Having situated her 14-month-old son, Matt, in a wagon near the barn, Jacquis Bumgardner began helping her husband with some of the daily chores on the family’s farm. Moments — perhaps even seconds — later, she turned to check on Matt and was struck by an image that has, to this day, remained emblazoned in her mind.

"We had this old bull, who I knew was tame, but he had strolled over and gotten right in Matt’s face," Jacquis said. "I looked up and saw this 2,000-pound bull staring eyeball to eyeball with my son, and Matt never even flinched. Then the bull licked him in the face, and Matt looked back up at him and said, ‘No, no.’ I knew then he wasn’t going to be afraid of anything."

That was the first time James Matthew Bumgardner came face to face with a potentially difficult situation, over which he had no control, and refused to be licked. He has been fearless in the face of adversity, refusing to cower or quit in even the most trying times, ever since.

And rest assured, the hard-nosed, soft-spoken Bumgardner has endured some tough times. In fact, the 22-year-old wide receiver is probably known by Texas A&M fans as much for his hard luck as his soft hands and quick feet.

Bumgardner arrived in College Station in 1995 nursing an injury. Since then, annoying ailments and freak accidents have stalked him every step — or every limp — of the way. He has been injured to some extent in each of his five seasons with the Aggies.

Training room staff have threatened to charge him rent, and it’s rumored that crutches are permanently adjusted to Bumgardner’s height. Sprains, strains and separations have dealt his career more interference than a pack of defensive backs ever could.

"He’s been through an awful lot of injuries," A&M head coach R.C. Slocum said. "There’s no telling how good he could be or how much he could have accomplished if it wasn’t for all the injuries."

Said Bumgardner: "I haven’t had a smooth, injury-free season since my junior year in high school. I’ve always been in the training room ever since then. Maybe my body is telling me that I was supposed to be a golfer."

To his credit, though, Bumgardner hasn’t traded in the pads and cleats for pleats and spikes. While he is known to play a pretty decent round of golf, it’s Bumgardner’s mettle — not his iron play — that has earned him so much respect among teammates.

He’s a fighter. He’s a warrior in the clutch. And he is certainly no quitter.

Media may overlook him when they rave about A&M’s wealth of talent at the wide receiver position. Fans may tend to forget about him when they list the Aggies’ primary offensive weapons.

But to many of his teammates, Matt Bumgardner has become somewhat of an individual symbol of Texas A&M football in the late 1990s. Just when many have been ready to write him off, Bumgardner has come through with clutch catches and vicious clearing blocks.

His leaping grab in heavy traffic against Oklahoma State in 1997 helped the Aggies pull off a startling, come-from-behind victory that propelled A&M to the Big 12 South title.

And his diving, 36-yard reception against Kansas State in last year’s Big 12 title game helped the Aggies complete an even more stunning comeback win.

The picture of that spectacular reception against KSU is on the front of the athletic department’s 1999 football pocket schedule. That’s not coincidental.

"Aggies never give up," ABC announcer Brent Musberger repeated again and again last season as A&M rallied from large deficits against Texas, Kansas State and Ohio State. And perhaps nobody on the roster better defines the never-give-up attitude of last year’s squad and this year’s team than Bumgardner.

"Things may be looking bleak, but the attitude of this team has been that if we just keep hanging in there and fighting through it, we’ll come out on top and it will all work out," said A&M quarterback Randy McCown, who is also Bumgardner’s roommate. "Matt’s a prime example of that. He’s had a lot of injuries in his career, even this year. But he keeps bouncing back and performing. Any time you have that kind of attitude and persistence, it’s going to pay off somewhere down the road. It may not be on the football field, but somewhere in life, it will.

"Matt hasn’t had an easy time. He’s been written off and forgotten about. Kind of like we have as a team in terms of national perception. Nobody gave us a chance to beat Nebraska or Kansas State last year. But we kept fighting back. I think it was probably fitting that Matt made that catch against Kansas State. He won’t ever give up even when a lot of other people probably would."

Quitting is simply not a part of Bumgardner’s vocabulary or his character, which has strengthened even as the injuries have mounted.

THE STRING BEGINS

As a sophomore and junior at Class 3A Luling High School, Bumgardner’s blazing speed (4.4 in the 40-yard-dash) and good hands made him a hot target for both quarterbacks and college recruiters. Bumgardner caught 56 passes for 1,152 yards and 19 touchdowns in his first two seasons at Luling, earning all-district honors and small town hero status.

High school defensive backs simply couldn’t stop Bumgardner. Only a torn hamstring did.

That serious injury limited Bumgardner to just two games as a senior. But it did not discourage a bevy of college recruiters from pursuing him. Bumgardner eventually narrowed his list of suitors to two: Texas, where his mother had gone to school and his grandfather, Max, had earned All-America honors, and Texas A&M, where his grandfather had served as Emory Bellard’s academic supervisor.

While Matt broke a family tradition by choosing A&M, he also started one. Today, his younger sisters are both in the Bryan/College Station area. Kristen, 18, is a sophomore and A&M, while Jamie, 19, is a sophomore at Blinn Junior College’s Bryan campus.

"We have a lot of interest and money in the Bryan/College Station area," said Bumgardner’s mother, Jacquis. "And obviously, A&M is very dear to our hearts. I’ve really grown to love that school by watching Matt and experiencing the loyalty and support the people of A&M give the players and the students.

"UT isn’t the same place it was when Matt’s grandfather went to school there or even when I went there. And I’ve been to a lot of other places where the fans just turn on the boys if something goes wrong. A&M isn’t like that. The fans may mumble, but they don’t boo. They generally care about those kids and give them a lot of support. As far as I’m concerned, Matt couldn’t have made a better decision."

Bumgardner has no regrets about his decision to attend A&M, either. He only wishes he could have spent more time on the field and less in the whirlpool.

The torn hamstring that sidelined him as a senior in high school continued to bother him as a freshman at A&M. He wasn’t able to run at full speed and was redshirted in 1995.

Unable to display his true talents, Bumgardner figured that the A&M coaching staff had already given up on him. But those feelings began to dissipate the following summer when a now-healthy Bumgardner began playing extremely well.

Then he strained a knee and saw action in only five games in 1996. He earned a varsity letter that year, but did not make a catch.

Bumgardner finally began to make an impact as a sophomore in 1997, catching 10 passes. But he suffered a deep thigh bruise in the 1997 Big 12 championship game and missed the Cotton Bowl.

"It’s seemed like every time I would get in a groove and get to where I needed to be, something else would happen," Bumgardner said.

That theme continued into his junior season when Bumgardner injured an ankle and then tried to come back on it too soon. He tried to make an adjustment to his running style to protect the ankle, but instead pulled a hamstring because of the awkward running style.

Throughout the string of injuries, Bumgardner had tried a variety of preventative measures, including extra stretching, vitamins, numerous supplements and even yoga classes.

Nothing really worked. But instead of losing hope, Bumgardner gained strength in his faith.

While he was raised in a Christian home, Bumgardner acknowledges that his faith was rather shallow when he first arrived at A&M. But as he began turning to the Bible in desperation, he found inspiration.

"As I’ve gone through these injuries, I’ve learned to think about the stories of the Bible, especially the trials of Job," Bumgardner said. "Compared to what he went through, I’ve got no problems.

"My faith in the Lord has strengthened and it’s made me more determined to carry on. This whole experience with going through all this stuff, I’ve always been tempted ask, ‘Why?’ But I feel like the Lord is preparing me for something. If something happens and I keep going and have success, I’ll have a great testimony to sticking with it."
It’s already pretty inspiring. Bumgardner bounced back from the early ankle and hamstring injuries of ’98 to play a key role for the Aggies in the final five games of the season.

He made the first touchdown catch of his career in A&M’s 17-6 victory over Oklahoma State and had at least one reception in every remaining regular-season game, as the Aggies wrapped up the South title and earned a spot opposite No. 1 Kansas State in the title game.

"I had been really frustrated early in my junior year because the injuries were happening again," said Bumgardner, who eventually plans on a career in coaching. "But I’m not a quitter, and no matter how much bad luck comes my way, I’m not going to give in. I told myself that last year, and it paid off.

"I relied on my faith, and I started getting in to some games and making a few plays. It started to be fun again. The last five games of last year I was fortunate enough to get in on some big plays, and it made me feel like I was part of the team again. I felt like God was rewarding me for my persistence."

The biggest reward was yet to come. Early in the Big 12 title game, it appeared that Kansas State might run away from A&M in much the same way that Nebraska had done in the ’97 league championship game. But the Aggies kept hanging around and cut the KSU lead to 27-19 midway through the fourth quarter.

And after a Kansas State turnover gave the Aggies one more shot, reserve quarterback Branndon Stewart connected with Bumgardner on one of the most memorable and pretty passes in A&M history. It was a perfect, over the shoulder pass by Stewart. And Bumgardner, who was in the game at that moment only because starting wide receiver Chris Cole needed a breather, dove forward and stretched out every inch of his 6-foot-2 frame to cradle the ball into his arms.

The catch set up the tying score in the Aggies’ double-overtime win. A&M fans inside the TransWorld Dome went nuts. Players on both sides sensed the shift in momentum. And back in College Station, where Bumgardner’s parents were watching the game in their daughters’ apartment, hugs and tears were plentiful.

"The game was happening so fast, and we were all just caught up in the excitement," Jacquis said. "Then, when Matt made that catch, we were hugging and jumping on the table and everything else. I was so proud of him and so happy. To endure all that he had gone through, I just cried. It was a wonderful moment."

It wasn’t as difficult as it appeared, Bumgardner says. In fact, he says he wouldn’t be surprised to find out one day that he had help.

"The thing about that catch is that may have been the easiest catch I’ve made in my life," Bumgardner said. "When I get to heaven, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that an angel was there putting that ball in my hands. It just stuck there. But it was a great feeling after all I had been through."

MORE TO COME

Bumgardner calls the catch against Kansas State the highlight of his collegiate career thus far. He hopes that changes in the remaining games of ’99.

Although he has been hampered by injuries this year, including a mild shoulder separation, Bumgardner has remained in action. And he has remained a clutch performer.

In perhaps the best overall game of his career, for example, he caught four passes for 70 yards against Texas Tech. A fifth reception, which went for 20 yards to the Red Raiders’ 10 in the closing minutes, was wiped out by a holding penalty that spoiled what could have been the game-winning drive.

To his teammates, it was no surprise that McCown looked in Bumgardner’s direction in that critical point of the game. And it wasn’t surprising that Bumgardner came up the with the catch.

"He’s been through numerous injuries, and the guys on the team have a lot of respect for him and the way he’s come back from those," senior cornerback Jason Webster said. "He’s the type of guy that will go up and get the ball. He’s a clutch player. He just makes plays when they need to be made. He’s a go-to guy in the clutch who I have a lot of confidence in."

Bumgardner can handle being the "forgotten receiver" of the media and fans as long as he has earned his teammates’ respect. Of course, he’d like to give the fans something else to remember him by.

"If my career ends right now, I know I’ve still had a pretty decent career at a major university, even though I have been through a lot of injuries," Bumgardner said . "I’ve made a few big plays, had a good time and met a lot of good friends. But my goal is to finish strong and go out with a bang. I hope to surpass (the Kansas State catch) with something else down the road.

"Then I’d like to take a shot at the next level. Some people think I’m crazy for even thinking about that, because of all the injuries I’ve had. But even with all the injuries, I love playing football. When it’s over, I’ve got the next 40 years or so to avoid getting hurt. As long as I’m playing, I’m going to throw my body around and give 110 percent in trying to lay someone out on a block. Hopefully, I’ve proven to everyone that I’m not afraid to put my body on the line for the team."

That’s definitely never been a concern regarding Bumgardner. Whether he’s staring down a bull or going toe-to-toe with a Longhorn, Bumgardner’s courage has never been in question.