform because the A&M coaches have been impressed.

"He's definitely earned his opportunity to play," Texas A&M inside linebackers coach Alan Weddell said of Frantzen. "He's done a good job, and he's made a lot of progress. He's got a great story that kind of reminds you of the original 12th Man story. But that's not the reason he's playing. The reason he's playing is because he has proven himself to be a pretty good football player.

"A lot of students and fans can relate to him because he was sitting in the stands with them before making the team. He's one of those kids you like to pull for, because he's a walking testament to the value of perseverance and following your dreams."

THE DREAM BEGINS

When Chad Frantzen left home for his freshman year at Texas A&M, his parents went on a cleaning spree, sorting through closets and shelves and determining what to keep for posterity's sake and what to dump in the trash.

During that process, Larry Frantzen came across an interesting school project that Chad had written in the third grade. At his teacher's request, Chad had listed the things he wanted to do when he grew up.

Among his top priorities were to:

• Play high school football for the New Diana Eagles.
• Play college football for the Texas Aggies.

The problem for Chad -- as he would later discover -- is that those two goals didn't go hand-in-hand.

"All my life I had hoped to get a chance to go to school at Texas A&M and play football for the Aggies," Frantzen said. "But when you grow up in a town like Diana and go to a high school like New Diana, you're probably not going to get a lot of exposure or attention from major college coaches. It would be safe to say that no schools were beating down my door to try to get me to sign with them."

Perhaps that's because they couldn't find Frantzen's front door.   Diana, after all, is little more than a speck on an East Texas road map. Approximately 15 miles north of Longview, Diana is a one-school, one-feed store and one-traffic light town.  It's a great place to raise a family, but not exactly a college football recruiting hotbed.

Nevertheless, Chad Frantzen, a three-year starter at fullback and linebacker for the Class 2A Eagles, was good enough to attract the attention of several small college football programs. He seriously considered that route, but ultimately decided that he would never truly be happy unless he was at Texas A&M. Even if that meant he had played his final football game.

"When he decided to go to A&M, I was thrilled," Larry Frantzen said.

"We never pressured him or his sister to go to A&M, because we wanted them to make their own decisions. But they had to be a little bit biased. We followed the Aggies pretty closely, going to games and watching them on TV. Because A&M had meant so much to me, I was thrilled to see them both go to school there. But I was pretty sure that Chad's football career was over."

So was Chad. But, while he had made up his mind not to play football, his body apparently didn't get the message. With more free time on his hands, Frantzen began an extensive weight-lifting program. He had played high school ball at about 195 pounds, but after a couple of rigorous months in the weight room, Frantzen had added roughly 15 pounds of muscle.

Then, while watching a football game from the top level of Kyle Field, an idea crossed his mind.

"I never even thought about being a regular position player," Frantzen said. "But I knew all about the 12th Man Kickoff Team, and I started thinking that maybe I could do that. I felt like I was in good shape, and I decided to go for it. I wasn't planning on doing it for four years or anything like that. I just thought that, for a year or two, it was a pretty cool idea."

FROM WALK-ON TO BIG TIME

After trying out and making the team, Frantzen went through spring practice in 1996, where he received his first lesson in the walk-on's school of hard knocks. Serving as little more than a live blocking/tackling dummy, Frantzen quickly realized that his "pretty cool idea" came with a pretty painful price tag.

"There's not much glory in being a walk-on," Frantzen said. "All the fans see is the guy with a No. 12 on his back running down field on kickoffs. That looks like fun. But what they don't see is all the days of practice, playing on the scout team and getting knocked all over the place. You're not on scholarship, you don't feel completely a part of the team, and it's tough. So, I just tried to endure it."

That's exactly what Frantzen did, and his reward came midway through the 1996 season when he was the Aggies' 12th Man representative at Iowa State. That experience was satisfying enough to bring Frantzen back for more.

And in 1997, as the Aggies won the Big 12 South title, Frantzen won the team's 12th Man MVP award. He saw action in five games -- Sam Houston State, Southwestern Louisiana, Oklahoma State, Texas and UCLA -- as the 12th Man and even recorded a sack late in the blowout victory over USL.

Perhaps most importantly, though, Frantzen made some major strides at linebacker. Although he was still participating on the scout team, he paid special attention to pick up the techniques and fine points of defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz's system.

"After the '97 season, I really thought I had accomplished everything I could as a 12th Man," Frantzen said. "Then, in the spring of this year,

Coach Weddell came in as inside linebackers coach. He said his philosophy was to rotate linebackers and that everybody would have a chance to play depending on how they performed.

"I had worked real hard to get a grasp of the defense the year before, and Coach Weddell coming in and saying what he did just added more fuel to the fire for me. I wanted to try to be a role player on defense, and the spring went real well for me. I guess Coach Weddell was impressed, because at the end of the spring he told me that if I came back in shape and continued to work hard I might have a chance to play."

Frantzen had gotten a break during the spring when several scholarship linebackers went down with injuries. And, when he returned for two-a-days, an injury to redshirt freshman Harold Robertson gave Frantzen even more repetitions in practice.

"He made the most of those reps," Weddell said. "He got better and better, and by the time we got ready to play Florida State in the opener, we had enough confidence in him to put him on the depth chart."

Frantzen was given the No. 59 jersey just prior to the opener. Then, on Aug. 31 before a national television audience and in front of 60,000 fans inside Giants Stadium, Frantzen entered the game as Nguyen's substitute.

From New Diana to the New Jersey Meadowlands on Monday Night Football. Obviously, it's been a rather incredible journey for Chad Frantzen.

"It's hard to describe what this means to me," Frantzen said of his opportunity to play linebacker at the South's Linebacker U. "It is a dream come true, but I have to admit that I really never dreamed this big. I just hope my story inspires others from small towns to walk-on at Texas A&M.

"You look at Nebraska's walk-on program, and it's one of the reason they are such a powerhouse. My hope is that by hearing my story, other guys will consider coming to A&M as a walk-on instead of settling for a small school scholarship."

Perhaps Frantzen's success will inspire other high school athletes, as A&M attempts to upgrade its walk-on program. Regardless, Frantzen's story already is pretty remarkable, and it's not over yet. He still has a full year of eligibility remaining after this season.

"I have no idea of what all he is capable of doing," Larry Frantzen said. "The Lord has definitely blessed him, and he's obviously worked tremendously hard to get to where he is today. I don't think I could have endured all that he has, but he's been rewarded for his perseverance. His mother and I are very proud of him."